If Joe Louis Held The WBC Title..?

If anybody but Louis held them, they would change hands a lot.

 

I'll start the ball rolling.

Well, if the IBF was still created by Bob Lee out of New Jersey, he'd pit two African Americans for the belt, since they would mostly be shut out.

So you'd probably get a fight between longtime rivals Elmer Ray and Obie Walker for an IBF belt. They had a pretty longstanding rivalry. Then Ray defends against primarily African American fighters (Walker again, Leroy Haynes, Jack Trammell, Roscoe Toles) along the east coast. A South American boxer like Arturo Godoy might slip in there and win it for a fight or two. Mostly, though, they'd leave the caucasian contenders for Louis to fight and it would be more of a belt for fighters "of color" in the Americas. There wouldn't be much money in fighting for the IBF belt.

And, given that the WBA never met an European they didn't like, and Schmeling was sufficiently thrashed by Louis ... I'd say Karel Sys, Heinz Lazek, Walter Neusel and Adolf Heuser take turns passing the WBA strap back and forth between each other throughout WWII, until there was no place left to fight with the war raging.

All those belts would bounce around from fight to fight until the end of the war.

Post 1945, who knows.

 

Yeah, the WBA would probably go to Nazi Germany in the way that the other pariah state -- South Africa -- seized it with Coetzee in the 1980s. With similar propaganda value.

Bit depressing how alphabet titles would likely break down along racial/ethnic lines if they occurred earlier.

 

I can’t imagine Joe Louis permitting anyone else to call themselves “ champ “ while he was around. I think he’d do everything he could to unify

 

He would be ranked a little bit lower.

 

Elmer Ray and Walcott fought three times. Walcott won two of them. The first when Walcott was younger in 1937. And then Ray won in 1946. Walcott won in 1947.

Maybe, if Ray was the IBF champ in this fictional scenario in the early 1940s, Walcott is one of the guys he defends against?

 

Let's not forget if the alphabets were around then other guys would be interim champs, guys would be stripped, there would be super champions etc

 

Over his 11-year reign, Joe Louis only fought two black challengers - John Henry Lewis and Joe Walcott.

I think the IBF would be reserved for those black challengers not getting a title shot, particularly if it was launched by a black president, like it was with Bob Lee. He was the first black man to lead a major sanctioning body.

As it was, in the first 11 years of the IBF's existence, the only white challenger to compete for an IBF heavyweight belt was Steffen Tangstead, and he was pretty much a no-hoper.

The second was also an expected no-hoper, Axel Shulz. And Bob Arum had to pay Bob Lee $300,000 in cash to sanction that fight. That bribe was one of the reasons Lee ended up in prison.

So, if the IBF was run (as it was) by a black president, I don't think too many of Joe Louis' white challengers would've been on the docket. (Sort of like how black challengers weren't in the late 30s/40s, for the most part.)

Just my opinion, given what actually ocurred with the IBF.

 

Louis would be stripped for fighting the best.

 

I have a hard time imaging Louis not trying to unify.

 

Now that I think about it, of course Jersey Joe Walcott would fight for Bob Lee's IBF Heavyweight title.

The IBF is based out of NJ. He's "Jersey" Joe!!! Walcott may have gotten five cracks at the IBF title, too, before winning it.

Or he may have been a five-time IBF champ before he ever fought Louis.

 

Maybe Louis-Walcott would've been the long-awaited heavyweight unification?