A Creaky Louis Stopping A Game Freddie Beshore

It hurts to watch the great guy looking so old...like he's being held together with scotch tape....

 

Louis was a shell of himself...
The power was there but the speed was gone...

 

Let's not get too carried away here. Joe Louis WAS no longer the "brown Bomber" but he is still a capable elite fighter even in this carnation. He's using two hands here and although slower, is still making clean connections and hitting hard. Beshore was a live and feisty opponent, in ten years nobody had knocked him down. Just two fights earlier Fredie went 14 rounds for the title with Ezzard Charles, famously never taking a backward step. Ezzard came in for a lot of criticism for quite how hard a time he had with Beshore. Louis stops him three times quicker albeit also on cuts as Charles had. Without making comparisons to his pre war form this is still world level rather than sensational.

 

Sorry I missed that in my research, I was going off this particular AP report for that.


1951-08-27 : Rocky Marciano 187½ lbs beat Freddie Beshore 196 lbs by KO at 0:50 in round 4 of 10
Location: Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Referee: Johnny Martin
Marciano KO's Beshoure To Remain Undefeated
International News Service, August 28, 1951
There was a little more proof today that Rocky Marciano of Brockton is one of the top heavyweight boxers.
Rocky knocked off once-durable Freddie Beshore in 50 seconds of the fourth round of their scheduled ten-rounder in Boston Garden last night. And when the rugged Beshore was knocked from his feet it marked the first time in his ten-year professional career that he had been decked.
Rocky made him hit the canvas emphatically. A sustained series of rights and lefts sent Freddie backwards and he was stretched out unconscious when the count of ten was reached.
This was Marciano's 37th victory in an undefeated professional career and it was his 32nd knockout.
The fight drew 9,523 paying customers who paid a gross of $26,933 for a net of $21,632. [1]

 

But that is not as bad as it sounds because among those five losses four went the full distance and the other was a title fight. Two of the four decision losses were either split or majority verdicts against world level guys. Good company. Beshore must have been popular with the fans to keep landing these opportunities. He obviously had a rep as a "good value" fringe kind of guy.

 

The wonders of the net. :good

 

To be fair, so was Joe Louis and everyone else of that period. I think Beshore looked pretty ok. He was no Peter mcneeley. Perhaps a better fighter than some of Louis' less famous challengers?

 

Beshore was the type they wanted in the early TV days. He was durable enough to generally be expected to last quite a few rounds, provided decent action,

but was not good enough to present a formidable threat to the top men.

TV sponsors in those days didn't want the main attraction out of the ring before they got their commercials in.

 

Louis really messed up Beshore badly. Damm, Louis packed some power in his fist even still at 37. Louis was way past his prime here, but he made Beshore's face look like it went through a meat grinder.

Bob Baker, Clarence Henry, Layne, Lastarza...I still think a 37 year old Louis would have torn these guys faces apart.

 

:?:? I don't think anyone has ever said that.


I will ask you...Other than Marciano, Charles...who would have beaten Joe Louis in 1950?