By DESTANEE ROCHA-GARCIA
Staff Writer
The son of an Irish mother and Anglo- Irish father, and born in Hell’s Kitchen in New York in 1905. Braddock faced a difficult path at the beginning of a turbulent century. Indeed, it was the Great depression that found him at his lowest, which forced him to turn his back on a floundering boxing career to work as a longshoreman to keep his family from poverty. Once, he had dreamed of playing college football for Notre Dame. It was a disappointment that might have finished a lesser man.
Braddock had turned pro at the age of 21 in 1923 and seemed to be about to make it big when, to the surprise of the pundits, he knocked out Tuffy Griffiths. In 1928, in his title-shot fight, he lost to Tommy Loughran. His disappointment was compounded by the damage he did to his right hand in the process, fracturing it in several places. This was the beginning of a decline that would continue over his next 33 fights, with his right-hand fracturing again and again.
When he had to give up boxing to work on the docks, he found his right hand had become almost useless, meaning he had to compensate with the left. Little did he know, it was this practice that would begin to turn the tide in his favor. In 1934, he was given the opportunity to fight again, against John “Corn” Griffin, in a simple to pave Griffin’s way to higher profile fights. Braddock knocked Griffin out in the third round, leading with his left hand and flummoxing his opponent- and many thereafter- with his ability to take punches.