On this day: Joe Louis stops Primo Carnera

Proxy battles are disputed in the boxing ring just as much as they are in any other major sport, from soccer to rugby to ice hockey and beyond.

The greatest one that the world has probably witnessed, however, was the 1938 rematch between Joe Louis and former heavyweight champ Max Schmeling. As Adolf Hitler psyched Germany up for a devastating war that would bring unimaginable pain and destruction to most of the planet, Louis received the unenviable task of carrying on his shoulders the...