Boxing News Boxing News
| Several hundred people joined sports stars in a church Tuesday to pay tribute to Max Schmeling, the German boxing great who died one month ago. Schmeling was buried in a small, private ceremony immediately after his death at 99 in his hometown of Hollenstedt, near Hamburg. Soccer greats Franz Beckenbauer and Uwe Seeler, one of Schmeling’s friends, boxer Wladimir Klitschko and former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich were among those who attended the memorial service in St. Michael |  |
Church in Hamburg for Germany’s only world heavyweight champion.
Schmeling stunned the boxing world when he knocked out Joe Louis on June 19, 1936. But in a rematch at Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1938, Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round.
The fights on the eve of World War II were two of the most politically charged sports events and sparked a propaganda war between the Nazi regime and the United States.
