Larry Holmes vs Joe Louis (at their best)

I too at one point thought that holmes would be an automatic shoe-in to beat holmes but now I'm having second thoughts. I still think that holmes would win but with much less conviction that I had before. After watching some videos of louis on you tube I found louis not to be as slow on his feet as I thought. This and his abilty to swiftly punch through openings has caused me to reconsider.

 

Tyson Kayoing Louis early---MAYBE??? Demspey doing it too?? NO WAY!!! A young Tyson was elusive and quick handed with sharp punches.......... Jack Dempsey WINGED many shots from left and right field and often left himself wide open........ Joe Louis would eat up a guy like Dempsey, but have trouble with a young Tyson.............

MR.BILL

 

Dempsey might have winged a few shots but he was much better on the inside than Tyson.

That could be critical here.

 

Janitor,

People can scoff all they like about Tyson's victims of the late 80's, but dudes like "Berbick, Smith, Thomas, Tucker, Biggs, Holmes, Tubbs, Spinks, Bruno and Carl Williams" were tall and cagey melon-farmers with superior height and reach over Tyson and, believe it or not, they all had talent and ability.......... But, simply put, Tyson was just better trained and much more motivated in the late 80's than his opponents / victims were.......

As for Tyson having trouble on the inside, well, its hard to fight some of them guys who are tall and cagey who merely come to survive by holding and hanging onto you...... Namely dudes like "Smith & Tucker." Also, Tyson's opponents were HUGE compared to Dempsey's lot of challengers.... Okay, I know, Louie Firpo was huge..... So what?? Firpo had no defense and didn't know how to hold........ Point being is, Mike Tyson had bigger mountains to climb......

I seriously doubt that anybody really thinks that the 1986 to 1989 version of Mike Tyson would have any problems with dudes like "Willard, Carpentier, Bill Brennan, Luis Firpo or Tommy Gibbons" and whoever else Dempsey was kayoing / fighting in the teens and 20's........

MR.BILLbbb

 

An old Louis managed to catch an extremely tricky, blazing fast, hard hitting Walcott in 11 rounds, a younger Walcott than the one who gave Marciano 13 rounds of hell .. I think too many here are oblivious to what a young Louis was capable of ... I love Larry but I think a prime Joe chases him down and catches him with the right and it becomes a different fight ...

 

Let me be the first to announce that I for one don't.

 

Of course the flipside is true, Holmes has never faced anyone even minutely close to Louis for punching proficiency, class, greatness, finishing ability and much much more. He'd still be tagging Holmes rest assured, Weaver, Snipes, Witherspoon, Norton, Shavers et al all landed big punches with some landing reasonably consistently.

This is one open fight. If anything i am inclined to agree with Manassa.

 

Joe is to much for holmes Louis by ko holmes first mistake becomes his last

 

The thing with Larry is though that he can AFFORD to get hit some because his recuperative ability is second to none. Tyson is on at least the same level as Louis in terms of power and finishing ability plus he is faster and had to put down a 38 year old, inactive Holmes 3 times. Tyson is also the ONLY fighter to KO Holmes.

My pick is Larry here, but it would be hotly contested and like some people have already said, Louis only got better in rematches. I like Holmes to be able to outmaneuver and outbox Joe to win the UD 9-6, and in a rematch it's even money.

 

Again, people have cried a river in the past that Larry Holmes fought a buncha' bums, stiffs and empty Tomato cans during his title reign, but that simply is not true at all. Larry Holmes did indeed take on a few jerks who really were not worthy of a shot, however, everyone whoever held the title is guilty of that as well..

Larry Holmes competition like "Weaver, Shavers, LeDoux, Berbick, Leon Spinks, Snipes, Cooney, Cobb, Spoon, James Smith, Bey & Carl Williams" either were solid contenders or at least talented enough to make a decent run at the title when they came to fight for the title...

In my opinion, Larry Holmes saw a lot more talent in the opposite corner numerous times over than Joe Louis ever did... Joe Louis hammering "Schmeling, Farr, J.H. Lewis, Godoy, Conn, Simon, Bud Baer & Roper" were not against an elite list of talented challengers at all.....

A fight between the '38 to '42 Louis and the '78 to '82 Holmes would be great.... But I just see Larry Holmes as being taller & quicker with more skill than anything Joe Louis ever saw in an opponent who really weighed over 200 solid pounds.... I also see Holmes circling Louis with a snapping jab that connects time after time to Louis' face that causes severe swelling and a cut or two..... Of course Joe Louis would land some punches here in there but, due to Holmes' savy and ring generalship, I think Louis would be reduced to merely landing single punches at a time mixed in with a couple of quick combos' to Holmes....

In the end, my prediction is Larry Holmes either scores a late round TKO in a 15 round fight ot wins a split decision over Joe Louis........ I say split decision because in a fight of this magnitude, you always got a judge who see's things from an odd angle or so.....

MR.BILL

 

I have often thought about how Dempsey and Tyson would have fared against eachothers opposition.

I do indeed think that Tyson would have run over most of Dempseys opposition more quickly than Dempsey did.

I can see a few of Tysons oponents where Dempsey could have done better however. I don't think that James Douglas would have beaten Dempsey anywhere near to his physical prime. I also fancy that Dempsey might have closed the deal with Smith and Tucker due to his ability to throw extremely short punched in fluries.

 

Buster Douglas was indeed an enigma to the max; no **** there...... BUT! He did get-it-together for ONE night in Japan against Mike Tyson in 1990....... The Douglas who was 231 pounds in Japan at age 30 was pretty goddamn lethal........... Again, it was only for ONE night.......... That version of Douglas would be a tuff cookie for any previous heavyweight champion from any era........ The Buster Douglas who came to lay down for Holyfield at 246 porkish pounds was a disinterested slob of a boxer / puncher looking to cash in his chips....... That version of Douglas was horrid..........
:deal

Jack Dempsey certainly was a more established fighter and champion than "Smith or Tucker" ever were, but Smith and Tucker were huge with muscles and would make Dempsey look very tiny in the ring.............. However, let's not bring Jesse Willard or Louie Firpo into this mess, because I think deep down that Bonecrusher Smith and Tony Tucker were much better than hulking stiffs like Willard and Firpo....... While Smith was slow and limited in boxing ability, he was buffed, strong and powerful prior to 1990 in the ring........... And Tony Tucker had good hand and foot speed for such a huge dude with good right hand power prior to 1994... YES! Smith and Tucker were probably better than Willard and Firpo.......... Cheers......
bbb

MR.BILL

 

Larry Holmes IMO goes to sleep early with a lot of pain in a fight with Joe Louis. Imagining him getting hit with the punches that put Schmelling away in fight 2.

I doubt that Holmes would be around for very long after Louis found his range.