Comparing Joe Louis title defenses to modern heavys is foolish

he got dropped, but still got up. Real champions get dropped, then get up. all good. Wilder's best fights are still ahead of him.

 

And Joe Louis served our great nation with dignity, if there was an active draft today, who of today's champions would serve? I served our great nation, proud of it. Today's fighters might ask, how much is the gate, if I serve?, Sure greediness.

 

You best be Georgie Boy

 

W. Klitschko was dropped over 15 times in his career... a lot by journeymen and bums... but he got up... thats why he's TOP ATG

 

You know nothing about Louis's career

 

Come on. Louis beat all the top contenders on his day. He resorted to bum of the month when there where no top contenders to face.

Keep in mind there was no WBA, WBC, IBF, ... in those day . There was only the one unified champ.

 

Yep, it’s already been said but Louis definitely got knocked down his share of times. Wasn’t he the one who said, “you can knock me down but you can’t knock me out”? I always attributed that to him.

I want to be fair to wilder and modern fighters. It’s a different game today. Back in LOUIS’ era, guys had to fight a lot because they needed the money. They didn’t earn millions for a fight so they had no option. I’m sure if any of those guys could have chosen to fight less for more money, they would have taken the cash in a heartbeat, as would I. Fighting frequently even against mixed opposition means fighting with injuries and taking a pounding. This must have taken a toll, especially for heavyweight fighters. We know what LOUIS and fighters from the old days could do, Wilder is still writing his history. I hope he gives fans something to talk about years from now.

 

Great Post, very true.

 

It's hard to compare fighters from the past against fighters from this era, due to the sport being so very different nowadays and era's where most were juiced up to the brim. But in this case it's not hard to see the obvious gap in accomplishments, as Louis is the obvious #1 HW of all time and Wilder hasn't even been a champion yet in this era.

 

No pride in many of today's men, we've been emasculated largely, Joe Louis was a great man who people should look up to. Shame the IRS caused him so much grief though the *******s.

 

Joe Louis was indeed a great man and role model. Many of today's fighters do not have an identity of their very own, they want to be someone else. It is supposed to be cool to be boastful and very mouthy, but shows a lack of maturity and insecurity.

 

Indeed, very well put. To put it less eloquently, they're manchildren. Too many of those nowadays, that's why I respect Jamel Herring, man has PTSD from his stint in the Marines and he found his solace in boxing. It's something that should resonate with many like it does with me.

 

I have taken care of patients with PTSD, many served in Iraq, some in the Vietnam war. I found it interesting and also had great admiration for those afflicted individuals when I conducted group therapies, those are some very brave individuals. I always thanked them for taking care of our country.

 

I'm no rabid fanboy of his, but Louis fought almost all of the best competitors around at the time and did so with very little controversy in 25 defences. That's an astounding achievement and genuinely worthy of enshrinement in the record books.

The problem comes when examining the fighters that were considered the title competitors at HW during that time. Many of them were former LHWs or even MWs, and even the 200+ heavies would have been small and/or crude and unathletic by modern standards. Fighters like Tony Galento fought for the title, and he'd make even the worst bum on Wilder's resume look moderately skilled in comparison. Fighters like Abe Simon and Buddy Baer were crude oafs who had no idea how to use their height to win fights or, in Simon's case, lacked the speed and coordination to do so. One of Louis's defences, Johnny Davis, was 3-3 when Louis fought him, and went on to have a record of 5-20.

For that reason, while I can't begrudge Louis for his era's competition, I consider the title runs of fighters like Wlad much more impressive. The numbers alone don't tell the whole story.

 

This is so american hahahahahahahahahaha...