Joe Louis title reign simulation 1942-1945

Joe Louis entered the Army in 1942, to defend his country in World War II. Let's pretend, that Louis never joined the army. That he was allowed to continue defending his title during these war years. His reign would start in Mid 1942 and go until 1946.

Louis defended his title 1 time in 1937, 3 times in 1938, 4 times in 1939, 4 times in 1940, 7 times in 1941, and 2 times before leaving in the war. Despite Louis turning 28 years of age in 1942, he seemed to show no signs of slowing down his activity. I do think Louis would have eventually slowed his activity down as he got past 30 years of age. There was a great crop of Black Murders row of Heavyweights who dominated the heavyweight picture from 1943-1945. Despite Louis mainly fighting white fighters in his title reign, he did defend his title against 2 hall of famers who were black, JHL and JJW. I do think Louis would have fought more often against black heavyweights during this time, as these crop had the public approval, drawing power, and high rating, to gammer worthiness of a title shot. Enough Talk....Let's Simulate!


1942: September

Melio Bettina:

Size: 5'9 175lb
Style: Southpaw counterpuncher
Rating: # 4 in the world

Joe Louis KO 10 Melio Bettina

1943: March

Turkey Thompson

Size: 5'8 200lb
Style: Slugger
Rating: # 3 in the world

Louis TKO 1 Thompson- Wild Slugfest!

1943- May

Roscoe Toles

Size: 6'2 200lb
Style: Boxer-Jabber
Rating: # 4 in the world

Louis KO 6 Toles

1943: June

Lee Savold

Size: 6'0 190lb
Style: Boxer Puncher
Rating: # 7 in the world

Joe Louis KO 4 Lee Savold

1943: September

Jimmy Bivins

Size: 5'9 180lb 80" reach
Style: Defensive Counterpuncher
Rating: # 1 in the world

Joe Louis W 15 Jimmy Bivins. Majority Decision.

1943: December

Jimmy Bivins II

Joe Louis KO 3 Jimmy Bivins

1944: April

Joe Baksi

Size: 6'1 220lb
Style: Brawler/Boxer
Rating: # 4 in the world

Joe Louis TKO 4 Baksi- Louis dropped flash Knockdown

1944: July

Lee Q Murray

Size: 6'3 210lb
Style: Slugger-Boxer
Rating: # 3 in the world

Joe Louis KO 7 Murray- Louis down twice in round 3.

1944: November

Lee Oma

Size: 5'11 190lb
Style: Boxer-Mover
Rating: # 5 in the world

Joe Louis KO 6 Oma

1945: February

Elmer Ray

Size: 6'2 195lb
Style: Punching-Swarmer
Rating: # 8 in the World

Joe Louis KO 12 Ray- Louis down once. Louis close to being knocked out.


1945: May

Elmer Ray II

Joe Louis KO 7 Elmer Ray- Louis down once


1945: Octobery

Bruce Woodcock

Size: 6'1 200lb
Style: Brawler/right hand puncher
Rating: # 5 in the world

Joe Louis KO 1 Woodock




Results: 12-0 with 11 knockouts

 

I do too. I rate Elmer Ray in my top 25 heavyweights of all time. He was a great fighter. Problem is, his style would have forced him to slug with Louis. though I think elmer has the potential to beat louis, I think a motivated alert Louis would win that battle with Elmer every time. Simply put, Louis is the greatest puncher of all time. Elmer will not beat Louis at his game. Louis could still punch hard and fast in 1945.


In 1949 Louis fought ray in a exhibition. It was supposed to be just a sparring workout, but ray got hot headed and clocked louis hard hurting him badly. Louis got pissed and knocked ray out later that round, out cold. This is a true story.

 

Honestly man,

you don't know what your talking about. These guys may not have been household names or fat media slobs like foreman of the 1990s, but some of these guys were very very good. Many of these men had the punching capabilities and the skills set to pose major problems for Joe Louis. On this list alone, Jimmy Bivins, Lee Q Murray, Mellio Bettina, Elmer Ray, were All Terrific Fighters.

Harry Bobo, Lem Franklin, Turkey Thompson, Elmer Ray, Lee Q Murray were some of the most dangerous punchers to ever come out of the heavyweight division. All of these men could knock out Louis.

Bettina, Bivins, Conn were some of the divisions best stylists. All of them had the potential to outpoint Louis on a off night.


Just because you hadvn't studied very hard on the era, doesn't mean you have the right to make ill informed assumptions on the quality of the era, or lack thereof. I guess if these guys liked to gorge on cheeseburgars, or fought during color TV era, you would rate them higher.

 

GreatA,

even though i unfortunetly couldn't include them on the list, I do think Harry Bobo and Lem Franklin deserved title shots from 1940-1941 and should have fit into Louis schedule. Both of these men were more than worthy of some of the challengers, and louis camp in the papers certainly made it clear these 2 fighters presented challenges for Louis.

 

Old Fogey,

Great points. I gave Oma the benefit of the Doubt, because with all those title defenses, Louis has to have an off night sometime. but even on an off night, oma shouldn't go past round 6 with Louis so I changed that.

As for Thompson, he does have a good chin. But so did Uzcuden, Galento, Baer brothers. It just doesn't matter when your fighting Louis. I see thompson going out right away and trying to take louis's head off, and getting outgunned by louis similiar to the mauriello fight. I think Thomspon wit his height, left hook, and chin is very comparable to Tony Galento.

I don't think Thompson has the best shot against Louis. Ray and Murray hit equally as hard with both hands, except both had superior skill. Thompson was a power hitter(a tremendous one), and that was it. he didn't possess skill.

I see your a big fan of Thompson. That's nice. I am a big fan of lee q murray and elmer ray. i feel ray-thompson I should have been a DQ win for Ray. According to fight reports. Thompson's brutal one round kayo over Ray in the rematch is an impressive result.

 

That is very possibly. Thing is, Thompson's one round knockout tendencies may play against him against louis. if he tries to take out louis early, he might find himself outgunned and stopped right away.