Should Louis have fought more than two black men in his 26 title defenses?

Irrelevant. Even if they already had a contract written in stone ( despite simon only winning 2 of his last 6 fights ), they could have signed a deal to fight Franklin later on down the road..

And upon beating Simon and rounding off a 17 fight winning steak, I'd say that he capitalized his rightful place as a contender as he was ranked #2.

Again alluding to hind sight.. Here is the point of my whole argument, Franklin NEVER should have had to fight Pastor to begin with.. Its like letting Larry Holmes off the hook for never fighting Greg Page because of his eventual defeats to Bey and Witherspoon.. Doesn't exactly work.

And what kind of timeline did Abe Simon need? Because he sure as hell never had to win 17 strait fights and beat very many contenders to get not one but TWO cracks at the title... Hell his first title shot at louis came directly after a loss to a 15-11-2 journeyman named Jim Thompson. Even if Louis had given Franklin a title shot after getting his clock cleaned by Pastor it still would have been more justified than Simon getting TWO of them.

No.. I'm only working with what information I have to go by, and even if its incomplete its still better than blatantly ignoring what's right in front of me..

 

And every one of those fighters were inconsistent performers at a mid term and high level.

When he signed to fight Simon is important as you are claiming Lem should have been given a shot prior to this fight. If already signed you point is completely irrelevant.

If Lem beat Pastor and did not get koed in one round in two consecutive bouts he may have gotten a shot however these were the war years so Louis as well as the nation were preoccupied.

 

Again your a good poster but you cheapen your worth with these type spurious arguments.

 

Who did Lem beat? He only rose to prominence by beating Musto and that was only a short while before losing to Pastor! His time line for getting a shot was very very narrow. End result...you castigate Louis for Lems short stay as a contender. Who do you think has an agenda?

 

Its a lost argument. You can't persuade someone who's vision is molded in hind sight. Regardless of Franklin losing to Pastor, he was still a more accomplished contender than Simon was BEFORE that defeat ever occurred. Did losing to Jim Thompson prevent Simon from getting his first shot? Did only winning 2 of his last 6 fights stop him from getting a rematch? No. Of course not. Incidentally I don't believe Louis ducked these men out of fear. I think it was more of a case of his promoters realizing that there was simply more money in fighting other guys. and if someone wants to make that case, I'm ok with it.. But to say that Louis's contender selection was based on them being BETTER or more deserving is denial at its finest.

 

The very fact that you're only crediting him with the Musto win while ignoring his wins over Simon and his impressive winning streak overall shows who has the agenda. I've seen trolls do a better job at masking their's...

 

Actually read the papers. There was a huge push for a Louis-Franklin fight at one point by the press. Enough of a push that it backed Louis management into a corner and almost forced them to fight Franklin. The public wanted to see Louis-Franklin

 

Lem Franklin went on a 19-0(17KO) run during the period with knockout victories over Jimmy Bivins(HOF), Eddie Blunt, Tony Musto, Hatchetman Sheppard, Abe Simon, Willie Reddish...All of these men were good fighters.

 

I actually find it fishy that Franklin was a fairly durable guy on a great winning streak, gets within reach of a champion who wanted nothing to do with him, then gets KO'd by a guy who had stopped all but 16 opponents in 50 wins...

 

Jimmy Bivins- Hall of Fame Heavyweight. Enough said.

Tony Musto- Fought for the World Heavyweight Championship vs Louis

Abe Simon 2x- Fought twice for the World Heavyweight Championship

Eddie Blunt- Defeated three of Louis's world title Challengers: Buddy Baer, Tony Musto, and Abe Simon

Hatchetman Sheppard- Top 5 rated Heavyweight by Ring Magazine 1943-1944 and Top 10 rated in 1946-1947. The only man to knockout hall of famer Joey Maxim.

Willie Reddish- Defeated two of Louis's world title challengers Abe Simon and Gus Dorazio. Also beat top 10 rated contenders Roscoe Toles and Jack Trammell. Knocked out Obie Walker.

Lee Savold- Top 5 rated Heavyweight by Ring Magazine 1949-1950, Top 10 rated Heavyweight by Ring Magazine 1942-1943. Defeated Three of Louis' title challengers: Tony Musto, Gus Dorazio, Lou Nova.


Perk Daniels- Ring Magazine top 10 heavyweight, 1944

 

Yeah the evidence here is pretty overwhelming that Franklin was never going to get a shot regardless of what he did.. Even if he HAD beaten Pastor, Louis's people likely would have found a loophole for denying him a title fight the way that Dempsey's people did to Wills.