bludgeoned Max Schmeling, German champion and Hitler's eventual (and unwilling, it should be stressed) Nazi poster boy to defeat in ten rounds, in the process earning himself a shot at the aforementioned Carnera's Heavyweight title.
At 6'6" and just shy of nineteen stone, Baer was conceding more than three inches in height and almost four stone in weight to the Italian, but that mattered not as he delivered a brutal beat down, flooring him eleven times in as many rounds before the referee Arthur Donovan finally stepped in to hand Baer the title
Baer was now champion, and even bigger business than before - but in many ways, that glorious night in New York was just another start of another whole new load of troubles for the Omaha, Nebraska native.
''There's the guy who beat Julio Cesar Chavez. He has been beaten. Pernell Whitaker beat him up''
Between the end of the great Gene Tunney's reign and the coronation of Joe Louis, five men wore the Heavyweight crown; Max Schmeling from 1930 to 1932, Jack Sharkey from 1932 to 1933, Carnera from 1933 to 1934, Baer from 1934 to 1935 and then finally Jim Braddock from 1935 to 1937 - but of all of those fighters, Baer was the only one who never fell under the auspices of the mob, and in particular Owney 'Killer' Madden, a British-born gangster who set the blueprint for the likes of Blinky Palermo and Frank Costello in the future. If you weren't willing to cooperate with the likes of Madden and the Mob, then life could be hard for a fighter, even a championship-winning one like Baer.
Max was out of the ring for a whole year after winning the title, and then dumped it in underwhelming fashion, losing a decision to the 'Cinderella Man' himself Braddock in a dour fight. Considered the biggest upset in the history of the Heavyweight division until James 'Buster' Douglas unexpectedly toppled Mike Tyson more than fifty years later, the Baer-Braddock fight has an air of mystery about it, just as Baer's religion and upbringing did.
Was the fight fixed? Who knows. But there's no question that the Baer who appeared lethargic and uninterested against Braddock bore no resemblance to the wrecking machine who'd obliterated Carnera. Braddock's manager, Joe Gould, made no effort to hide his affiliation with Madden - in fact, when Madden had been released from prison after serving a stretch for murder in 1923, Gould had personally picked him up from the prison gates.
After the fight, Baer is rumoured to have said in Braddock's ear, "I hope you enjoy the title more than I did." The truth about what was meant by that sentence died with Baer in 1959, but you'd have to wonder whether or not it was a sign of relief at no longer having to deal with the additional pressures that came with trying to reject Madden's heavy-handed advances.