70 Years Ago Today When Louis Won the Title From Braddock

I'm not judging him just on those clips, I've seen him fight a few times and he was godawful. Arthritis doesn't account for him being horrendously off balance every time he winds up and throws a punch with some power. Or telegraphing it to the extent that you could slip it twice before it arrived.

Louis was a great fighter, I don't want to take anything away from him, but the era he fought in was absolutely the worst in heavyweight history. Baer, Galento, Braddock, are three fighters who would be destroyed by any top50 heavyweight IMO.

 

Bull**** no way was Louis era better than the 70s. That is ridiculous. Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Holmes, Young, Quarry, Lyle would all murder Bear, Braddock and Galento LOL.

 

I disagree. The top ten heavyweights of the 70s were far superior to the top 10 of the early 30s. Maybe if you averaged out every HW from each time, but who knows that many fighters?

Foreman was more refined and had a bigger punch. Baer's left hand was quasi-nonexistant.:good

 

Well I think Baer is on even footage with Foreman when tactics come, Of couse Baer is better in that regard, he did things I never seen Prime Foreman do(Old Foreman would do it, but not in his heyday), like tuck his chin in his shoulder, and roll with punchings(The Schemling fight) Baer is underated in that regard. He could do defense when he FEELS like it. Which is once in a blue moon.

 

OK.

There might not have been people of the calibre of Frazier, Foreman and Holmes challenging Louis for the title but on the other hand you did not get guys like Wepner and Evangelista cracking the top 10.

The 70s had more great fighters.

The 40s had a hell of a lot more good fighters.

 

53 knockouts in 71 wins, with many of them coming in the mid to late rounds, does not exactly reflect Foremanesque type power. What's more, quite a few of George's decisions came when he was 40+. Few men went the distance, or even made it past the mid point of a fight, when he was in his 20's. Baer was through by about the age of 32.

This is doubtful.

I wouldn't put my money on Baer over Klitschko.

Lyle's ability to floor Foreman, was more or less a result of stylistic issues as opposed to either power or Foreman's ability to take it. This would not be the case against Baer, as Max's approach would doom him early against Foreman.

 

As far as shaping heavyweight boxing the two most signifigant dates in history are this one and February 25 1964. Braddock was brave and tough,but inevitably outclassed.

 

Braddock did very well, considering the fact that he was something of an ham-and-egger surprise champion who'd been out of the ring for 2 years !

Not one of Louis's best performances, IMO, but it's always fun watching him work.