Joe Louis in the 60 s in place of Ali ?

I think he'd have enough left to take out Frazier and Norton but he'd be in serious trouble by the time he got around to Holmes. For whatever reason, Joe Louis aged very rapidly and suddenly. He looked like he was pushing fifty in the Marciano fight.

 

Let' see, Louis would have less trouble against cooper

Louis would beat this version of liston, likely both by knock out

I see him beating everyone up until he fights the other legendary joe, Frazier likely knocks Louis out, Louis might win one out of the three trilogy fights, I'd favor Louis over manilla joe

Stops quarry on cuts
Beats chuvalo on points
Knocks out Floyd Patterson
Knocks out ken norton
And finally Louis gets knocked out again by George foreman by round 4
Knocks out Ron Lyle
Knocks Leon spinks out in round 1 same with the glass cannon earnie shavers
Beats Holmes by u.d.
And knocks out berbick

I didn't take into account that Louis would be aging on this list, so all the out comes I wrote down are if Louis came in prime form.

 

He does slightly better than Ali in the 60s. He wins more convincingly against the likes of Cooper and Patterson. But Ali had greater longevity.

Give both a three year layoff and then that 70s level of opposition and Ali outshines Joe easily. I'm always a bit mystified when these two are talked about as 1a and 1b. No way does Joe do as well in the 70s as Ali. Ali's long career against elite opponents places him far ahead of Louis imo

 

Why doesn't Louis do as well in the 70s as Ali? I think his tremendous punching power would be a huge help against Frazier and Norton.

 

I think the competition in the 70s is a bit overhyped. Partly it comes down to stylistic issues. Norton gave Ali tremendous problems for example but was easily blasted out in one round by Shavers. People seem to think that a fighter beating Ali somehow equates to success against other great heavyweights but a lot of this comes down to the stylistic matchup and plenty of non-greats with a big punch would be favored to beat Norton decisively despite his success against Ali.

 

Louis aged faster than Ali maybe partly because the number of exhibitions he gave, he boxes a ton, was more ring worn when he returned than Ali. He was also older than Ali when he returned by about a two, three years if memory serves.
He beats Quarry.
He struggles with Bonavena and likely loses to Frazier. Godoy gave Louis a lot of issues in their first fight until he solved him with uppercuts in the second fight. Stylistically I don’t like these matchups for a post war Louis. I do think he is good enough to get past Bonavena but Frazier would be on Louis and unless Louis got his timing back I see a lot of missed punches much like Ali had on him in the first fight. The fight would play out differently though as Louis didn’t have Ali’s legs but on the flip side he had more power to hurt Frazier. Tough call.
I think he continues to beat everyone else until Foreman.

 

Bad genes for aging I guess. And Louis was known to be a drinker as well. Alcohol ages you. But even when he got to his last days, he was ringside for the Holmes/Berbick fight and he was 66, but looked like he could've been 86.

 

Louis would have to be firing on all cylinders to beat a prime Foreman. And even then, it's reasonable to ask questions.

 

Why In memory of Jake Lamotta get booted? He seemed like a decent poster.

 

Just thinking exactly that.

 

Also curious.

 

Most of Louis’ punching power was against smaller guys. Few of his opponents were over 200 lbs. he had good speed, but he really didn’t have to use it since he was stronger than most of his opponents. He would really have to alter his style when going against someone like Foreman.

 

Which decent fighter over 200lb, besides Norton, did Shavers knock out, exactly?