One day, an amateur boxer, who was also a friend of Joe's, asked him to fill in as his sparring partner. He took a terrible beating, but somewhere in the train wreck Joe landed a right which took his opponent to the floor, and he stayed there. Although he had knocked out a fairly good amateur boxer, Joe was more interested in the beating he took. So, in 1931, he began taking lessons at the Brewster Street Boxing Center to learn to defend himself. Young boxers were given the chance to fight there way to the top through the Golden Gloves, which was a newspaper-sponsored boxing tournament. In the national competition Joe came up slowly, and painfully to say the least. In one match he was dropped nine times. But that didn't stop him. In 1932 he won the amateur light-heavyweight championship in the Detroit Golden Gloves and started his boxing journey. .
At the most crucial period in his professional career, the beginning, a man named John Roxborough walked into Joe's life and two years later Julian Black did the same. These men were with Joe from there arrival in the beginning, when Joe Louis was nothing but an amateur champion. They were his managers, his guides, and his friends. A former great African-American welterweight, Jack Blackburn, came in as his trainer, and until his death in 1942, he stuck as close to and was as protective as a father.
His early years were filled with hard work and determination, and no fame and glory came with it. After he won the Golden Gloves as a light heavyweight, he decided to turn professional and won twelve fights in his first year alone. The first few years of his pro career he had started to make his way to the top of the boxing pyramid. His reputation was growing at a huge rate. In June of 1935 he fought Primo Carnera, the former heavyweight champion in front of 62,000 fans at Yankee Stadium. He followed the Carnera fight with one against Max Baer, who he knocked out in fourth round.