max baer vs billy conn.....

Baer would have brutally stopped Foster. I rank Bob Foster as a towering force among lightheavies, but not much at all vs the heavyweights. One looping overhand right hand bomb would have starched Foster for keeps..maybe as early as the first round. I can see Foster on overcooked spaghetti legs after getting tagged and going down hard.

 

:good

The Conn who fought Joe Louis beats any version of Max Baer that you put in front of him, imo. In Louis he was beating a fighter who had a far deadlier arsenal than Baer and who launched that arsenal at you with far more speed. I don't see Conn losing more than 2 or 3 rounds.

 

Just because Louis is a superior fighter doesn't mean much when the two styles are so vastly different. Conn was a very physical and aggressive fighter who would come to Baer and although Louis was more precise and quicker Maxie was just flat out more powerful. The fact that Conn would be beating Max for the most part of the fight is particularly why i think he'd lose, he would be confident more comfortable then bam he's gonna get hit. Somebody mentioned the Loughran fight but that wasn't a prime Baer, that was Baer who just came from killing Frankie Cambpell adn was afraid to go all out on a guy.

 

I think people might mis-read the Louis-Conn fight a bit.

Instead of looking at it as remarkable that Conn made an error of trading a little too much in the fight (due to overconfidence) that cost him .....
..... why not look as it as remarkable that he lasted 13 rounds before the inevitable 'error' cost him ?

maybe it's more remarkable that he maintained his discipline in fighting with a little more caution for so long, rather than it being remarkable that he "went Irish" and 'lost himself the fight'.

Billy Conn liked to fight on the inside as well as the outside. His strength was all-round boxing. He was a quick cute fighter but I don't think he was a stick-and-run specialist. He got involved inside and rough stuff, that's was a big part of his game.

Maybe he outboxes Baer anyway, but he is not going to fight some super-cautious fight. He's going to be in there fighting at times.
It all depends on how good a prime Max Baer really is - I suspect there is a big difference between Baer at his absolute best, and the Baer who lost to Loughran or Braddock. But maybe Conn still beats him.

 

Baer is really, now that I think about it, the "X-Factor" here. It really would depend on which Baer showed up and in which frame of mind.

 

I assume in this fantasy fight between Max Baer and Billy Conn, both are at their primes. So, I contend the Joe Louis who kod Max Baer in such spectacular fashion in 1935,would have kod the prime Billy Conn who fought Louis in 1941, much earlier than the 13th round.
And THIS Max Baer though still crude punched fairly fast, and with Maxie's Western Union
punches, still would pose a threat to the much smaller, but pugnaceous Billy Conn.

 

This in bold although not sure I favour Conn

 

If he can keep Joe Louis--perhaps the deadliest finisher in division history--from landing the KO punch for 12 rounds I'm betting he could keep the much slower, cruder and less-talented Baer from doing it for 15. It's not a stretch at all when you look at it in that light. Heck, when I think about it Conn at his best could probably give Max 20 rounds and the Livermore Larruper still wouldn't likely find it.

I have an easier time envisioning Conn hitting Baer with hundreds of punches over the course of the fight and winning by TKO in the championship rounds. Probably by cuts. His punches simply couldn't miss.

Just my opinion:smoke

 

I like Billy by dec. 12 or15.

 

Conn stood and brawled with everyone. Every fight of his I've seen anyway. He did a lot of rough stuff and boxing on the inside.
Like I said, it's more remarkable he managed to do less brawling for so long against Louis, than it is that he 'made a mistake' before the end of 15.

Conn was way more aggressive than Loughran typically was - from the available footage anyway.
He was not a stick-and-run type if you look at the films.

He'd brawl a fair bit with Baer, and, yes, he would have to absorb a few big punches.

 

I think Conn outspeeds Baer.

Baer has the puncher's chance, but I like Conn to win on points.