Louis - Frazier... Battle of the Joes

Right. What was I thinking? atsch

 

I think Frazier has the potential to finish Louis where Tony Galento didn't. Two Ton Tony had Joe Louis on ***** street, staying low and working the body. When he started to slug with Louis is when he lost. Frazier would stay low and work the body with both hooks. Louis might have Joe on the canvas early, but I don't think he's stopping the Frazier of 68 - 1970.

 

Too much bobbing-weaving, body punching inside pressure from Frazier.

Smoke by KO.

 

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Love Joe Frazier...have since he beat Buster Mathis back in 1968...but this is a prime 1938 Joe Louis we're talking about...the 2nd Schmeling Joe Louis...Louis by KO...

 

Galento was working the body?

 

It's a tough one. A real tough one. We've seen Frazier hurt and downed often. If this happens against Louis he is in real trouble. Louis is not just a dynamite two handed puncher, he is also probably the one of the greatest finishers in the history of the division, let alone boxing.

However, there's a flip side to that coin. We've seen Godoy get awkwardly low, far more awkwardly low than Joe's bob & weave style. In fact, Godoy's crouch was so low it was regularly illegal at times. Of course, one of the most overlooked and unenforced illegal maneuvers in boxing is bending your head below the waist. Even more so than excessive clinching, except for in Germany (Joke... not really). Admittedly, it's tough to enforce, spot, and so rarely in issue that it's not something you really look for as a referee I imagine. At the same time Godoy did work. He mauled, and seemingly won at least 5 rounds on everyones card. Some even had it a somewhere in the ballpark of a draw. Other more rare opinions had Godoy even winning. The point is a come forward fighter that crowded Louis gave Louis a lot of trouble. It wasn't like Godoy was being defensive or non-confrontational as he moved forward, ducked low, and won some rounds. Let's be honest, Godoy is infinitely inferior to Frazier. Although it's not just that simple as things can happen differently in each night, in each fight. Godoy is not exactly Frazier and maybe Godoy's style was more conducive to avoiding the danger from Louis. Frazier is better, but maybe not exactly hiding. He's weaving, glove-blocking, but he's a little more in the line of attack. He's not off-center the way Godoy's defensive operates.

Joe Frazier will bob & weave but the opportunities to present a right hand down the pipe will be there. The question is how does Joe take it. If he can take it well enough to soldier on through the fire and put Louis in an uncomfortable position. Louis claimed he didn't like being crowded, and while there's always a serious price to pay breaking that distance barrier against the dynamite fists of Louis, I think that once Frazier gets in that zone Louis will be uncomfortable and in a real fighter. There's always a serious question of how much Louis can take. He's been downed by lesser opposition more frequently than Frazier. He has gotten up to win fights when being downed more often than Frazier, though. However, Frazier's not a guy that puts you down and then just let's you get back in the fight. He beats and grinds you down that the damage will be done. And Frazier can punch, so even if he can drop Louis early it's going to have more of an effect then why Galento & Braddock dropped him. Maybe I'm wrong, perhaps I'm being unfair to Galento's raw power. I think Frazier is the more durable of the two, but he's in more danger trying to get there. If he can, he's chopping down Louis. If he can get there and avoid Louis combinations and avoid the clean blows. He can take some of it. Just not too many clean, consecutive Louis shots.

It seems like a flip of the coin type of affair. I have trouble seeing how either man can be favored by odds better than 60%. One day I might wake up and pick Louis by knockout. The next I'll go with Frazier. It's certainly Louis early or middle rounds and Frazier in the middle or later rounds. The sentiment about the longer the fight goes favoring Frazier seems try, as does Louis being the more dangerous early also sound accurate. Louis did stop Godoy in the rematch, however.

Today I'll take Louis with reservations, though.

 

Galento won 2 out of the 4 rounds with his fight with Louis. The first and only person to return the favour to Louis. He had practically NO DEFENSE, and even tho he was more durable than Frazier and probably a harder puncher, Frazier had much better defense, stamina, skills and a hell of alot faster. Louis admitted he didn't like to be crowded and that's exactly what Frazier would do.

 

I don't see how Frazier could win this. I really don't see how this could be a tough pick. I'm sure Joe Louis would win, by KO or TKO.

 

All this Tony galento comparison talk/Galento knockdown comparison is ridiculous - if anything that fight supports the assertion even more that Louis would KO Frazier - Louis used galento as a human chopping block - and the knockdown? Come on!? Louis was barely even hurt (if at all!!)?? He simply was completely off balance - his body weight had just shifted into the shot and there was no stablizing firm base to absorbs the shot so as soon as it landed it knocked him over - not so much as hurt him and knocked him down! Just knocked him over he basically bounced up in 1 second embarrassed (and angry) that after all the talk Galento could now claim he knocked Louis down - when he really didn't hurt him at all - basically before and after that knockdown Galento was reduced to a barely moving punchbag - Louis couldn't miss!

 

Now this is a good match-up...

 

It's weird how Joe Louis gets so much respect on the all-time HW list (not enough on the p4p lists, imo) but when it comes to specific head-to-head match-ups he gets a lot of people hedging their bets and saying, "Oh, this might be too tough for Louis."

 

Very difficult to pick...I think if Frazier could get by the seventh round fighting his typical fight...he would win. Louis early to mid....Frazier mid to late...

 

I see Frazier actually jumping on Louis early and gaining an edge in points after 5 rds, but then Louis figures out Frazier's approach and starts bombing back with "Both" hands and then takes control by round 9... Frazier is very gutty and willing, but eats too much leather from Louis and gets halted in round 12.......

Louis TKO 12 Frazier......

MR.BILL:bbb