On This Day: Max Schmeling becomes first boxer to win heavyweight title on a foul

JUNE 12, 1930: German boxer Max Schmeling became the first heavyweight champion to win the title on a foul on this day in 1930.

American Jack Sharkey was controversially disqualified in the fourth round for a low blow that the referee and one of the ringside judges didn’t even see.

Schmeling, who was behind on points in a fight billed the ‘Battle of the Continents’, dropped to the floor clutching his groin and was carried back to his corner.

His American manager, Joe Jacobs, ran to the referee and told him that Sharkey had caught the 24-year-old German in the pit of the stomach by a big left uppercut.

The 79,000-strong crowd at New York’s Yankee Stadium roaring for the bout to continue.

But, despite the confusion, officials awarded the title, which had been left vacant when Gene Tunney retired, to Schmeling.

Schmeling, who was compared to his idol Jack Dempsey in a silent British Pathé newsreel, became the first ever German world heavyweight champion.

Yet many fans derided Schmeling, who was nicknamed the Black Uhlan of the Rhine, as the ‘low blow champion’ and demanded a rematch for him to prove himself.

Schmeling, who had overcame American apathy with a series of impressive wins after moving to the U.S. in 1928 to further his career, initially refused.

The New York State Athletic Commission, which was then one of the major bodies that awarded boxing championships, officially stripped him of its title.

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But all the other organisations continued to recognise him as world heavyweight champion.

Schmeling silenced the criticism after defending his title with an impressive 15-round technical knockout against Young Stribling, who already had 239 wins to his credit.

He then finally agreed to a rematch with Sharkey, who was nicknamed the ‘Boston Gob’, on June 21, 1932.

Sharkey won a highly controversial split decision – but this time the audience, including Tunney, thought Schmeling was the better man and had been robbed.

But this support turned to open hostility with the rise of the Nazis, whom they associated Schmeling with, despite the boxer having a Jewish manager.

After losing against Max Baer – who put on his shorts a Star of David in defence of his father’s Jewish faith – Schmeling returned to Germany in 1934.

There, his reputation was further tainted by his association with Adolf Hitler, although he never joined the Nazi Party and even refused an award from the dictator.

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He continued fighting and on his return to America made himself the main challenger for the title after his shock defeat of the undefeated up-and-coming star Joe Louis.

Schmeling, who built fights up slowly and used powerful counterpunches, took advantage after noticing the Brown Bomber frequently dropped his guard.

But, despite massive demand for champion Jim Braddock to fight Schmeling and not Louis, the title-holder decided to fight the Brown Bomber for the crown and lost.

Two years later – with anti-Nazi sentiments peaking and Europe gearing up for war – Louis agreed to fight Schmeling in the ‘Battle of the Century’ on June 22, 1938.

Schmeling, who faced a chorus of boos and was pelted with rubbish as he entered Yankee Stadium, faced even more punishment in the ring.

Louis, who was hailed as the champion of the American Dream despite facing racism at home for being black, rained blows and knocked the German out in the first round.

Decades later, Schmeling, who became friends with Louis, said: ‘Looking back, I'm almost happy I lost that fight.

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‘Just imagine if I would have come back to Germany with a victory.

‘I had nothing to do with the Nazis, but they would have given me a medal. After the war I might have been considered a war criminal.’

After the war, during which Schmeling served as an elite paratrooper, it emerged that he’d risked his own life to save two Jewish children in 1938.

He died aged 99 in 2005.