Oleksandr Usyk outclasses Joe Louis.

How?

 

Louis stopped Buddy Baer who was much bigger than Usyk

 

Jethro's uncle.

 

But there’s more to uncover, it’s not a toxic argument, it’s only a debate, no disrespect intended on a personal level, so it’s fine to carry on.

In what way would you say Louis is better that would actually come into play? Yes he’s a better finisher and short puncher, he’s also a harder puncher, those are the ways that he’s better than Usyk, hand speed alone is similar between the 2.

Usyk is a better boxer at range, better footwork and stronger, so it’s logical to see him keeping him on the outside, and Louis not being able to bully Usyk to the ropes.

Louis has to get close to use his tools, and you need strength to create space to get the punches off, and Usyk wouldn’t let it get close too often, but when it does, he’s stronger, and he has great defence, he’d keep his eyes on Louis at all times and keep himself in a position to see punches coming.

 

Usyk is elite, but he hasn’t "thrived in every scenario". He’s had periods of difficulty and several competitive decisions (e.g. Briedis, Chisora, Joshua I, Fury I), and has at times looked vulnerable when pressured or forced onto the back foot. His success depends on controlling tempo and maintaining space, not thriving in chaos, infighting, or high attrition. The idea that he can operate equally well in every situation doesn’t hold up against the available evidence.

Sure, he can prod and score from range when an opponent gives him the requisite time and space, but his highest-value offense still relies on eliciting responses, through feints, rhythm shifts, and upper-body movement. Fighters who don’t give him those reactions, while sustaining pressure on him as Louis would, are harder to solve.

Louis offered very little for free while he was working his way in and closing the gap.

There is no evidence of Louis launching a "desperation attack" under duress. Louis was defined by restraint under pressure. Against those who disrupted his rhythm, like Conn and Walcott, he absorbed their movement patterns, applied measured pressure, and eventually solved their timing. He didn't do that by rushing in. He did so by methodically closing the distance.

Usyk’s rhythm is complex, but not unreadable and Louis only needed the rhythmic cues that mattered. Louis tended to punish any missteps or lapses with devastating precision. Nothing about his record suggests he would devolve into blind swinging. Quite oppositely, his composure was often the reason his opponents cracked first.

This just repeats the misconception that visible glove activity equates to a higher-level disguise. Louis’s punches were disguised not by constant hand motion, but by identical pre-punch posture and compressed delivery, making his jab, hook, and cross nearly indistinguishable until the moment of launch.

His short right hand, often thrown from mid-range with minimal shoulder movement, remains one of the most undetectable knockout weapons in heavyweight history (see Simon II or Galento). Usyk might have more external variation, but Louis’s economy makes him harder to read. Deception doesn’t require dancing or putting on a show. It requires absence of signal, and Louis was a master at removing those cues.

This simplification ignores Louis’s success against rhythm-based and highly skilled opponents. Walcott had elite movement, feints, and deceptive rhythm—and Louis still knocked him out. Conn was a smaller, faster fighter who used range and footwork; Louis found him and stopped him late. Max Schmeling, in their rematch, was dismantled in one round, not because he lacked skill, but because Louis adjusted.

Louis didn’t just walk through people, he timed them, positioned them, and punished them. Size and rhythm did not protect opponents from that.

The implication that Usyk could simply reset and carry on as usual after being hurt by Louis, is optimistically hypothetical. Usyk has a great chin, but he’s been buzzed (notably by Breidis and even Joshua). If Louis lands cleanly, it might not be a simple case of Usyk 'tying up' - it could be down to whether he’s conscious.

Louis’s power wasn’t thudding, it was surgical. And Louis was excellent at cutting off exits after hurting a man, often with finishing bursts that were both technical and violent. Usyk might evade the first wave, but Louis’s follow-up would be short, brutal, and exact. It wouldn’t be a single Hail Mary - it would be a sequence designed to setup and a finish.

Calling Usyk “more skilled than Louis" is a value judgment, not a fact. Their skillsets are fundamentally different. Usyk is brilliant at mobility, harnessing his southpaw stance, and cumulative control. Louis’s brilliance lies in economy, composure, positional smothering, and combinations unmatched in heavyweight history.

As for walking through Walcott, Louis didn’t. He was outboxed in stretches and solved the puzzle over time. He wasn’t imposing through size, he was imposing through craft.

Usyk’s 20lb weight advantage isn’t decisive unless he can use it to deter Louis’s positioning.

That’s not a given. Louis didn’t need size to break down larger men. He needed one read—and he always found it.

 

Ditto

 

I love Joe Louis but I have to be real. Based on film, I seriously doubt that Jim Braddock or Max Baer or Tony Galento or many other Louis' opponents would qualify as sparring partners for Usyk. Y'all go along and play your fantasy 12-sided dice games, and do your hackey indepth analysis of Max Baer's intricate defensive wizardry, but the film just doesn't lie.

 

Just like you ignoring all the success they had against him?

 

Usyk looks like the best fighter ever until he's snoring.

 

Recency bias, flavor of the month, new hotness, etc.

 

Some of Louis' sparring partners for Carnera would also KO Dubois

 

Louis is the only pre-60s HW that I see staying competitive in modern era.

That being said Usyk 12-0.

 

Agreed, Louis would not be competitive in todays era

 

I haven’t seen Louis deal with a Southpaw… I’m not sure how he’d do, it’s impossible to say but we’ve also never seen Usyk fight someone as skilled as Louis, nor will he as there hasn’t ever been anyone at HW who was as skilled as JL who wasn’t a former LHW or below… Moore, Charles, Toney etc the closest was Tyson and he fell short to put it lightly. I think Usyk could knick the first one if we presume he isn’t well educated at the task, but based on “pure skill” if Blackburn taught him well and he likely did he probably KO’s Usyk.

 

But Ali who didn’t know how to fight tall opponents would? No need to bring up Terrell and Bugner I remember, I couldn’t forget such great fighters LOL.