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

boy did the boxing world ever get screwed when Louis didn't fight Elmer Ray.. A top rated challenger who had just won FIFTY strait fights with FORTY FOUR knockouts and wins over Walcott and Savold.. Of course the fight couldn't be agreed upon until Ray just HAD to give Jersey a rematch which resulted in a razor thin loss, and low and behold Walcott gets the title fight....

 

In hindsight, Louis should probably have fought Ray, in order to avoid a match with Walcott.

 

Instead of doing the same thing in reverse and for the same reason.

 

Some on here keep *****ing about Franklin not getting a title shot but completely ignore that Franklin's manager didnt want Franklin to fight Louis. He was scared ****less of Franklin getting his ass whipped and was more than happy to knock around and fight contenders for a bunch of mid level purses than fight for one big purse and lose credibility with a loss. It was the same tactic he used later on with Kid Matthews when Matthews had a title shot against Maxim. Instead of taking it and likely (in Hurley's mind) losing, he took what was a lesser risk by moving up and facing Marciano in an elimination. If Matthews got beat he could always claim he was just a LHW out of his depth, if he won he would have been more bankable. You can claim Louis ducked Franklin all you want and complain about how Franklin deserved this fight more than some of the guys Louis fought but at the end of the day you couldnt force Franklin into the fight even if he had been given it.

 

And my argument was that Simon was pencilled in AFTER Franklin crashed and burned against Pastor.I don't think I'm a fool and I don't think you are, so can we leave the name calling out?

 

Wasn't calling you a fool.. But Simon fought Louis in March of 1942 while Franklin fought Past a month earlier in February.. Both these fights took place just 4 and 5 months after Simon and Franklin's last meeting. Did Jacobs really plan to fight Franklin, and then automatically insert Simon in just a month after Franklin lost to Pastor? Personally when we look at the time frames along with Jacob's proposal to Franklin's people that he fight another contender, it doesn't seem to ad up. It looks more like Joe Louis was already destined to fight Simon regardless, and the whole issue really had nothing to do with Franklin losing but more so Simon's ticket sales value.

 

I've never suggested that Franklin was in the frame, I don't know that he was ,and you don't know that he wasn't. You have made a lot of conjectural assumptions ,none of which are supported by hard facts.

 

Fifty straight fights and 2 names among the lot of them one was past prime and the other was a split decision win.
Lamar Clark could probably have racked up most of those guys. Why no;
Bivins
Mauriello
Sheppard
Thompson
Maxim
Bettina
Baksi
During those 4 years?

 

Not really. The only thing that this argument really boils down to is that Lem Franklin was more qualified to fight for the title in early 1942 than was Simon. Do you agree or disagree? And please note that Franklin's loss to Pastor is irrelevant so kindly leave that out when choosing your answer..

Thanks.

 

Winning 50 strait fights with 44 KO's was unheard of in those days, let alone having two wins over quality named guys ( one of whom somehow DID go on to fighting for the title. )

 

I've said about 4 times the window for opportunity was very narrow less than a month, do you want to crucify someone for that? Do you think Louis should have fought Ray instead of the number one contender Walcott too?

 

He somehow went on to fight for the title because he beat Ray in the return.

 

I don't think we can say that he was willfully avoiding Ray, based on the available evidence.

It is perfectly reasonable to suggest, that he simply fought Walcott because he was the better contender, and had defeated Ray.

I would add that he was not shy about getting in the ring with Ray for exhibitions, and actually met him at least three times.

 

yes with an equally "close decision" that you seemingly half credited Ray for getting in the first fight.

 

In one of which Louis kod him.