How good were Joe Louis's skills? (With poll)

Actually it's regressed. It's like most things in life the more one does a thing,
the better one becomes at it.
If a fighters is fighting once or twice a month and serious sparring in between
of course he'll be much sharper than a fighter who's averaging a fight once or twice
a year with long lay-offs in between.
It's just natural.
Fighters like Pep or Robinson would have a field day with the fighters today.
Any of them with in 10-20 lbs of their best fighting weight.

 

What the hell is all this never had a boxing match or had one boxing match questions on the poll?

 

If you didn't rate Joe Louis's boxing skills, then it would essentially, be like arguing that **** was worth more than gold.

You would have a concept of skills, that bore no relation to success.

The only possible counter argument, would be something like "only a swarmer can truly be great!"

 

True, the "modern" crew includes such top three "greats" as Fury, Joshua and freaking WILDER. No hate against the first two, but they aren't near ATG's, nor near the level of skill in the HW division present in say the70's - 90's. Even a Louis with no modern conditioning or training would do well today, and one with the modern advancements would completely dominate.

 

What's this "1930s"? The guy never lost a fight in the 1940's either and was champion for the entire decade.

 

Louis retired nearly a century ago, and he is still on most people's top 10 heavyweight lists. Quite frequently, people bicker between him and Ali for #1. Ali himself agreed with other boxers such as his rival Frazier that Louis belonged in the top 10. Foreman has him #1. As recently as this year a few weeks ago people on this forum still have him neck and neck for the #1 spot. That's insane staying power.

It would be a safe bet that unless we get some truly remarkable HW champions that do something amazing, he will likely still be in the top 5-10 rankings 50 years from now unless the sport itself drastically changes in it's rules.

As for his skills, Louis technique looks good on film regardless of the era. Even in MMA/UFC he does some things that would be useful in a mixed martial arts setting, or virtually any combat sport:


-Having good balance. Louis was always in position to throw a powerful shot and get his body weight into one (or more).

-throwing with good form with a good blend of speed and power.

-taking your time to set up your shots

-mixing up going to the body and the head

-having a follow up shot to catch someone in case one shot misses (the Sharkey KO was brutally beautiful. Missed a looping right hand, but used the momentum to land a short sharp hook immediately that jolted Sharkey badly).

-glancing at his own feet to see if he was in range to land

-not letting the opponent off the hook when hurt, but still maintaining good form so as to not get caught by counters swinging wildly. In his brutal demolition of Schmeling, even with a burning desire for revenge, he still had good balance and leverage for his combinations.

-Making adjustments mid fight if something isn't working.

-parrying and picking off shots as opposed to just standing still and letting the opponent pound on his gaurd.

-using angles and being slightly off center to throw vicious shots down the middle. Had one of the best right crosses in history. It wasn't just a power punch, it was a tool that he could use to measure the distance as well as a means to continue into other punches.

-He could maintain his power from round 1-15, unique for a power puncher. In other words, paced himself very well.


These are all inarguably GREAT skills to have that would benefit nearly any fighter no matter what decade. Having just one of them would greatly improve a fighter, let alone all of them. Anyone who doesn't think so has never boxed and also doesn't know **** about boxing.

 

It’s funny how people suggest boxers have advanced, AS IF they’re analogising them to the periodic release of the next new, bigger (smaller?) and better IPhone or such - a piece of technical hardware.

Okay, allowing for better nutrition, training and cheating by way of PEDs, we have certain physical inflations. However, these guys are still the same flesh, blood and bone at the core, just like their “pre-modern” counterparts. They’ve also been aided and abetted by actual hardware upgrades (non physiological) surrounding their sport.

Fighting is instinctive and as old as time. Just like sex. Do you necessarily believe we’re better at sex now than back then?

Okay, a less avant garde society (subject to its own periodic 2.0 releases and subsequent displacements) might’ve found their “training” and exposure to multiple and more progressive “styles” inhibited.

But then again, you might well be surprised by what the old Great Grands were getting up to - perhaps putting you to shame (of yourself, not of them, they’re legends).

It seems apt to invoke the old saying - “Everything old is new again”. Or, at least, sometimes it should be.

Joe Louis’ styles is not antiquated. It is also overly rigid not to allow Joe some variance in his methodology given the opposition at hand. That’s like confining Ali to his perfectly effective strategy in Zaire in the face of the specific opponent- Foreman - not necessarily so effective against other opposition.

Joe proved his adaptability within the time frame of his own career. Joe be like the old axiom - “Fool me once….” Never any “shame” in Joe’s rematch performances. Rather, mucho credit.

If Joe needed to shuffle a bit more or even widen his stance etc against the “advanced” terminators of today, rest assured he would.

I could seriously envisage Joe cutting a swathe through the current HW division.

As to the spawning of fighters of excellent or great quality, one factor is impoverished circumstances, making said fighter “hungry”.

Certainly there are whole countries which provide a fertile bed for same but not necessarily possessing the boxing infrastructure or quality opp. required for said fighter to progress- thus requiring a move to a location where the sport is already thriving.

My non boxer vote - Skills Incredible and may I add, transcendent.

 

facts outdated like my quote always said

 

why is it when people say more skilled you stay in this era we did have 80s and 90s which those dudes was more skilled then now

 

thats not true its mutiple people fury has better skills then in 70s-90s

 

thats not a good thing if you think about it what other man in hw went undefeated that long says that era was trash

I reather fight in a era like 70s-80s where I lose some reather then be in a era where I have no challenge facing alot of trash and can be undefeated for a long time

 

Awesome breakdown.