January 9, 1942: Joe Louis vs a modern super heavyweight

Louis beats the #### out of him. KO befor the 5th

 

McBride is a nice guy but he is what goes wrong when size is not accompanied by a spark of athleticism.

 

In a way yes. I just think too much emphasis is put on size. Guys like Louis Dempsey Liston were athletic 200 lb men who were technically sound men who could fight and could punch hard enough to stop men who were considerably bigger. They were proven great fighters

 

Louis would snap his head back and make him twirl around too. Size does matter, but size only matters so much, he was no where near Louis on skill.

 

Here’s the deal some fighters can go pro and get somewhat far strictly because of their size- tye fields, McBride, Grant.. Louis could likely beat those guys - superior coordination, timing and athletic explosiveness. In fact he beat guys like Simon, Buddy Baer, and Carnera. Bested them convincingly.
However the elite big men of today, K2, Joshua, also have athleticism that the big men of his day lacked. They have a far higher ceiling than the mcbride’s Of the world who linger around just on sheer size getting them by.
Louis to me was talented enough to maybe defeat these guys in a peak performance type showing but he would not be able to win with the regularity that he did in his day swimming in a fish tank with these guys. It’s too much height and weight disadvantage day in and out to concede and be as successful as he was in his time. Now if we give Louis, modern strength training and weights and supplements (legal ones) and he adds 15lbs of muscle to his frame. He’d have a very good career. But if he we take him as is, from his day, he’d Win some and lose some.
Just my 2 cents.

 

The obvious answer is - depends who he's fighting. As has been stated, size alone is not enough. If it was, Jess Willard would have beaten Jack Dempsey and Primo Carnera would have reigned as heavyweight champion for as long as wanted. Also, middleweights like Mickey Walker and Harry Greb couldn't have had the success they had against heavyweights of their time.

If we think a 190 pound James Toney could beat Kevin McBride, is a fully fledged heavyweight like Joe Louis going to struggle?

The old adage is a good big'un beats a good little'un, but if a great little'un meets an average big' un (e.g. Roy Jones v John Ruiz), I'm picking the smaller guy. There's another thread with Bruno v Frazier and I picked Frazier on the same basic principle.

 

Right.

1 ) There are skilled super heavyweights
2 )Moderately skilled super heavyweights
3 ) and merely big guys with limited skills

McBride is the third and without a top chin. Louis inside of five rounds.

 

Would you say there were any “skilled” super heavies in Louis’s time?

And what would say someone like Carlos Takam would rate in Louis’s time. As super heavy or just a big heavy

 

Louis by mid rounds ko .McBride may use his weight/height advantage for a little while, but he hadn't the skills to stop Joe from pulverising him so to speak. By the Sixth round ,Louis s punches would be making a bloody mess of his face ,and smacking in to the body.