About “Cinderella Man”

Writing for “Cinderella Man”
41 You are Sporty Lewis. Write about the Braddock-Baer fight for your newspaper.

He got a champ, we got a hope!

A hope, a hero was born on the ring of Madison Square Garden Bowl, Long Island City, New York, June 13, 1935. He came down in this hard 1930s time.

Jim Braddock made the people holding their heads high, light the fire of hope in their eyes.
Before the fighting, stadium inside was totally silent, and finally someone called his name and shout broke the silent for everybody.
The whole crowd - thirty-five thousand people - began to shout, and noise went up to the star-filled sky.
All the people expected the story of the "Cinderella Man" would have a happy ending. Braddock's stepping out on the ring, and then Max Baer had climbed into the ring, Baer ran around and accepted the crowd's boos with a confident smile on his face. Finally the sound of the bell broke the silent and the fight began.

From the beginning of the rounds Braddock continued to throw fine combination punches and dance well on the ring skillfully, of course Braddock had good punches from the opponent, but he never refused to show any pain. Baer focused his punches on Braddock’s ribs from his third round. And Baer made dirty fighting with his holding in round 4, without warning Baer then turned and delivered an enormous punch to Braddock’s ribs. But, to everybody’s surprise – especially Baer’s – Braddock replied with a combination of left-right punches before steeping back. Braddock’s ribs were certainly in bad condition, but he was controlling the fight, jabbing Baer again and again. In the round 5, finally Baer threw Braddock into the ropes. It seemed the champion was in his anger, the challenger was in his relax.

In round 6, Braddock’s blood poured from his nose and mouth, but he was continuing to throw punches after punches even thought his right eye began to close.
In round 11, it seemed Braddock’s end had come. Baer’s big punch, the one that had killed two men came to Braddock. Braddock kept his body on his back, and he let the ropes support him for a few seconds, then he pushed forward, back on his feet. He had taken the punch but not been knock out. There was blood on Baer’s face, too. The crowd was shouting in both happiness and fear. The crowd’s shout was like a wave of noise. The crowd was seeing firmly hope in Braddock’s attitude of his never giving up. In the 15 (fifteenth) and final round, the crowd was shouting for that Braddock was not staying away, and Baer was delivering the biggest punches of his life. But Braddock was not only standing … he’s coming forward. They two men were badly beaten, bloody and tired. But Braddock kept coming forward.

At the last of rounds, Baer saw his chance. He threw his famous right punch and hit Braddock’s right in the head. It knocked the challenger to the side, and then Baer could hit him with the second punch. Silence fell over the crowd. Was this the end? No. Braddock turned and just managed dodge the next punch. He hit back, and the two men were still throwing punches when the final bell rang. The fight had ended.
Before the fight was starting, nobody expected this fight to go one (at least a few) round. But it’s reached final round. Neither fighter is ahead, either of them could win through their fifteen rounds. They refused to be beaten.

Braddock was called as new heavyweight champion of the world by ring announcer. And the rest of words were lost in an explosion of noise of the whole crowd. People laughed and cried with happiness. Everybody took home a little of his magic for themselves. They might look up the night sky, and there they could look a hope among a lot of shining stars. They saw their hope in their hero, a new champion, Jim Braddock. James J. Braddock at the age of 29, became the heavyweight champion of the world on June 13, 1935, in the most hardest time for all Americans.

By Sporty Lewis