If Billy Conn beat Joe Louis.

What if Henry Cooper beat Clay/Ali (which he might have done without Dundee's use of smelling salts)?

 

Johnson many say was out boxed by a lt heavyweight. Marciano was knocked down by a lt heavyweight. Holmes was beaten twice by a lt heavyweight. Joe Louis knocked out Billy Conn. By Louis own admission he dried out too much to keep his weight under 200 and he went into the ring stale. So Louis on a bad night for him still koed Conn on probably his best night.

Louis did not have the whiskers of a Dempsey but he only was stopped twice. Once early in his career against one of the most lethal punchers at that time and in the last bout of his career against one of the most lethal punchers at the time.

To state Louis is overrated ignores the skills he obviously possessed unequaled in hwt boxing to this very day. When one talks about unique talents there is no finer example than Joe Louis. Joe is a solid top two all time and it's hard to argue otherwise. He had all the skills and the numbers to back it up.

 

:good

 

Conn beat 10 future or former world champions before he wins the Lt Heavyweight
championship...then in June 1941...he ALMOST beats Joe Louis for the Heavyweight title...Conn was 169...Louis was 204...Conn was an 18-5 underdog...
...he has Louis hurt...confused...and after having Louis in some trouble...he tries to go for the KO....and well....you know what happened.

 

Louis was under 200 for his bout with Conn.

 

It disposes most boxing Louis myths,though I don't know why win or lose the most die hard Louis fans cant accept anyone with footwork gave him problems,take Conn out of there and put a more fluid mover with power and its not hard to see why Louis just isn't the most perfect fighter media has made him out to be then.Like Marciano he was lucky to have a releative list of opponents who he should win comfortably and even then he struggled.

If conn wins it just brings reality into play,that Louis was far from perfect ,and of course establishes Conn as a legend in history with the defeat of Louis,however im not buying it,the fight even with a loss to Conn already shows the flaws in Louis's style and Conn was not a real Hw,he was a former 140 pounder at one point ,no other way to put it.

 

:deal

 

if Conn had beaten Louis (and he was within an inch of doing so) I would say it would have been short lived, a rematch very soon after and Louis prepared to fix mistakes would take Conn out but how good was Conn, incredible talent, if the war didn't happen he would be a household name today let alone then.

 

Yes, that is a great statistic and those are some heavy opposition, is that Young Corbett III ? I thought the first Young Corbett was a lot earlier vintage, anyway Zivic and Dundee were seriously tough. Billy Conn is one of the greats for sure