Joe Louis: educate me

I'm looking forward to this rivalry.

 

Others already did the talking so I'll just share some clips that I think illustrate Louis' ability the best

For starters, this is the best vid made on Louis, a collection of highlights of his best moments with visual clarity of some fights that you won't find anywhere in YouTube:

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Then his fight against Max Baer. it's one of Louis' best performance even if he was a bit pre prime and not fully matured. This one is from my channel, I have the Louis-Sharkey fight (the most high definition footage of prime Louis out there), the Ettore fight, the first Schmeling fight, the Marciano fight and the Walcott rematch you can check out after the Baer fight.

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Following that, I recommend Louis' most destructive showings against a bigger, slow opponent in Abe Simon. It's one of Louis' most powerful showings with footage that still holds up beautifully:

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These videos are a good start. After these consider watching the two fights against Buddy Baer which are fantastic.
The Schmeling, Godoy and Pastor rematches are Louis at his absolute best against some of his best opponents.
The most fun and competitive Louis fight is the first match with Billy Conn, probably his best opponent.
His two matches with Jersey Joe Walcott, two great chess matches with an awesome finish.

Notable fights to check out:
Louis vs
Braddock
Carnera
Farr


Quick knockouts:
Sharkey
Retzlaff
Maurielo
Ramage (rematch. The first one doesn't have any footage)
Roper
Paychek
Levinsky

Enjoy

 

Here’s a brief sample of Louis’ skill.

Joe uses the left hook to knock away Braddock’s own guarding left hand - clearing the path for the bone crushing right. Elite.

Now watch Joyce vs Chisora for due comparison. Mongos.

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Great channel btw, Pedro my friend.

Atop synchronising the radio broadcast, you also spliced in the more rarely seen vision of the punch that exacted the first KD of Max Baer in round 3 - which you sourced from the slow motion replay and then corrected the speed to real time. Brilliant edit!

 

Thanks mate, your memory is truly infallible lol!

 

I agree

 

Well arguing with oneself hardly makes sense.

 

That's literally what i was saying

 

Look, I firmly believe that fighters have to be judged only by what they accomplished in their own era, and that makes Louis either the best heavyweight ever, or maybe #2 behind Ali. Nothing else is acceptable, and he is so good in that respect, that he is a pfp great despite being a heavy.

He was one of the best combination punchers every, with power in both fists, and whereas he had notoriously ponderous footwork, he would spring to life and pounce on his opponents like a panther with blazing hand speed when he saw his opening.

That notwithstanding, I have said and stick by the fact that there is a bit of historical evolution going on. I could not imagine Usyk being knocked down by Braddock or Galento, even if he fought them on the same night. Schmeling would not beat Usyk with a baseball bat.

Could he be a champ today? I believe he could, if he started at cruiser and built himself up. But he would have to train very consistently--something he didn't alway do in his day. I could see him unifying at cruiser and beating the right opponent at heavy to join Holy, Haye and Usyk guys who made it from cruiser to heavy.

But i think he would take some losses along the way, too.

 

Usyk was floored by a body shot. It isn't a wild scenario that Braddock or Galento could clog usyk coming in and daze him momentarily.

I can't think of a champ who trained more diligently than Louis did.
From 1934 to 1948 he had about 60 fights. He showed underprepared for what, one of them? Going by his conditioning alone, Louis didn't show up out of shape a single time between 1934-1948. Guy was always looking his best physique-wise.

 

Usyk was floored by an illegal bladder shot, and no way 5'8 fat guy Galento or LHW Braddock hits hard enough to put him down regardless.

Louis was known to disappear to the golf course for some of his softer fights.

 

In the days of Braddock that would have been a body shot. Usyk generally complains a lot for punches to the belt line, he doesn't seem to take them well at all. The 5"8 fat guy btw could really punch. He was a boxer, not a magazine model.

Only one to my knowledge, and we can't really know if those weren't excuses after his loss to Schmeling.
The best indicator for if a fighter is training or not is how close they are to their fighting shape, and Louis was pretty much always on point.

 

Braddock would not have put Usyk down. At all. Sorry.