The thing is fighting is unlike any sport. You can get one of the 300 Spartans and give him a 6 month crash course on modern military training and conditioning and he might very well prove to be a beast on the battlefield. Similarly, a skilled master boxer, grappler, or karate master from 50 years ago is not going to suddenly become a bum or mediocre even if you suddenly pluck them from their era in a time machine and expect them to get destroyed by a modern C level fighter. Full contact combat sports are 90% mental, which includes huge non physical factors like discipline, work ethic, timing, strategy, heart, etc. If you do well on 90% of the questions on an exam, you get an A. So even if a fighter from the past isn't as athletic or physically gifted in terms of strength, speed, size, etc, if they were A class in the remaining 90% mental areas they have a chance. In the case of Joe Louis vs Lennox Lewis, Joe not only has an A for just about every mental/technical category, his punching power and hand speed are still remarkable even by today's standards. For anyone who has actually practiced combat sports or studied them extensively and watched videos of both fighters, you know that it would be ridiculous to completely right off someone of the calibre of Joe Louis. You have to give him more than just a proverbial 1/10 "punchers chance" with his pedigree and skill. If not, you are basically saying Joe's odds of winning are no better than James Bonecrusher Smith or Firpo's odds of winning against Lennox Lewis due to their punchers chance.
Quite true, but officiating has never been perfect. But in many instances, it is more important for for the fighters safety rather than our own desires to let a fight go on if a fighter is injured, or could be. No amount of money is worth another's life. But I respect your opinion.
While you have to give Joe a puncher's chance, he's up the odds. Slow feet with a long guard, and short vs. Lennox Lewis long range arsneal? Joe was out boxed by the better boxer in his day. Not only he he likely to lose more rounds, but also more likely to be hit with the bombs first. Embarrassed by Buddy Baer and Toney Galento, neither of whom had much skill flooring him, I can only see Lennox doing it more often cleaner shots that land harder. Lewis via TKO in 6. He's fights this one smart. I'm almost shocked with the polling results.
I respect your opinion, but Louis didn't get knocked out by two second-raters in his prime. Schmeling was a badass...he sure wasn't a McCall or Rahman.
Hence why i said "the stoppage was ok". There have been however hundreds of fights that have been allowed to go on comparable and worse than this. I'm not saying rightly so, just an observation. It's such a fine line when you have plenty of guys coming back from the dead and ko'ing their opponent but we also have plenty of examples of fighters dying or ending up permanently damaged. It's a fine line.
same way I feel they give George and joe skills they didnt have its strange no way could joe or George handle lennox to much skill
mutiple dumb comments here trolling lennox wins fast he is nothing like joe ever fought joe doesnt have the movement to get away he loses in a couple punches
facts legend unforgiven lewis was too slow and sloppy for louis who had way better tech and timing and his combinations would be too much for lewis lewis was too easy too hit had stamina problems plus not very good chin so easy win for louis tired of these trolls lying
Did Larry really have a great chin? Always seemed more to me what he had were great recovery powers and great survival instincts to lean on while recovering. He could be hurt. He could be knocked down. But then he'd recover and kick the ass of the guy who did it (exception: Tyson).
Someone's getting knocked out. Lewis wins if he brings his A game, otherwise, I could see him getting caught, hurt, and stopped some time late in the first half of the fight.
Sure he did. He stood up to plenty of Shavers' shot outside of the kd (watch the first fight), took massive shots from Norton, Cooney (Cooney being near unanimously considered a top 5 heavyweight puncher). Weaver was a Tyson-level puncher and he bounced back and demo'd him.
Simplified but the way I see it is Louis’ superior skill and equal power of punch effectiveness vs Lennox’ super height weight and reach. I can see Joe getting inside Lewis’ reach via blocking, parrying, sliding (head movement) to take full advantage of the openings closer in. Due respect, but even though Joe is afforded fast hands I still think he may be a tad underrated in terms of exactly how fast he could punch, particularly in lethal combination. Decent mobility notwithstanding, Lewis also cannot help but present as a very large target - certainly a lot bigger than Conn whose superior mobility (as compared to Lewis) made Billy that much more of a difficult target. Of course Lennox could look to clamping down on and smothering Joe anytime he began to move in, both protecting himself and draining Joe’s energy at the same time. A stinker of a strategy imo but it is there for Lewis to legally exercise subject to the ref’s governance. As many have already nominated, a 50/50 fight but I do see the scenario of Louis methodically chopping down Lennox in 5-6 rds as one possible scenario among several.