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

Maghoo don't worry about mccvey. He's just a grumpy old bird these days. He's not the same mccvey anymore.

 

I want to clarify that my advocating for Lem Franklin getting a title shot has nothing to do with him being African American or anything else. But only that I felt he was the best at year end 1941 and that he was more deserving of at least getting one chance than Abe Simon getting two of them. It doesn't bother me either way if a champion never meets a competitor of a certain descrption, as long as he defends against the most qualified.. To his credit, Joe Louis did this "most" of the time. In this particular ( and rare ) instance, he didn't.

 

I vote yes because lem Franklin and Elmer Ray should ha e definitely got title shots. Unquestionably.

 

Mr McVey has always been a grumpy old bird and that's precisely the way I like him - full of p1ss and vinegar.. :good

 

Not to my knowledge.

 

I thought Louis had only 25 defenses?

 

I don't think he ever held the #1 spot. But when you're not fighting #1 it makes sense to fight the next best thing which I believe he was. It certainly wasn't Abe Simon, though I understand the reasons why he was selected and they had nothing to do with him being more deserving.

 

"being ranked #2 in the world with an 18 fight winning streak and wins over several named men isn't exactly what I'd call as still being "on the way up"

This is all respects is far less impressive in consecutive victories, and level of opposition, to the #1 ranked Joe Louis who in 1936 was matched with Max Schmeling.

If you regard Franklin in 1941 as more qualified than Louis in 1936,

could you explain why?

"Liston was flat out ducked by a lot of the upper echelon of the heavyweight division"

Who? Machen, Folley, Williams, Valdes, and Harris all fought him.

Johansson is the only top man I can think of that he didn't fight and he was fighting Patterson. I think he didn't fight Liston because of taxes, but it certainly didn't matter much to Liston who was rated #1 and matched with Patterson.

 

His 1944 win over Johnny Davis wasn't a real title fight but there are some who include it as being such.

 

I don't.. But why compare him to the exception and not the norm? Of all the men in heavyweight history who challenged for the title at one point in time or another, would you not say that Franklin was more qualified than at least half or more?

None of those men were itching to get in the ring with him.. And Patterson and Johanson who were at the top certainly steered clear of him for as long as they could.. Floyd met him later but not nearly as soon as some would have expected.

See above.

 

Agreed,

It doesn't hurt him either way.. But this argument began with some people telling me that Franklin's eventual loss to Pastor made him less qualified than Simon for the next shot at Joe Louis and this should be classified as a falsehood for very obvious reasons.