Not sure if this has been posted already but I stumbled across this a while ago, in a September 24, 1935 article in the Star Tribune. People who picked Louis: Tunney Langford Cohan ("if he is as good as they say") Ronald Colman Barney Ross Jim Fitzsimmons Leonore Kight Wingard (by ko) Paul Runyan Pete Bostwick Joe Jacobs People who picked Baer: Braddock (by knockout) Johnson (by knockout) Dempsey Jack Sharkey Abe Lyman (by stoppage) Helen Hicks Joe McCarthy Colonel Jake Ruppert Tossup: Jack Doyle Picks from other articles: Louis: George A. Barton Baer: Hype Igoe
Ahhhhh....I thought you were going to ask us to make a prediction. I was going to pick an early Louis stoppage.....oh well! Seriously though pretty cool find. I like to go back from time to time and see who their contemporaries were picking going into big fights.
To be honest, there was not a lot to go on. Yes in very few fights Louis had already beat Carnera but some would have seen him as a young kid used to having things his own way who would be coming up against the best puncher in the world. Louis was mowing down contenders like Lee Ramage, Stanley Peroda, patsy Peroni, King Levinsky And Roy Lazar But Max Baer would have been considered another level entirely. They were not to know for certain Louis would sweep him away as easily.
Just to throw a couple more in: Their common opponents King Levinsky and Primo Carnera both picked Louis. A United Press poll had 26 of 37 sportswriters picking Louis.
There can't be a better boxing expert than Ronald Colman. (but he was right and Dempsey, Braddock, Johnson, and Sharkey wrong) And what about Jake Ruppert? And who exactly was Helen Hicks? If I remember correctly, Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons was a horse trainer.
Max Baer picked Carnera over Joe Louis! “On march 28th Max Baer came out in favour of Primo to win the fight. Max told the press that Primo would explode the meteoric rush of the young Louis. He acknowledged Joe might well knock Primo down but recalling his own fight with the tenacious Italian nine months earlier the champion predicted with his usual certainty that Primo would get back on his feet "I haven't forgot how many times he was down and up in my fight with him that I got dizzy keeping track of the knockdowns, and I wasn't fooling when I hit him either!" Max predicted that if primo was in the same condition as he was when he fought him then Primo would wear the young man from Detroit down." - Primo Carnera, the life and career of the heavyweight champion by Joseph S. Page.
