In May 1926 he eliminated Phil Weisberger, Jack O' Day and Willie Daily. A few fights later, he defeated Tony Griffiths; this was a big deal because Tony Griffiths beat every light heavyweight at the time. Then, in October 1928, Braddock knocked out Pete Latzo in the tenth round and broke his opponent's jaw. Braddock did very well until the year 1929, when all his luck began to change. James Braddock fought Tommy Loughran for the title of light heavyweight champion, but lost in a 15-round decision. After that fight things got worse, he had lost and fought a total of 16 fights out of 22 which had led to him breaking his right.