Joe Louis vs. Billy Conn

Since his first round stoppage of former conqueror Max Schmeling in June 1938, Joe Louis had made a record 13 defences in a 29 month period from January 1939 to May 1941. However despite 5 of the 12 men he faced being ranked inside the top 10 when he fought them (and one being a reigning light heavyweight champion), this run of opponents would be disparagingly referred to as the "Bum of the Month Club",^[2] a term first used by New York Daily News sportswriter Jack Miley. In 1939, after Billy Conn won the light heavyweight title, he would write "Not so long ago a skinny middleweight, William David Conn is growing like a weed. Now he's a light-heavyweight, the champion of his class. When he cleans up on those boys-and it won't be long-he will pick on Bob Pastor and any of the heavyweights who stand in his way. They won't hit him enough to hurt him.... By 1941 Louis will be even more jaded from fighting all the bums. And Conn will astound with his fearlessness, his speed. Heigh-ho, it is written in the cards, mates."^[3]

On 21 December 1940, Louis signed to face Conn in June 1941 with the date and venue to be confirmed.^[4][5][6] On 2 May, promoter Mike Jacobs confirmed that the bout would take on 18 June at the Polo Grounds, New York City, as long as Louis defeated Buddy Baer on 23 May, which he did via a disqualification.^[7] Conn would vacate the light heavyweight title on 5 June.

A week before the bout, Conn defeated Louis to win The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year, with the magazine's editor/publisher Nat Fleischer presenting the plaque at the challenger's training camp at Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. Speaking about the upcoming bout, Conn and his manager Johnny Ray expressed confidence saying "All right, laugh if you want to, but we're more confident than ever now that Joe won't be around when the bell goes off for the 15th round. There just won't be any bell, because it'll be all over by then. If I didn't think so, what would I be doing way out here in the woods? I don't like It out here. It's too quiet and there's nothing to do. Give me New York or Pittsburgh. I'd rather work in the gym."^[8] Conn also say during the build up that he would not gain weight for the bout, instead saying that he would rely on a "hit and run" strategy.

Louis was a 5–2 favourite to win.^[9]

The 54,487 people in the Polo Grounds witnessed a classic puncher vs boxer match up. After a cautious opening couple of rounds, Conn found his rhythm and outboxed the champion, landing frequently with his left hook, with Louis looking unusually slow and lethargic. Louis hurt Conn with a left hook of his own to the jaw in the 5th round but the challenger was able to avoid the champion's follow up attacks. Conn would continue to control the action, with Louis only coming to life in the 10th, landing a hard left to midsection of Conn. Late on in the 12th round, a pair of swinging left hooks to the jaw of Louis, staggered the champion, who fell back on to the ropes as the crowd roared. Despite clearly being ahead in the fight Conn appearing to begin the 13th looking for a knockout. Louis had been told by his trainer Jack Blackburn that he needed a knockout to win. About a minute into the round Louis moved under a left hook to land a left hook followed by a right that hurt Conn. Louis followed up, landing repeated rights before finally dropping Conn late into the round. Conn failed to beat referee Eddie Joseph's count giving Louis a knockout victory.^[3][10]

At the time of the stoppage Conn led on two of three scorecards, 7–5, 7–4–1 with third 6–6. The Associated Press had it 8–4 for Conn.^[11]