Max Baer: Broken hand in the Joe Louis fight.

It seems real but tons of guys win fights with injuries. Louis beat Farr with an injured hand. Most of Ali ' s great victories in the 1970s came with bad mitts. Ditto Floyd Mayweather Jr. Roy Jones beat Hopkins sans right. Joe Frazier won the Olympics with a broken thumb. The guy that took the title from Baer, James Braddock, had infamous hand issues. Tommy Loughran had a damaged right hand his whole career. Billy Conn busted his hand and whipped Tony Zale, as did John Conteh and Yaqui Lopez. Baer was just outgunned. Machen has a badly injured right hand and was even more outmatched physically against Liston and he gave a good account of himself. Baer just didn't want to win.

 

I watched the fight and Baer all but stopped throwing punches following round 2.
Seems quite plausible that Baer did in fact go into the Louis bout with a right hand less than 100%. And injured it even further following his rally at the end of the 2nd round.

Interesting that Louis would be considered lower on the list of top heavyweights of all time because of this incident. I mean, Ali's best performance was said to be against Cleveland Williams. However, 'The Big Cat' was considered damaged good due to the bullet injuries he sustained.

 

Balder, after a steady start it's becoming more and more obvious in this thread that you're just another troll with an agenda!

 

Ali repeatedly fouled in that fight. He held Joe behind the head and pushed him down for the entirety of the match. He easily could of been dq'd had the ref been up to snuff. At least been warned to the point that his illegal tactic would stop and make for a far more compelling match. Frazier was also not peak in this fight. I wouldn't place this fight in Ali's top 5 let alone number one.

 

Ali's right thigh had bruises all over it after FOTC,this had to have affected his mobility and indicates he was hit below the legal belt line, do you want to address that?

 

Baer quit trying to win its that simple.He was hyperventilating in the dressing room and Dempsey had to push him out to face Louis, he gave it a go for a round then settled for defeat .

 

Huh> IF you are prone to prefer larger more modern fighters due to size, then maybe you do not even rank him top 5. But in legacy he is top shelf.

Balder, you are cherry picking to an extreme degree.

The only fighter who did not lose had a weaker resume & much shorter career than Louis.
Most all the fights you mentioned cam elate in his career.
Though foolishly dehydrated against Conn, he knocked him out.
You gonna did Marciano because he ALSO pulled out a major fight in the 13th?
And he should have lost once to Lowry, arguably LaStarza.

Loweing him 2 places because in one fight his opponent may have had a roken hand?

Most all HWs have few "great wins". Most of his "bum of the month club" were good ranked fighters. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Louis[/url]
Then he fought more good guys. Losing prime years to WW2.

You canpick apart everyone. But the longevity of his rule & record is not dicey.

 

I don't recall, having watched the fight the most recently, several years ago noticing numerous Frazier blows sailing so low as to the thigh bone. I will give it a re-watch soon. Obviously this did occur since Ali had the bruising to show for it, my point being, Ali's holding and pushing down was extremely obvious to see everytime it occurred. His infractions should have been rightfully warned/docked or had his hold broken like in the thrilla. Low blows are illegal but in the course of fighting a swarmer sometimes/many times they may be missed by the third man. As it were I was just questioning Balder's pick of this fight as Ali's greatest win. I think it's far from it.

 

I would place Liston 1 over it. Foreman over it. And the thrilla over it. I would also respect anyone who said Quarry one after the layoff or the game Bonavena fight. It's a great win I just don't have it as his best.