Let's talk about John Henry Lewis

Retired, due to being blind in one eye!!

 

He appeared to be quite the force.

Apparently many of the Rosenbloom loses were disputed and could have his gone way. He beat Ettore and an upstart Elmer Ray at HW.

 

All time great light heavyweight, getting a bit forgotten these days. Pretty darn complete as a fighter at that weight, and his durability needs no justification. At heavyweight he was a good contender.

His sole knockout loss to Joe Louis, reminds me of the second Bruno Tyson fight, in a number of respects. Although he was a ranked heavyweight contender on paper, his eye was going rapidly, and he had one last shot at a big pay day.

 

Wish there was any film of him .. just getting flattened by Joe ..

 

I heard he was a great fighter but by the time he fought Louis he was looking for a pay day and Joe gave him one...had some solid victory's

 

Because of John Henry Lewis, I as a young boy became interested in boxing as my family
lived next door to a trainer of the great JH Lewis. Every night I would go next door and
shadow box with the stablemates of John Henry Lewis, eat salads with oil [still do today]
and learn about boxing lore. I never saw JH Lewis but one of his welterweight
stablemates took me under his wing and sparred with me. His name was Tommy Jones
and to get work he was forced to go to Australia along with the terrific welterweight
Jimmy Leto. I was so sad when Tommy left as he was a father figure to me ...
But JH Lewis was easily one of the great all around light heavyweights till his eyes went on him forcing him to retire....

 

Archie Moore rated him the best light heavyweight of all time

 

Probably could've beaten Billy Conn in the right circumstances.

 

I still can't get my head round you sparring and hanging out with those guys Burt!
What memories you must have of those times.

 

The WW2 "gap"......when a lot of fighters went off to war....or had aged a lot when they came back, hurt Lewis' legacy severely for some reason. People remember Slapsie Maxie, Conn, Charles, & Moore, but John Henry Lewis just kinda falls by the wayside. Lewis was a great fighter for his time frame.

 

It's surreal

He should really write a book or something. Burt, can I reach out to http://www.thefightcity.com to ask them to interview you?

 

Eddie Futch was a MASSIVE fan.

 

Will see if i can find his comments later, read them just a few days ago.