Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling was a German boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932.
49 Facts About Max Schmeling
2.
Max Schmeling became the first to win the heavyweight championship by disqualification in 1930, after opponent Jack Sharkey knocked him down with a low blow in the fourth round.
3.
Max Schmeling retained his crown successfully in 1931 by a technical knockout victory over Young Stribling.
4.
The loss left people believing that Max Schmeling was past his prime.
5.
Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party took over control in Germany, but Max Schmeling never joined the Party.
6.
In 1936, in their first fight, Max Schmeling knocked out American rising star Joe Louis, placing him as the number one contender for Jim Braddock's title, but Louis got the fight and knocked Braddock out to win the championship in 1937.
7.
Max Schmeling finally got a chance to regain his title in 1938 in the rematch, but Louis won by technical knockout in the first round.
8.
Max Schmeling became friends with Louis, and their friendship lasted until the latter's death in 1981.
9.
Max Schmeling died in 2005 aged 99, a sporting hero in his native Germany.
10.
Long after the Second World War, it was revealed that Max Schmeling had risked his life to save the lives of two Jewish children in 1938.
11.
At the age of 99, Max Schmeling was the longest living heavyweight boxing champion in history.
12.
In 2003, Max Schmeling was ranked 55 on The Ring magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.
13.
Max Schmeling had an older brother, Rudolf, born in 1902 and a younger sister, Edith, born in 1913.
14.
Max Schmeling first became acquainted with boxing as a teenager, when his father took him to watch film of the heavyweight championship match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier.
15.
Max Schmeling began boxing in amateur competitions and, by 1924, won Germany's national amateur title in the light heavyweight division.
16.
Ironically, though he idolised the raging, brawling Dempsey, Max Schmeling developed a careful, scientific style of fighting that lent itself more to counterpunching.
17.
Dempsey boxed for two rounds with the then-unknown German and, according to a story later told by Max Schmeling, was greatly impressed.
18.
Max Schmeling proved Dempsey's praises correct on 24 August 1926, when picking up the German light heavyweight championship with a first-round knockout of rival Max Diekmann, who had previously beaten Schmeling.
19.
The next year, Max Schmeling won the European championship by stopping Fernand Delarge in the first boxing match broadcast live in Germany.
20.
On 1 February 1929, Max Schmeling floored Risko four times with his right hand before the referee halted the contest in the ninth round, handing Risko his only loss by TKO.
21.
When he defeated the highly regarded Spaniard Paulino Uzcudun via a fifteen-round decision at Yankee Stadium later that year, Max Schmeling was regarded as the foremost young contender in the division.
22.
On 12 June 1930, at Yankee Stadium, in a fight billed as the 'Battle of the Continents,' Max Schmeling, known as a slow starter, fell slightly behind on points going into the fourth round.
23.
Max Schmeling was trying to corner his opponent when Sharkey let loose with a very fast, clear hit to the groin.
24.
Max Schmeling fell to the canvas, claiming to have been fouled.
25.
The first European-born boxer to win the heavyweight championship in thirty-three years, Max Schmeling was the first from Germany to hold the distinction.
26.
When Max Schmeling faced Mickey Walker, the future hall-of-famer who had recently held Sharkey to a draw that many felt Walker deserved, it was thought that this fight was for the real heavyweight championship.
27.
Max Schmeling was counted out on the floor, and Schmeling had scored the most talked-about sports upset of the year.
28.
Nonetheless, in February 1937, Max Schmeling received the news that the champion had indeed signed to defend his championship against Louis.
29.
Sorely disappointed and convinced that he would never receive his chance at redemption, Max Schmeling fought just once more in America, an eighth-round knockout of future contender Harry Thomas, before returning to Germany.
30.
Max Schmeling became a friend to Hitler and other powerful figures in the government and a popular subject of newspaper articles and films.
31.
Max Schmeling continued to press for a chance at a rematch with Louis and in the meantime padded his record against overmatched fighters Ben Foord and Steve Dudas.
32.
Louis came out blazing in the first round and Max Schmeling tried to counter-punch as he had in the first bout, but to no avail.
33.
Max Schmeling later said that he screamed because he had been hit with a blow to the kidneys.
34.
Max Schmeling's knees buckled under the punishment, and referee Arthur Donovan pushed Louis away, beginning a count on Max Schmeling.
35.
Max Schmeling reluctantly stepped away from the ropes, and Donovan allowed him to continue.
36.
Max Schmeling rose but fell moments later, and Donovan stopped the fight.
37.
When he returned to Germany after his defeat by Joe Louis, Max Schmeling was now shunned by the Nazis.
38.
Max Schmeling won both the German and European heavyweight championships on the same night, with a first-round knockout of Adolf Heuser.
39.
Max Schmeling participated in the Battle of Crete in May 1941, where he was wounded in his right knee by mortar fire shrapnel during the first day of the battle.
40.
Max Schmeling became a successful mink, chicken, and tobacco farmer in the early 1950s.
41.
Towards the end of the decade, after multiple meetings with The Coca-Cola Company's offices in Germany, Max Schmeling became the face of 'Cocacolonization' and Coca-Cola's reentry into Germany.
42.
Max Schmeling became friends with Joe Louis and, although they were never close, he assisted his former rival financially in his later years, eventually financing his funeral in 1981.
43.
Max Schmeling's wife of 54 years, the Czech-born actress Anny Ondra, died in 1987.
44.
Max Schmeling lived his remaining years as a wealthy man and avid boxing fan, dying on 2 February 2005, at the age of 99.
45.
In 2010, a bronze statue of Max Schmeling was erected in Hollenstedt.
46.
Max Schmeling briefly appears as himself in the film The Zurich Engagement.
47.
The author hints that it probably wasn't, as Max Schmeling should have been fighting in Poland at the time.
48.
In Rocky IV, the climactic fight between American Rocky Balboa and Russian Ivan Drago was inspired by the bout between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, updated to reflect Cold War relationships.
49.
Max Schmeling appears as a character in the opera, Shadowboxer, based on the life of Joe Louis.