Joe Louis's long reign?

Iirc, the only top 2 ranked black contenders during Louis's reign were JJW and Elmer Ray, ranked towards the very end of Louis's reign.

Louis went 2-0 vs JJW when past his own prime and whilst he didn't defend against Ray, his next opponent, and last of his reign, after Ray breached the top 2 rankings, was JJW.

 

Hi Stevie.
Yes, I can see those two also doing that.
There's no one that particularly looks too hard for Ali or Holmes to defeat.
Maybe as they aged, the likes of Walcott could possibly test them.

 

Would you say more than SRR?

 

For longer than during any single reign, yes, by far.

 

Fair enough. I was just asking as SRR was 128-1-2 at one point as we know.

 

For a variety of reasons I rank SRR as the greater p4p fighter and believe he was the better p4p at their respective peaks, but the thread specifically asks about Louis's title reign. No fighter in history ruled a weight division, as far removed from the field, for as long, as Louis, imo.