Joe Louis vs Mike Tyson

I expected no less.

 

Tyson would most certainly be meeting solid-gold boxing royalty.

But he never regarded boxing royalty in the ring; he chewed it up and spat it out.

Louis would not fear Mike Tyson; at heart he was no less than a ruthless assassin in the ring.

But what would actually happen in the pivotal Round 1?

a) Louis would come in compact, probing with the left, attempting to lure Mike in and counter with those straight and curved clusters.

b) Tyson would emerge the much faster man, behind a swift jab attempting to get in that one big punch and follow up with a blistering finishing combination.

c) If Louis opens with the powerful, insistent jab he used against Baer, he has a good chance of disrupting Mike, lumping him up, giving him pause, and quite possibly setting him up for a killer right.

d) Without a doubt Tyson will early on unleash his patented right to body and chin, but I agree with Bill1234 that a fast Tyson left hook has the greatest potential for sending the lighter Louis flying onto the canvas, perhaps as the beginning of an early end.

MuchMoore expressed my feeling here. Quite possibly no puncher can defeat Mike Tyson toe-to-toe. He possessed three elements, at all-time great levels: power, speed and a chin; and an effective evasive style to boot.

You look at revered ring hitters, like Foreman: little speed, no defense, disruptable; Liston: not fast, hittable; Marciano: slow, small dimensions allowed for only face-to-face clubbing; Frazier: a one-trick puncher, easy to hit, not the most solid of chins. And so on. Besides Jack Dempsey, no other all-time great puncher brought together Mike's attributes. Louis' Achilles heel is his chin. Period.

In Round 1, Tyson unfazed snorted through Tucker's famous right uppercut and Bruno's gazillion rabbit punches and solid smashes. A prime Louis was back on his heels from a clumsy, heavy Galento rush and was floored soon after with one smash to the jaw. At mid-range, Louis could be hit, and he didn't take it all that well.

At their best, I see Tyson getting Louis out of there, sooner than later.

 

I suspect that Sonny Liston, as well as Joe Louis might have had the style to beat Tyson.

Tom Cribb invented the technique, and called it "milling on the retreat".

You back up just enough to keep your opponent walking into your punches. As long as you do that he is going to be in a no win situation.

Good examples of this strategy are Louis Baer and Liston Patterson.

 

Yes, but would Tyson cooperate?

Backing up is pretty suicidal against the swift-lunging Tyson.

I think lateral movement is more effective against Mike, who could then be reduced to running into the ropes.

But Louis had little lateral movement.

 

No I didn't say he would win with one punch. I'm saying all it would take is one of Joe Louis power punches to make Tysons gameplan crumble.


Many punches from Louis would follow that first one, don't worry.

 

Ha! Good one!

But Tyson at his best, as opposed to the Ghost of Tysons Past, was not merely a lunger. He came in with blinding speed behind a jab, double jab, and then unleashed the combos.

Moreover, in preparation to challenge Larry Holmes, Tyson was taught to evade the straight punch and was fantastic at getting around the jab and countering.

If Louis is shuffling back, I say he would be cooperating with Tyson's irresistible mid-range momentum.

Both would get hit. And this is where Tyson's better chin becomes a factor. History shows that Tyson snorts through while Louis staggers back.

This is great against slow, wade-in brawlers. But not against a bullet train.

Douglas avoided fully-expected disaster by moving side-to-side and around a subpar Mike all night. Louis never deployed these skills.

Tyson was a force of nature going forward, the proverbial train. If you go straight back along the track, you're asking for big trouble.

 

How many times has Tyson gotten up after falling?

Joe Louis beat Max Baer without falling down, AND he took vicious power shots from Baer.


You can make up any excuse you want, but the fact is, that when the ultimate intimidator, Mike Tyson, fell down, he could never get back up.


Your telling me Tyson won't get knocked down by Louis? Not even once? A prime Louis? Because we all know that if he did, Tyson loses the fight.

 

lol.


History shows? No.
History, my friend, shows that nobody 'snorts' through a Louis' power. Not in his prime.


Joe Louis hit some guy so hard that the man spun and did a 360 before he hit the ground. And he didn't throw his entire body into the punch. He simply punched.

 

Holyfield vs Tyson I. It's not about dropping Tyson, but beating him from start to finish. Frustrating him, bothering him, and hurting him.

 

Thats all fine and well, if we are talking about someone like Ali, or Holyfield

But we are talking about Joe Louis. Whom many boxing enthusiasts will claim till they die that he is the hardest hitting boxer ever.

 

He was just down and out?

No, you brought up the stupid argument about Louis' frame and punching speed, as if that was relevant. I responded to that, unless I initially just misunderstood.

You're right, film is which shows you're wrong.

Then why did you go on about people only picking Tyson having only watched Tyson highlights on ESPN Classic as a response to me. I've been called a Tyson hater before too; I suppose I'm in the middle if I got stuff from both sides.

Louis is the most accurate puncher at HW possibly of all time. He's the best HW puncher ever, but he's facing probably the second best puncher ever (Speed, power, accuracy, etc). So in the end, considering Tyson's defense, skills, combinations, and durability which I feel you're understating... or at least overrating Louis' to try comparing their chins as being nearly equal. After that run on sentence, my point is I just don't see Louis bombing Tyson out... and I don't see him just beating Tyson to the punch every-time to beat up on him.

Right, I mentioned this. It is not quite the same, but Louis is still going to not be in his comfort zone as far as space and being smothered is concerned. At least that illusion with the pressure Tyson brings. Just downing it as irrelevant doesn't seem entirely fair, as it still has some merit I think in this matchup.

Louis had a good team and was good at adapting after a first fight. However, he wasn't the best at adapting during a fight (Think Louis-Schemling I and Godoy I). With age and experience he got better, naturally, but you could point to this as a weakness. This point to me suggests that Tyson takes the first fight, but maybe Louis' would win in a fantasy rematch. Maybe the case, but a rematch adjustment helps my case more than yours I feel.

Yeah, he's claiming to have invented that. I thought that was a pretty generic term.

Do you have short-term memory problems or something? We went over this. Bruno has probably more power. His sparring partners said he hit as hard as Foreman. Ruddock hits like a mule and probably has equal power. Nobody is as good as a puncher, perhaps. But a perfectly placed shot would/could perhaps be more deadly from Bruno. And he did nail Tyson good.

No, that's not it. It's more of a defense/rhythm issue. But thanks for trying to put words in my mouth.

 

Lies!

 

I don't think anyone claims he's the hardest hitting boxer ever. I think they claim he's the best HW puncher, which I would agree with. But he's facing the next best HW Puncher probably, so I don't think statement is enough to prove a case on why Louis beats Tyson.

 

You're drawing a forgone conclusion based on what you think would be very specific and well laid out events, but frankly I don't think that anything about this match would be specific nor well laid out...