How would the Louis who fought Marciano do against the Louis of the Schmeling rematch ? How many of the fighters that I listed would he have defeated ? In an era of small heavyweights, the 6'2", 214 pound Louis could hold his own against a shopworn plodder like Savold who truly was a trial horse at that point or other less powerful and quick opposition but the main question seems to be what sort of test did he provide in helping to determine Marciano's ultimate record. SQ truly seems to believe that he was a stern test, proving how Marciano could handle "large" heavyweights. I , at the risk of antagonizing the usual suspects of hardcore Marciano guys and inaccurately being labeled a Rocky hater, simply disagree. I do welcome all thoughts of others ..
He can probably STILL hit. Joe Louis is the greatest heavyweight puncher of all time, all factors taken in...
In depends on where your argument lies. Wondering how Rocky takes a full-fledged power shot on a much bigger skilled HW... or asking how Marciano power does against bigger stronger HWs. The latter seems to at least answer one question, unless you think Louis was chinny or only had a mediocre chin.
Why don't you stick to the topic buddy, or skull your butt out of this thread. No one has an agenda here. Stop listening to that little voice inside your head.
I watched Louis vs Nathan Mann 1937 the other day. Wow, just wow, the greatest puncher of all time bar none. Mann was a good fighter, showed some decent stuff on film. Louis just laughed at it, and tore into him with an offensive juggernaut.
I don't think Foreman had much snap on his punches at any time during his comeback. And I do think his comeback power gets overrated. He hit Rocky Sekorski with some big, howitzer-like punches, and the guy never fell. Foreman landed some big, dead-on punches, not the grazing type punches that he hit Holyfield with. Even guys like Mike Jameson and Guido Trane stood in there with Foreman. And later on, Lou Savarese basically stood toe-to-toe with Foreman and never hit the deck. Foreman was a big strong man, but his true one-punch knockout power gets overblown.
Louis was still a much better fighter than the Ali who fought Holmes and Louis could Always hit harder, a fighter never loses his punch but the legs go and its harder to chase or run. Louis looks still dangerous against Valentino. When opponents fight survivor fights its hard for an older guy to stop them, Vitali just had that experience against Johnson and he had it earlier vs Byrd and Hoffman... Most of the guys Louis fought in his comeback did not think they could win so they stayed out of the range of fire a step ahead of Louis's legs but its common knowledge that a fighter never loses his punch...Dempsey was rusty and slow vs Tunney but almost had him out in the battle of the long count and his legs were stiff for Sharkey but a left hook ended matters. Foreman looked like he was walking in quick sand vs Moorer and really did not hurt Moorer until that right hand but who would question the power of the right hand he landed to end matters
The Louis of '51 who was KO'd by Marciano still was a solid contender on that night...... That Louis would've beaten prolly 8 outta the 10 top heavyweights at that juncture...... MR.BILL
Who indeed. He was still considered a feared puncher heading into the Charles fight. It wasn't until the following year that he developed a rep for having "lost" his punch, at least in his right hand anyway.
Interestingly, Foreman scored 3 ko's in his last 10 fights, exactly the same as Louis. The main difference between them is that one of the three Foreman ko's was Michael Moorer, the reigning lineal champion. Louis only ko'd Savold, a paper champion.
"If Louis had all sorts of power, why did he only score 3 ko's in his last 10 fights." Why did Foreman? Of his last 10 fights, Foreman only scored 2 ko's against the nine who weren't Michael Moorer, the champ. But he knocked out the champion. You can't tell what Louis might have been able to do cosidering his ko of Savold, and his exhibition ko's of Valentino and Valdes.
