An ill prepared Louis, shipped countless right hands before succumbing to Schmeling after 11+ long rounds. It took over 15 years, for Marciano to duplicate this feat, when Joe was finished. Even then he didn't go down easily. In between these 2 losses, he did go down, but they were, knockdowns, not knockouts! Over 17 years against opponents of all shapes and sizes, 2 knockout defeats against renowned punchers in fights lasting just under 12 and 8 rounds, the latter when he was a shell, does not indicate a lack of resilience. Oh, almost forgot the question! Well we all know what happened to a prime Lewis in his 2 losing fights, he lost both via one punch. in a combined total of under 7 rounds. Added to this Lennox, enjoyed physical advantages in many of his fights, while the much smaller Joe, often fought bigger opponents. Just can't shake off that image of Lewis knocked out in that South African ring, after insisting that complacency would never happen again after the McCall stoppage loss. After all, it was his decision to do a cameo in "Ocean's 11", not Rahman's! Lewis would probably be too big for Joe, in a dream fight. As to chin, as I said, it took numerous punches to stop a pre and past prime Louis inside 20 combined rounds, while it took only 2 to stop a prime Lennox inside a combined 7. Too simple an equation, perhaps, but that's what happened.
No, it was a sustained beating over the course of the fight. Obviously you can pin point the one punch that finished it. No but getting dropped is a less damning mark against your chin, than getting knocked out cold. Nobody is disputing that Lewis met a lot of dangerous punchers. I am not denigrating Lewis's career, and I am not saying that his chin was bad, I am just saying that it was not as good as those of the other dominant champions. I think that Lewis's size and style allowed him to get away with it to some extent. I also think that if Louis had Lewis's chin, he would have been stopped a couple more times, due to his style. I agree with the argument that the McCall fight would not have been stopped in Louis's day.
Joe Louis for sure. As has been said knockdowns are not as damning as being knocked out cold, which Lewis was.
There's nothing like complacency and over-confidence; a lack of preparation and high altitude to degrade one's skills. Oh - and a massive punch, landing on the button, tends to deplete them altogether, of course.
Enhh...That punch had nothing on it compared to the power that some of the medium-sized, 170-190lb ATGs of yesteryear were able to pack into their elite haymakers.
This is almost word for word What i was gonna say. Louis recovers faster whole lewis can take an occasional bomb or combination better but has poor recovery. I always though joe louis was similar to juan Manuel Marquez in that regard while Lennox lewis was more like pacquiao. If lennox was badly hurt and went down hard, he'd stay down but Louis you pretty much had to empty the clip, reload, then empty another clip to get him out of there because louis was a survivor and had health perks (call of duty reference).
Lewis faced a gauntlet of heavy hitters that was a different breed from what was around in Joe's era. I know the Classicists don't want to hear it and will rebut with tales of Baer and Baer but the truth is in depth and in power there was nothing like the heavies of the 90's.
Lewis did face a gauntlet of dangerous punchers, but unfortunately McCall and Rahman were not among them! If he had been knocked out by say Donovan Rudduck and David Tua, then you might have more of an argument there!
Rahman and McCall both had excellent power if not the greatest abilities to apply it consistently under the spotlight. With Lewis' opposition, it was a game of numbers. Line up that many big, hard punching dudes and someone at sometime is going to tag you.
He was in horrible shape, glossy eyes, and on wobbly legs in the 2nd round. The ref was right to call it because mccall could have done irreparable damage teeing off on him. The point is that Louis was never in danger of being stopped early like Lewis was on qveer street like that, you had to pound him and drop him many times over several rounds. Like i said, lennox had the better chin but Louis had better recovery. The fact joe got up to win several fights is plenty proof.
I look at it another way. What other guys did Rahman and McCall one punch KO? And, of f course, someone is gonna tag you. The ones with great chins take the shots, no matter the opponent. Others, like Lewis, do not. Prime Holmes and Ali faced a slew of big punchers and did not get KOd. Ali did get caught with Fraziers best left hook and went down, but his awesome recuperative powers allowed him to quickly recover and fight on. Holmes was leveled by Shavers, who certainly had far greater one punch power than Rahman or McCall. He got up and won the fight. They did suffer KOs when way past their best, against Holmes and Tyson, respectively. But, their losses at that late juncture of their careers were largely expected. Lewis, on the other hand, was still in otherwise prime form, was done after going down against Rahman and McCall. Not only did he show a weak chin, but, even more importantly, weak recuperative powers.