What's The Nearest Thing To Louis's "Bum of the month club ''?

Thank you.

 

I think Louis's opponents quality is better reflected in their win streaks then total numbers of losses.

Braddock 6 wins in a row
Farr 17 wins in a row
Mann 12 wins in a row
Harry Thomas 1 win in a row but was a recent Schmeling opponent
Schmeling 7 wins in a row
John Henry Lewis 16 wins in a row
Jack Roper 6 wins in a row
Galento 10 wins in a row
Pastor 6 wins in a row, 16-1 run.
Godoy coming off a DQ loss
Paycheck 8 wins in a row albeit a padded
McCoy coming off 2 losses but to Conn and Krieger
Red Burman 9 wins in a row
Gus Dorazio 12 of his last 13 with a loss to Godoy
Simon coming off a SD loss but before that won 7 in a row
Musto fine no defending this one
Buddy Baer won 10 of 11 and 32 of 34
Conn won 19 in a row
Nova won 10 of 11

These same opponents had 261 losses when they fought Louis not counting rematches. But in at the time the best HW era ever where the best fought the best constantly that didn't mean much.

 

I think that we need a deeper breakdown on the bum of the month club.

Then it will rapidly become clear, how absurd it is to compare them to Wilder's opposition.

I will commit this act of violence tomorrow.

 

Some of these guys were on legitimately good runs, others were winning against crappy opposition. It's deceitful to pretend they were all fighting the best of the best.

 

You have many weapons to work with.

Paycheck, Musto and Roper are really the only weak links out of 25. Besides them and McCoy(a LHW title claimant) almost every single fighter had a real claim to being the most deserving of the title shot. Galentos barely one of Louis's 20 best title opponents.

The elephant in the room is Louis having the best pre title resume in the history of the HW division too. Louis was the clear GOAT by the time he beat John Henry Lewis in his 5th defense. He'd earned fighting Jack Roper and Paycheck between the Godoy fights.

 

The worst 5 of this group were Paycheck, Musto, Roper, McCoy and Dorazio. McCoy was a LHW title claimant. After that we're down to guys like Thomas, Burman and Galento who were all elite HWs. Dorazio was too. Hes the worst of 20 something elite HW defenses and at one point he was ranked 5th by the Ring. This is not counting the 3 BBBC fights with Savold, Bivins and Brion or Louis's pre title resume which is the best in the divisions history.

The SOS of the average HW fight was never higher in the history of boxing then it was at this time. Whatever standards you hold these guys too they were higher than that of any other time. Who was in the top 10 was very unreliable because there were like 30 HWs you could argue for inclusion at various times. Dare I say 40? Thats why the top 10s are such an utter mess. The fact Ring didn't have Buddy Baer in their top 5 when the guy had won 32 of 34 in insane but speaks to the competiveness of the era. That other guy was wrong btw he was in the top 10.

 

Seems like a pretty loose use of the "elite." We all know what Galento was. Buddy Baer honestly had a pretty crappy resume heading into the Louis fight outside of having beaten Galento, which wasnt that great.

If there were a lot of interchangeable contenders it doesn't necessarily mean it was a great era. It could just mean the talent level was on a steep bell curve with Louis outstanding and everyone else but a handful muddled into the middle of the curve.

 

Buddy Baer was 53-5 before his 25th birthday and retired after the Louis fights. While his average SOS was light by the standards of his era he had wins over Mann, Galento, Savold and most importantly fellow giant Abe Simon. Mann is one of the most underrated HWs ever. Imagine the resume Buddy Baer could have put if he fought till 30? And theres a few guys like that.

To the extent this is true the top contenders didn't stick around after losing to Louis. The 2nd fighter who could have been 2nd for a long time always turned over with Buddy Baer being one example. Braddock, Schmeling, Farr, John Henry Lewis and later on Simon and Conn are all examples of this. Tony Galento didn't fight much after losing to Louis nor did Red Burman. Max Baers the one that stuck around the longest and he was gone by like 31. Braddock and Schmeling were older but the other guys are most of a top 10. Mann went down to the New England regional scene where he dominated while Godoy went back to South America where he didn't do as well.

 

That's got literally nothing to do with what i said.

 

Mann was mostly beating guys who under 200 pounds and had already lost to Louis and Galento.

Savold was an eight round newspaper decision. I'm not sure how much that counts for.

 

Seven Ottke 21 Title defences in Germany .

 

Mann wins include Godoy, Pastor and a knockout of 6 ft 4 Lasky. At this time lots of guys well over 6 ft tall were under 200 pounds. Joe Louis himself was only 200.

Boxing recs source says the Baer v Savold fight was a shutout.

 

McCoy hadn't been any sort of a contender at light-heavyweight in years, and his claim to the title was only ever recognised in Montreal. He was not a bad fighter by any means, but he was justly unranked by the time he faced Louis.

Dorazio's last 13 had been against unranked opposition, with the exception of Godoy, who outpointed him by a wide margin. Again, a decent fighter, but unranked for good reason.

Buddy Baer was dropped from the ratings following his one-sided loss to trialhorse Eddie Blunt. In fairness, he did come back with a win against Tony Galento. That fight was mostly memorable for a dismal performance by Galento, who was at the end of his time as a contender, but even so the win may well have returned Baer to the next set of quarterly ratings if they'd come out before he got his shot at Louis.

 

You can even play devils advocate for guys like Paycheck, Roper and Musto if you want to.

Paycheck finished 1939 ranked #6, and he had extended his winning streak when he met Louis.

Even Roper was on a five fight winning streak when he met Louis, and he beat Barlund in his next fight.

Musto was a late replacement for Godoy, and he is definitely the kind of contender that you can argue either way.