Breaking down Joe Louis: Part 6 - Putting It All Together

Yeah, he shat his trunks a bit I think.

 

Well, its very different I think. No mainstream boxing publication is going to print this type of stuff because there's to much shop talk, it doesn't have a hook for your general public. But that is really nice of you to say, I'm glad you like.

 

Well i've always watched Louis. Like many of the regulars here i've watched him pretty obsessively for fifteen years - I kind of knew what I wanted to say. So not as much as you might think, specific to the given parts. It's just a question of tracking down the best fights to illustrate these points and then putting them under the microscope, which has been nothing short of an absolute pleasure anyway.

 

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Part IV - The Uppercut; Bodywork

http://www.boxing.com/how_to_box_by_joe_louis_part_fourthe_uppercut_bodywork.html



After the debacle that was the first Schmeling fight, Blackburn tended to satisfy himself with a solid training camp that saw Louis turn up and do what he was told. Blackburn was hired in part because he was tough enough to handle a man with Joe’s astonishing gifts but by the time the German had been set up for them, a problem that even canny manager John Roxborough could not have foreseen emerged—Blackburn had gone soft. This embittered, giant-killing, murdering alcoholic had fallen so completely for Joe Louis that he couldn’t bring him to heel without the fighter’s own cooperation. Blackburn complained bitterly to the Norfolk Journal and Guide about Joe’s new relaxed attitude to training.

“You newspaper men have made him think he can just walk out and punch anyone over and that Schmeling’s the easiest pushover of the lot. Well Joe’s likely to get hit on the chin by one of them Schmeling rights…”

The trainer’s total prescience in predicting not just Joe’s downfall but the specific mode of that downfall is arguably the best thing that ever happened to Louis. Little Chappie had no more problems getting Big Chappie to listen to what he was told thereafter. Louis worked in training, only pausing long enough to let Blackburn taste the sweat on his shoulder when, after weighing the salt content, he would indicate whether Joe should continue or hit the shower.

Whilst they talked about the specific strengths and weaknesses of the opponent, Blackburn did not have a modern day trainer’s access to film or internet and Godoy had not boxed in the United States since 1937. In early 1940, Blackburn and Louis had been caught by surprise and had been run close. They would not repeat that mistake four months later.

“I don’t like other fella to make me look bad,” said Joe. “They usually find out I don’t like it.”

Another Joe Louis punch was about to come of age.

 

How to Box by Joe Louis: Part 5—On Defense & The Shadow of Jersey Joe Walcott


http://www.boxing.com/how_to_box_by..._defense_the_shadow_of_jersey_joe_walcot.html


"He was a master on defense.”—Nat Fleischer
The judgement of the founder of The Ring magazine is not to be ignored but nor can it be allowed to go unremarked that many of his most prestigious contemporaries disagreed with him, some quite vehemently. The great newspaperman Grantland Rice was amongst them:

“…[O]n the defensive side there is still a lapse between mind and muscle. A break in an important co-ordination.”

I have sympathy with both points of view. Louis is at heart an offensive machine. This is something of a cliché, but where certain high end boxers are concerned—Dempsey, Louis, Tyson—it is absolutely applicable. Offensive machines are limited in defense, traditionally, a situation which is entirely natural. Getting the punches across becomes the most important thing for these men and in turn that determination makes the opponent nervous about punching—this is the first line of defense for any great hitter and Louis was no different. It was a brave man who planted his feet when sharing the ring with him. Nevertheless even the most aggressive of boxers must have solid defensive technique to become successful at the highest level. As described in Part One—The Foundation of Skill, Joe laid some of the nuts and bolts of these techniques bare in How to Box, the manual released in his name after his triumphant return bout with Jersey Joe Walcott. Through Parts Two, Three and Four we’ve taken a close look at Joe Louis on offense using Joe’s ghost-written instructions in tandem with a detailed look at Louis on film and putting defense under the microscope is going to be no different. In the other corner for this most difficult subject is one of Joe’s most difficult opponents—Jersey Joe Walcott.




http://www.boxing.com/how_to_box_by..._defense_the_shadow_of_jersey_joe_walcot.html

 

It was no gimme that's for sure - it was the hardest part to write and I think that shows.

But I couldn't let the series pass without sticking my oar in over Louis-Walcott I. I know a lot of people won't approve of what i've written about that fight, but I think there's a legitimate case. Because I won't write about Joe Louis again in such a direct way I needed to cover it.


Cheers.

 

Insist is the right word.

 

Well the extent of my case is basically presented in the article so I won't debate that any further. Thanks for the kind words.