Could Joe Louis make it from 1968-1980 undefeated?

Man that's tough, I love Ken. But Louis was just that kind of knock-the-crap-out-of-you-as-you-come-in-fighter that would devastate Ken.

I don't like saying this, but the straight right would be Ken's doom. Louis moved like a force of nature....he was just sensational, it's as simple as that.

Put it this way, when Ali was looking like a miracle back in the 60s, even after he beat Liston and made the rest of the division look like girls, plenty of pundits were still thinking of Louis. Ali couldn't even make them forget Joe THEN...even Foreman (Ali's biggest fan, for obvious reasons) feels Louis was the greatest.

 

I so want to believe that about Larry (because he's my favorite). I don't know....Joe was borderline creepy powerful and his onslaught was at times never seen before or since. He could be ferocious and determinedly brutal, in a different way from Mike.

Of course, Joe would have wiped the floor with Mike, period imo.

 

That is not what that word meant.

 

Schmeling beat a near prime Joe.

Unless you are talking Mike Grant, Mike Tyson would finish Louis in a firefight.

 

Lets give the timeline some context here.

He starts in 1968 presumably at the point where he lifted the title from Braddock, and presumably in 1980 you are looking at the version of the second Walcott fight.

Ali is in exile when he challenges for the vacant title, so presumably he challenges Jimmy Ellis for the vacant tile.

He is forced to fight Frazier two years later, so this happens shortly after his destruction of John Henry Lewis in the real timeline, giving him an excellent chance of success.

He has to take on the Ali of the FOTC a year later, around the time of the Johnny Paycheck fight, leaving him closer to prime than Ali.

He would have to deal with George Foreman around the time of the Buddy Baer rematch, which offers him as good a prospect of success as any time.

I am going to assume that he is in the army for the equivalent period to that which he was in real life, perhaps entertaining the troops in Vietnam.

His first significant comeback fight is probably against Jimmy Young, and that might well be a banana skin for him to slip on at this stage of his career.

He runs into Larry Holmes around the time of the Walcott fights, and this realistically is probably a bridge too far at that stage of his career.

On paper all of these fights are winnable for him, except perhaps the Holmes fight, but this does not translate into him going unbeaten over this period.

In practice he would almost certainly lose at least once, based upon the practicalities of sustaining that level of performance, over that period of time.

He would have a night like he did against Conn or Godoy, against somebody better than Conn or Godoy.

 

That is not out of the realm of possibility, but I just think that he would have dropped a decision to somebody like Jimmy Young, at some point!

Even the best fighters are performing a bit of a conjuring trick, when they take on legitimate contenders!

 

If I was managing Louis, I would duck Frazier, and go for Foreman!

 

Hey now here's an interesting idea. Prime Mike more than possibly might knock Joe down (he had that heavyweight version of a "Spinks Jinks" left hook).

But Joe would have come back as viciously and more powerfully than a prime Larry Holmes. Mike would have been the anvil, Joe the hammer.

And please keep in mind, I really like Mike Weaver.

 

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Nah. Anyman needs to be on there A game to beat Larry Holmes

 

That's easy to agree with. Guys that didn't bring much to the table against Holmes (Frazier, Evangelista, Ocasio, Weaver II) got stomped, embarrassingly so.