Joe Louis is renowned as one of the most elite pound-for-pound talents in boxing history, but there was one man even he avoided.
Elmer Ray was discovered by manager Tommy O’Laughlin, who, after witnessing him spar one of his fighters, took him, only later learning that he had already begun his journey as a boxing professional.
Ray’s record at the time was 39-18-11, and he fought under the nickname ‘Bearcat Ray’. He reportedly once knocked out nine opponents in a row with one hand tied behind his back.
After taking him on, O’Laughlin put him in with Turkey Thompson, who knocked out Ray with the very first punch he threw.
In a bid to prove him wrong, Ray followed this loss with a fifty-fight win streak. After twenty or so of these wins, Ray called out the one and only Joe Louis, a heavyweight who reigned for 11 years making 25 title defenses.
Elmer Ray thinks Joe Louis was afraid to meet ‘Kid Violent’
Ray called out Louis for an exhibition bout whilst Louis was conducting military service, but Louis rejected the proposition, reportedly saying:
“I can’t box that Ray. That man can’t do anything but fight. […] A boxing exhibition with him is impossible cos he wouldn’t know how to box back. He’d start swinging for keeps. One of us would get hurt.”
Ray’s subsequent knockout streak, which Louis’ sparring partner, George Fitch would fall victim to, earned him the name ‘Kid Violent’.
He even defeated Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles in the back end of his career, though a fight with Louis never came to fruition.
Elmer Ray didn’t fight Joe Louis, but he did fight an alligator
Ray’s opponents weren’t limited to humans though, as on one occasion when an alligator fell out of a vehicle transporting it, Ray was there to save a child from the reptile.
The incident occurred prior to the Walcott fight, which was struggling to sell tickets, and following Ray’s act of bravery, a speech orchestrated by O’Laughlin to attract white audience members worked, and ticket sales went through the roof.
The fight became the biggest between two black fighters, and took place at Madison Square Garden.
O’Laughlin called it the miracle of the alligator, and rumors even started that it was he who had set up the whole thing.
This was surprisingly not the first instance of a boxer fighting an animal, as ‘Two-Ton’ Tony Galento famously fought an octopus, a kangaroo and a bear.
This marks just one fascinating story in boxing, with others being ‘The Boston Bonecrusher’ who fought blindness and faced opponents from lightweight to heavyweight, and the longest bout in boxing history, which lasted 110 rounds.