Nicknamed “Two Ton,” Galento promoted the fight through insults. He mocked Louis, promised to “moider da bum” and cultivated stories about preparing with beer, hamburgers and spaghetti. He fought from a low crouch, attacked with either hand and freely mixed elbows, thumbs and his head into his work.
Louis ordinarily remained detached from an opponent’s taunts. Galento irritated him enough that the champion later admitted he wanted to punish the challenger instead of ending the fight quickly. That decision nearly became costly. During the opening round, Galento charged forward and connected with heavy left hooks. One punch staggered Louis and forced him to hold. The underdog lacked Louis’s speed and technique, but his awkward movement made him difficult to read during the early exchanges.
The champion settled down in the second. His jab began finding Galento’s face, opening the way for fast combinations that the slower man could not avoid. Louis dropped him and left his face cut and swelling.
Round three produced the night’s defining moment. Crouching beneath Louis’s punches, Galento suddenly leaped forward with a short left hook that knocked the heavyweight champion onto the canvas.
Louis rose quickly and maintained that he had been caught off balance, but the sight of the great Brown Bomber on the floor sent a shock through the crowd. The knockdown also ended any thought of prolonging Galento’s beating. With greater urgency, Louis tore into him with straight rights, hooks and uppercuts. Galento continued swinging, but blood and swelling made it increasingly difficult for him to see the punches coming back.
By the fourth round, the contest had become savage and one-sided. Louis drove Galento toward the ropes and unleashed a sustained barrage. The challenger remained upright through toughness alone as accurate punches repeatedly snapped his head backward. Referee Arthur Donovan stepped between them at 2:29 when the battered Galento fell into his arms.
The event drew 34,852 spectators and generated approximately $283,000 at the gate. Louis received about $114,333, while Galento earned roughly $50,021. The challenger later required numerous stitches, with contemporary reports differing on the total.
Although Galento never became heavyweight champion, flooring Joe Louis secured his place in the division’s history. He had entered as a crude, heavily discounted brawler and departed as one of the few men capable of saying he put the Brown Bomber down. Louis retained his championship, reinforced his reputation for recovering under fire, and offered another demonstration of the destructive precision that defined his reign.
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