Joe Louis became many things to many people but was always iconic. And his boxing skills were admired by his contemporaries and many later boxers including Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.
Lewis had many fights including one against Adolph Hitler’s favorite boxers, Max Schmeling, who was supposed to prove the concept of the German Superman.
Schmeling won the first fight in 1936; in the 1938 rematch, Louis knocked him out in the first round.
He also had a fight against Max Baer, a Jewish-American fighter who also later beat Schmeling. The Louis-Baer fight was in 1935 and was surprisingly intense.