Louis made a career of beating bigger, stronger guys. Carnera, The Baer Brothers, Simon... All guys who were bigger & stronger than Frazier. Not more skilled than Frazier, but definitely had a clear size advantage over him. So if Louis can overpower & knock them out, why can't he knock out a 5'11 205lbs fighter who will be coming at him & walking into his punching range all night - where Louis was most dangerous.
2 of my 3 favorite HW’s and Joe’s. I think Frazier takes a close but clear decision despite the fact that I think Louis is superior h2h and greater overall.
I used to think Louis blitzes him, these days I give Frazier a chance. Louis slow feet, low guard, combined with the pressure that Frazier could put on to him could result in an upset. Louis does not have Ali level durability, Then again Frazier didn't have a good heavyweight chin either .
Knocking out bigger men doesn’t mean your stronger than them it means you have the power and skill to knock them out
Yes & Louis has the power & skill to knock out Frazier & vice-versa - but I favour Louis to get there first.
You don't need an Ali level chin to take a punch & if your basing Frazier's chin off of his loses to Foreman, then that is a flawed example, as Frazier was spent after FOTC & was facing a monster puncher in Foreman who couldn't keep him down.
His defence and chin !!! I was thinking they were his weaker points, where have I been all these years. Counter punching ? wasnt he more of a stalker, wasn,t he nicknamed " shuffling " due to his slow forward movement.
FOTC Frazier gets knocked down early but peels himself off the canvas and batters Joe into submission in 9. Louis gets floored by a beautiful left, gets up and is getting smashed all over the ring and dropped again when the ref stops it. Ellis-era Frazier (first fight) takes a vicious pounding from Louis early on (getting floored three times overall). He rallies back with some horrifying body shots and lands a couple of great hooks to sweep the third and fourth rounds, but then succumbs in the fifth to an amazing barrage of punches. Frazier gets floored another three times and the ref stops it. Keep in mind I consider Louis more than several notches up as an overall ATG.
What puncher did Louis face on Foreman's level? The only one close would be Maricnao and he was badly Ko'd in that one. My point is lesser men floored and hurt/floored/stunned Louis that didn't even punch in Frazier's zip code, so of course Frazier could win here. I do not think Louis had good footwork, and his guard is too low, hence Frazier has a chance. That's what I'm saying. I slightly favor Louis, only because Frazier started slowly at times, and he didn't have a good chin.
In Louis era a skilled 200# HW was a pretty big fighter. Louis had the better combos but was chinny even in his era. Frazier, slow starter than he was, eventually catches Louis with some left hooks and it's game over.
Yeah, Louis had punching power that leaned more towards the Foreman league, but hand speed and accuracy more towards the Ali league. Imagine Louis landing as many jabs and right hands that Ali landed in the opening rounds of the FOTC?
