and how did he get to fight louis for the title ?? http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=246807&cat=boxer
it says on boxrec - "Heavyweight title at stake per New York State Athletic Commission ruling" :huh not saying i dont believe you fella...just confused.
It was scheduled for 4 rounds, so it's unlikely that it was advertised as a title bout. Maybe the Commision did rule that in the very unlikely circumstance of Davis being victorious he would be entitled to the championship. But even if that had happened I doubt anyone in the world would have regarded Davis as such. He would certainly have earned himself a title shot though. But that's all completely hypothetical, and the chances of Davis beating Louis were a million-to-one. Just an exhibition, or a 4-round non-title bout. No one says Joe Louis holds the record of TWENTY SIX consecutive title defences, the record is TWENTY FIVE. Here's a short report of the fight : http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers...g=4847,573012&dq=joe+louis+johnny+davis&hl=en :good
The title was on the line. It was conceived as an exhibition, but the State Athletic Comission ruled that the title had to be on the line. The tickets had been sold, so Louis chose to go ahead with it as a title fight rather than cancel. Whether you call it a fight or an exhibition is hard to say. The title routinely changed hands on "exhibitions" in John L Sullivans day.
So you consider Joe Louis to have 26 defences ? Even accepting the NY ruling, it would only mean at most that the NY commision recognition was on the line. And there's no telling if the NY commision wouldn't have backtracked on that ruling and merely ranked Davis as the contender, say, had he won a verdict over 4 rounds. :huh John L Sullivan only lost the title once, as far as I know, in the 21st round of a finish fight.
