How Shopworn Was the Joe Louis Who Lost To Rocky Marciano?

Very shopworn, and his right was virtually useless, meaning that he didn't have the beautiful combos anymore. Nonetheless, he was good enough to be on a very good seven fight win streak at the time, including a win against Bivins.

He was ranked #2 at the time, and that was probably about right.

But no, he wasn't the brown bomber any more.

 

I think he had a cyst in his arm, if I remember correctly. Mcvey can elaborate.

 

Louis only came out of retirement because he was drowning in debt. The fact that he retired again right after the Marciano fight—despite still owing a fortune—tells you everything you need to know.

 

He could still beat a few contenders but not Rocky Marciano or Ezzard Charles. Given that , it was time to retire because he was not going to be near the top anyways, so why continue?

 

Because he had a mountain of debt to pay off which is why he came out of retirement in the first place?

 

I understand that. But he had no chance to repay them because he was going to be eventually relegated to ten rounds anyways, which dont pay as much.

 

When assessing Louis as much as anyone in his late career, you have to contextualize it with relative to himself and relative to what is normally there in the rankings. If it's relative to the rest of his career, we're looking at a completely shopworn athlete. Historically, a bad Louis is probably capable of being in the lower top ten of most eras, just as the remnants of his former self. Marciano, for whatever it's worth, mentioned that Louis basically had no right hand anymore, but that his left jab was still like taking a hammer to the face or something to that effect. So, a one-handed fighter, but one really good hand. Totally shopworn, but does he beat guys like the best Pianeta, Dunn, Scott Frank, Sosnowski, Terry Daniels? I mean, he was still a relatively solid fighter if he was operating at even as low as 50%. Which he may have been. I wouldn't have wanted to bother with him at his worst.

 

Joe was screwed over so badly by the IRS. AFAIK he'd incurred a bunch of that debt fundraising for the troops. Should have stayed at home playing lawn darts in retrospect.

 

Just watch the 2nd Abe Simon fight and see the sledgehammer rights he was exploding on the 255 lbs caveman that KO d him. Then look at the rights he fired at Rocky. Almost none and the ones he did lacked power. It’s like night and day. Now I know Marciano was crowding him and staying low but doesn’t explain such a difference. A young Louis would have had quick powerful combos to catch Rocky with. Would have been a very different fight.

 

Pretty darn shopworn.

 

The problem wasn't Louis being "shopworn" he had a fairly extensive vacation during the 1940s. The problem was his power vanished in 1946/1947 never to return. Louis was otherwise fine but the power that made him him was gone.

Joe Louis was now a point fighter and thats fine but thats not how Joe Louis really won fights. He won with power and quickness qualities that were either gone or eroded.

 

A hint might be that he never fought again despite still having a marketable name and hefty IRS bills.

 

You see that in a lot of older fighters when they lose their legs.