As the countdown continues to Joe Calzaghe’s super-fight with Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas on 19 April, I’m doing some features on six Welsh boxers who have hit the limelight with mega-bouts in the USA.

The full list will eventually be found by following this link - news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/box...

It’s time to look at a bout that is, surely, the highest-profile fight ever involving a Welshman, Tommy Farr v Joe Louis at New York’s Yankee Stadium on 30 August, 1937.

Farr, the “Tonypandy Terror”, had learnt his trade in the boxing booths, where he had been active since the age of 12.

His early record was mixed, but the experience he built up would prove invaluable.

A victory over former light-heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran lifted his profile, and the Welshman made light of his underdog tag to claim the British and Empire title from Ben Foord in March, 1937.

That helped secure a bout in April with the mercurial former world heavyweight champion Max Baer - who took his opponent lightly and slipped to a points defeat.

The victory threw Farr into the heart of one of the most turbulent political and sporting mixes in ring history.

James Braddock, the "Cinderella Man", had held the heavyweight title since his amazing rise from the welfare lines to dethrone Baer in June 1935.

The great "Brown Bomber", Joe Louis, was thought to be the heir apparent, but another former champion - Germany's Max Schmeling - upset the plans with a 12th round KO of Louis in 1936.

Schmeling awaited a title shot, but his close links to the Nazi party and the fact that there was more money to be made from Braddock v Louis saw him shunted aside.

As Louis stopped Braddock and claimed his crown in June 1937, a furious Schmeling - with the backing of Hitler and the Nazis - planned a showdown with Farr that was labelled as the "real world championship."

But promoter Mike Jacobs stepped in with a big-money offer to Farr, guaranteeing the Welshman a dream date with Louis on 30 August, 1937.

It was Louis' first defence and he would have expected an easy ride, having stopped seven of his last eight opponents.

The hugely experienced 23-year-old Welshman was not going to be intimidated, though.

At the weigh-in, Farr told Louis that the coal-mining scars on his back were inflicted by the tigers he used to fight in the circus as a boy!

Before 32,000 people in Yankee Stadium the Welshman took Louis the distance - he was one of only three men to achieve that feat.

The myth grew in Wales that Farr had won the fight, but the man himself said:

"Every time I hear the name Joe Louis, my nose starts to bleed."

A journalist at the time wrote: “No fighter within my long experience has fought a braver fight for the heavyweight championship of the world than did Tommy Farr against Joe Louis.”

The great Brown Bomber acknowledged his opponent’s skill.

"Farr has a most peculiar style,” said Louis. "He doesn't look effective, yet he is puzzling and his punches are annoying.

"Tommy Farr fooled me. He is one game, tough fellow, and I doff my crown to him. A great fight - a great opponent."

Farr's raised profile led him into further fights in the USA with Braddock and Baer and - although he lost both - the Welshman went the distance each time to confirm his standing on the world stage.

He retired a wealthy man in 1940, but bankruptcy saw a return to the ring 10 years later.

Farr reclaimed the Welsh heavyweight title in 1951, eventually retiring after a seventh-round loss to Don Cockell in a final eliminator for the British title.

Follow this link for more on Tommy Farr, including a link to some archive audio of the Louis fight – news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/box...

For more on the political background to the fight, see David Margolick's excellent book "Beyond Glory: Max Schmeling v Joe Louis" (Knopf, New York, 2005).

I’d love to hear any of your, stories, thoughts, possibly even memories, of Tommy Farr here…