Joe Louis The Greatest in History - Why the lack of respect?

I'm not sure why Louis gets criticized for the Billy Conn fight.
He ended it with a devastating KO. Conn was a great fighter.
Louis was taking on challengers every month leading up to the fight. He was possibly overtrained and underweight and needing of a rest, but there's absolutely no need for excuses.

Billy Conn was only 174 pounds but he was sharp, durable and skillful. The mythical version that Conn was miles ahead on points doesn't quite fight with the reality either.

 

None better

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I'd say it requires better authority than a New London sporting writer nobody heard about (outside of Connecticut).

 

It is incorrect on Mary Ann. and you're incorrect on Joe Louis

 

The closest anyone can come ro evaluating a fighters true relative greatness is evaluating what he did in his time against their available competition. A mark of a great fighter is in no small part due to their ability to make adjustments and their ability and to rise to the level of their competition, while keeping in mind that some will play down to lesser competition.

Historic Champions are also often given short shrift due to the fact that they also being evaluated based on the downside of their career when being compared to current top fighters. Performances which occur after a fighter's prime are invariably used against them even when the question is posed as to how they would fare against each other head-to-head during their primes.

However, one needs to be careful in definig what you mean by "cold hard statistics and facts". Often, they can be used turn the evaluation into a bodybuilding contest,ith the biggest most impressive physically appearing fighters being overvalued against their less impressive looking , yet more effective, counterparts.

In the end they're always be a huge element of subjectivity, which while making the debates interesting, invariably leads to the loathsome and sometimes comical debates in which the parties debating confuse their opinions with facts.

 

He forgot "Two Ton" Tony Galento, a true fat bum who knocked Louis down.

Mind you, I wouldn't want to meet Galento in a dark alleyway, but in the ring, he stunk.

Ok...come at me boys. Let's Go Champ!

 

The inconvenient truth.

Louis was "chillin" with Farr. He looked to be intent on letting Farr not look bad. He was just being really technical, safe, and not aggressive, when it would be obvious to your contemporary Joe Louis fan, that he was sparing the man from a KO.

But all it takes is one wise ass to bring up the UD for some kind of reason on why Louis was a weak puncher.

It's also the advantage modern fighters have in H2H threads. We understand all the cultural nuances. 100 years from now, they might look at Tysons record, and attribute his "downfall" to him not being able to perform well against good fighters. Whereas we witnessed the trial, the imprisonment, the interviews, the personality. We see it different than our future counterparts might.

And don't even get me started on Jack Johnsons days. When sometimes fights were halted and boxers were thrown in jail, or that boxers fought multiple times a week, or even a day.. It's convenient to ignore these nuances, but they're necessary to understand for accuracy.

 

Rez is very correct. The devil is in the details. Many of these details are lost to time.

 

Let's not forget that Louis had won the title against Braddock only 9 weeks prior.

Sugar Ray Robinson in avenging his loss to Jake Lamotta, who outweighed him by 15lbs rematched him and won 3 weeks later. Oh yeah, he beat another top welterweight, Jackie Wilson in the interim.

It almost makes Canelo's claim that he need a year or two to go up 2lbs to fight Golovkin seem silly.

 

Tommy Farr was just a far better boxer than given credit for. Good skills and very durable.
I'm not sure it's "obvious" Louis was carrying him.
Max Baer couldn't KO Farr either, in two fights. In fact, Farr hadn't been stopped in almost 5 years, when he was only 20 years old. He wasn't to be stopped again until he came back in 1950 after a 10 year lay-off. Farr went the distance with all the top-flight men he fought, and many of the decisions he dropped in America were controversial (although it could be said he won some dubious ones back home in London too).
Maybe Farr was just good enough to go the distance with Joe Louis.

 

Let me get this straight,you are saying that Louis was allowing Farr to look good and had no interest in going for the stoppage? I ask because this directly contradicts Louis' own version of events in his biography.Louis damaged his hand in the Farr defence and put this down to why he couldn't stop Farr, a Farr who was a very experienced and durable opponent anyway.

 

I'm not completely ruling out that Louis carried Farr, these things happen.
But I think it would have been the wrong time for Louis, and the wrong opponent for him to let stay.

Joe Louis was newly crowned champion. His first defence. He hadn't exactly put on a vintage performance in winning the title from Braddock. People were still sceptical about him because he had been KO'd by Schmeling who had been "cheated" out of the title shot against Braddock by Louis's promoters, and Louis had jumped the queue.

Tommy Farr was considered a second-rater by the American press, a Welshman with no fan base in America. It makes no sense that Louis would allow Farr to stay the course. There's nothing to gain for Louis or the promoters.
Unless, of course, gamblers paid him to do so.

 

I don't know what held him back, but if you're saying he had a hand injury, that makes sense. It just further cements my point.

Fury's ankle injury is second hand knowledge to modern boxing fans. We're living it. Whereas many people, myself included, may watch the Farr fight, without that crucial piece of context.

And yeah, I agree that Farr was a formidable fighter. Good footwork, really nice jab.

 

Think of the criticism Golovkin is getting for fighting Brook. Now think of the absolute lambasting Golovkin would get if, not only were Brook to be competitive with him, but he managed to seriously rock him as well. There's your answer.