Joe Louis may have had the longest reign and most title defenses in history, but what is there to speak of? That record is filled Jack Ropers, Henry Thomas's, Red Burman's, Al McCoy's, Abe Simons, Tony Musto's, Gus Dorazio's, numerous other mediocrities. Now let's take a look at some resumes with some real substance to them.. James Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson, Greg Page, Oliver McCall, Trevor Berbick and Tex Cobb. Wladimir Klitschko beat Ruslan Chagaev, Tony Thompson, Hasim Rahman, Sultan Ibragimov, Calvin Brock, Sam Peter, Lamon Brewster, and Ray Austin. Vitali Klitschko beat Corrie Sanders, Sam Peter, Herbie Hide, Danny Williams, Kitk Johnson and Larry Donald. Chris Byrd beat Vitali Klitschko, David Tua, Evander Holyfield and Andrew Golata.. Feel free to ad more, but I think everyone here gets my drift.
I'm not much for looking at resumes. Matchings, styles make the fights. For me it's about the Louis right hand. This gives him the definitive puncher's chance with anybody. I prefer an Ali, a Marciano, Tyson, even Jersey Joe Walcott to watch. These four guys would be my favorites in a bout with Louis based on their styles. But Joe Louis catches any of these guys right, with that ****in' right hand of his, and they could go. They could all go.
Styles make fights. Louis for all intents and purposes fought a wide array of opponents, some swarmers, some tacticians, others counter punchers, and he had a very high success rate. You can't say the same for alot of fighters---Ali could be defeated by swarmers (Joe Frazier) and counter punchers (Ken Norton), for example. Louis defeated the best men of his era, and even after his prime, in the reigns of Charles and Walcott, he was still ranked among the top ten. What more can you really ask of a fighter? Want to knock Louis, go look at Larry Holmes 20 some odd title defenses, and outside of Shavers and Cooney, who stands out? Berbick? Witherspoon? Please, they were novices at the time with 15 or so bouts! I didnt see where Cobb, LeDoux, Evangelista, Frank, Bey, and Leon Spinks (former world champion or not) was setting the world on fire.
Why don't you respond to some of those threads where you got your ass kicked trying this ****, instead of starting from scratch with all new threads??
Because my job is to throw quality information out there, so that noobs like you can hopefully learn something. I need not respond to those who are unwilling to listen to the wisdom of the forum's chief poster. Now run along. You may return when you have sufficient knowledge to partake in the discussion.
I was going to say everyone is entitled to his opinion when I saw the initial responses you were getting Woody but your last post makes me think your playing it off as a joke and the others who have been here longer than me are aware of a past history here ...
LOL, isn't that the truth. Cobb had a very solid chin and a decent punch, but I could see him recieving a horrific pounding from Louis, probably leading to a stoppage. While this thread is not to be taken seriously, I can see some of the contenders that Woddy listed as appearing on Louis's record in the 30's and 40's though. Not that they would be among his better opponents, but probably right along side the lower teir of men who Joe defended against. Nevertheless, most of them would be made short work of.
Hi, Woody A fighter fights the guys who are there to be fought; then (roughly quoting Ted Spoon) you consider the caliber of the performance in light of the caliber of opposition. Looking at Louis, the criticisms would be: 1) he didn't fight Elmer Ray or Jimmy Bivins [Edit: Louis did fight Bivins during his comeback]. This criticism is a bit ameliorated when one considers that Louis had a three-year hole where he couldn't defend, and that the fellows he defended against when he did come back were pretty justifiable selections; 2) non-ultra dominant performances against middling opposition. Here in some cases it might be considered that Joe was fighting monthly and not putting in the sort of preparation he would have if expecting a stronger challenge. However, I'm not trying to right off your question, by any means. Basically, the thing to do is to look at Louis's fights and ask, 'under the circumstances, did Louis treat these fighters as one would have expected a great fighter to have treated them?'