3 – He Had a Brief and Unsuccessful Boxing Career
As powerful as Malcolm X’s rhetoric was, his fighting skills were almost the complete opposite of his oratory abilities. In 1937, Joe Louis, also known as the ‘Brown Bomber’, won the world heavyweight boxing title with an eighth-round KO of champion James J. Braddock. Within a year, Louis had avenged his sole professional loss with a crushing first-round destruction of Max Schmeling. As a result, Louis became a role model and an icon to many young black men and women in the United States.
Malcolm had developed a close relationship with his brother Reginald but after Louis won the title, another one of the Little brothers, Philbert, took up boxing like so many young African-Americans around the country. Philbert showed early promise by winning his first few fights and Malcolm became worried that the pugilist in the family would become Reginald’s favorite sibling. In fact, Malcolm was so concerned that he decided to become an amateur boxer too. Unlike Philbert, Malcolm showed no natural ability in the Sweet Science and soon learned a painful lesson in what proved to be a brief and forgettable stint in the ring.
In 1937, Malcolm signed up to become a boxer and claimed he was 16 years old as that was the minimum age limit in Lansing at the time. He was fairly tall for his age and weighed 128 pounds which meant he competed in the amateur bantamweight division at the time. His first fight was against a white opponent named Bill Peterson who was actually 16 years old. It transpired that both boys were afraid of one another but it was Peterson who emerged victorious. Malcolm reportedly suffered multiple knockdowns and to save face, he felt the need to fight again despite his fears.
The rematch between the pair occurred in Alma in 1937 but it was an even bigger disaster than the first fight. Malcolm later wrote: “The moment the bell rang, I saw a fist, then the canvas coming up, and ten seconds later the referee was saying “Ten!” over me. It was probably the shortest ‘fight’ in history.” He realized that boxing was not for him and later wrote that it was Allah’s way of protecting him from becoming ‘punchy’. As well as marking an embarrassing time in his life, the incident also shows just how emotionally dependent he was on Reginald.