Author(s): Jeremy Schaap

Biography

The story of the Depression-era fighter and folk hero, Jim Braddock, a heavyweight boxer who triumphed against all odds. Lost in the annals of boxing is the sport's true Cinderella story. James J. Braddock, dubbed 'Cinderella Man' by Damon Runyan, was a once-promising light heavyweight for whom a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to correspond with the Great Crash. With one good hand, Braddock was forced to labour on the docks of Hoboken, while only his manager, Joe Gould, still believed in him, finding fights for Braddock to help support his wife and children. The diminutive, loquacious manager and the burly, quiet boxer made one of the sport's oddest couples, but together they staged an impossible comeback, as Braddock went, in the span of less than twelve months, from the relief rolls to face heavyweight champion Max Baer, the Livermore Butcher Boy, renowned for having allegedly killed two men in the ring. A 10-1 underdog, Braddock carried the hopes and dreams of the working class on his shoulders. And when boxing was the biggest sport in the world and the heavyweight champion the biggest star in the world, his unlikely upset made him the most popular champion boxing had ever seen. Against the gritty backdrop of the Depression, Cinderella Man brings this dramatic story to life, evoking a time when the sport of boxing resonated with a country trying desperately to get back on its feet. Jeremy Schaap paints a vivid picture of the fight world in its golden age, populated by men of every class and ethnic background and covered voluminously by writers who elevated sports writing to art. Rich in anecdote and colour, steeped in history, Cinderella Man is a classic David and Goliath tale that transcends the sport.