Curtis Sheppard Walker by decision. Walker was knocked out in nine rounds. Then Sheppard was knocked out in seven rounds by Perk Daniels on April 9, 1945. This was followed by a points loss at the hands of Jimmy Bivins. Sheppard then had consecutive wins over Nate Bolden, Johnny Allen, and Perkins in a rematch, before facing Jersey Joe Walcott again, and Archie Moore. He dropped decisions to Walcott and Moore, but Moore would later claim that, of all of his opponents, which included Bob Satterfield, Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson, and Muhammad Ali, it was Sheppard who hit him the
Jersey Joe Walcott world title for the first time. Walcott lost early bouts against world-class competition. He lost a pair of fights to Tiger Jack Fox and was knocked out by contender Abe Simon. But that would change in 1945 when Walcott beat top heavyweights such as Joe Baksi, Lee Q. Murray, Curtis Sheppard and Jimmy Bivins. He closed out 1946 with a pair of losses to former light heavyweight champ Joey Maxim and heavyweight contender Elmer Ray, but promptly avenged those defeats in 1947. On December 5, 1947, he fought Joe Louis, at thirty three years of age breaking the record as