Was Louis considered the champion when he came back to face Charles?

This is somewhat, though not exactly, similar to Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, and, to a lesser degree, James J. Jeffries.

 

Louis fought Charles his first fight back so the dispute never became relevant. Louis was gone and Charles was the champ and then Louis was back and lost to Charles.

Louis's return didn't null and void Charles's prior status but it turned it into more of an interim status. Charles was crowned under the assumption Louis would not be back and Louis coming back doesn't erase that. It creates a two champion situation that will ideally be resolved right away. In this case it was.

 

I don't think up to this point almost anyone who won a vacant title had universial recognition off the bat because a champs retirement was the chance for all parties to crown their guy. This was fairly close. Charles had won a tournament backed by the IBC(the mafia).

I don't think during the 1940s the Ring was considered the guardians of the lineal title yet they eventually became.

 

I’d assume he’d no longer be “undisputed” champ but still the champ as there is a fair claim out there? I assume people would’ve looked at this as Joe Louis’s fight to lose and that he’d “the man” going into it doe.

 

Louis was seen as the linear champ while Charles was the paper champ. In those days the old adage of “ you have to beat the man to become the man “ held more weight.

 

What a dreary fight it was.