What's The Nearest Thing To Louis's "Bum of the month club ''?

Good post mate.

 

21 foes who combined for 31 losses and that is a bum of the month? Wlad fought a who's who of the best fighters available and if anything stunted promising careers by profound defeats at the end of his fists. One of the greatest title runs in history.

 

Wilder although he was never lineal so I don’t really count him as champion. After winning the wbc strap from Stiverne he would :

face the unheard of Molina
The unheard of Euro level Duhaupas
Blown up Domestic level cruiser Szpilka
Converted football player Washington
Completely shot Arreola
Shot and obese Stiverne in rematch


That’s a bad run

 

The "bum of the month club" originally referred specifically to Louis's string of defences from December 1940 to June 1941 when he genuinely was fighting every month. Going by the NBA quarterly ratings, he fought:

Al McCoy - unranked
Red Burman - #2
Gus Dorazio - unranked
Abe Simon - #6
Tony Musto - unranked
Buddy Baer - unranked
Billy Conn - #2

Not great, but when a champion fights that often it's inevitable that not all the challengers will be of stellar quality. The #1 contender throughout this period was actually Max Baer, but he had already lost pretty badly to a young, green Louis, so he had work to do to convince anyone that he had a chance in a rematch.

Anyway, to answer the original question, I'd go with Ezzard Charles. Another one who defended very often and so found time for defences against the likes of Freddie Beshore (unranked) and Nick Barone (ranked #6 at light-heavy).

 

Making a confident assumption the 31 losses in the whole career losses? At the time of the fight I can't imagine it would have been any more than 15.

 

Eubank
Vitali
Calzaghe

 

They were't really champs (well, the former at least had a claim) but Vitali and Wilder had awful reigns as the WBC titlists.

 

When did old Foreman or Wilder show any inclination to fight six top ten contenders.

 

Excellent stuff Grey.
But that's usual for you.

 

"Bum of the month" is not about Louis's opponents being bums its about him fighting once a month. People are focusing on the wrong word here. If we could bring Louis back from the dead and he could see how people took this comment he'd rephrase it.

Louis's SOS was great with just 1 or 2 questionable opponents out of 20 something. A big problem is Louis's premium contenders not sticking around after Louis beat them.

 

That's the exact same deal with Louis, though. What seems to be the problem with the comparison ? Both utterly dominated basically everyone their era had to provide and both probably ruined potentially promising fighters. The bum of the month monicker was basically just a publicity stunt to signify the difference between Louis and his opposition, its meaning through the passage of time just happened to be lost.

I just checked, and Schmeling, Conn, Walcott, Mauriello, Nova, Galento were all the #1 contender during, slightly before, or slightly after their fights with Louis. Guys like Godoy, Pastor, Farr, Mann and Burman also managed to reach positions in the top 3 of the division.

Comparing Wlad to him is not an insult in the slightest.

 

There was "0 culture" when Wlad fought. When Louis fought guys with 5 losses weren't told they needed to retire. At this time the average quality of a non title bout was much much higher.

 

McCoy was a 175 title claimant from a few years earlier. His resume is best looked at as a LHW though he had some nice HW wins too.

Gus Dorazio had won 12 of his last 13 with a loss to Godoy. Not ranking him in the top 10 is purely a testament to how stacked the divsion was. I'd agree hes one of Louis's lesser opponents but whether he was top 10 or not he deserved the shot.

Musto was probably the worst opponent of Louis's reign.

Buddy Baer should have been ranked in the top 5. Him not being ranked in the top 10 when he fought Lous is stupid.

 

I agree losses aren't the only indicator.