Did Champion Joe Louis Avoid Maxie Rosenbloom ?

He would have been a good challenger, but he hadn't really done enough to force the issue.

 

No. It's possible you could cite a more undeserving challenger during Louis's reign (there was always going to be some amongst 26 defences), but Rosenbloom didnt do anything leading up to and during Louis's reign to make him a no. 1 contender by my eye.

From the start of 1936 until he retired, Rosenbloom went 14-2-1. He has decent wins over a green Lou Nova, King Levinsky and Lee Ramage (who beat him in 34), a respectable draw with Bob Pastor and losses to Jimmy Adamick (avenged) and Alberto Lovell.

Defeats to Adamick and Lovell don't mark him out as the no. 1 contender to the HW crown. Rosenbloom lost a lot during his career, and whilst I accept he fought a lot and has some great wins, he lost plenty to fighters that would have been unlikely to make it past 3 rounds with the early champ version of Louis.

 

Just look how many interesting fights were made just for Maxie in three years…what the heck happened to the sport? I agree with McGrains breakdown. Can’t really “duck” a number 5

 

Rosenbloom was never rated at heavyweight by the NBA.

We are criticizing a champion who defended more than anyone, 25 times in 8 active years, for not fighting a fighter not ranked at all in his division by the major boxing organization of the time?

 

Sitting here thinking about it … I am probably an outlier but I can’t imagine Louis vs. Rosenbloom being an entertaining fight to watch. I think Joe would’ve been all over him and shredded him quickly, regardless of how few times he was knocked out otherwise, because Maxie didn’t have the firepower to keep Joe off him or make Joe respect him.

 

If that view makes you an outlier, I'm right there with you.

 

You are not alone as an outlier. In fact, it is very possible if there is anything to the quote about Louis worrying about Rosenbloom making him look bad, that what Louis meant is that he would look bad knocking out an older guy who never had a punch and was now getting too heavy to keep moving as he had earlier, and who also displayed a very likable personality in the movies and on radio.

 

Moreso his team rather than Louis himself. They knew Louis had the tools to beat Maxie, but they were afraid at how bad he would look doing it. Maxie had a habit of making great fighters look terrible.

 

The point should be made that if Louis had fought and defeated Rosenbloom, many of his supporters would have held it up as a good win on his part.

Louis fans sometimes like to quote the statistic that he defeated eight lineal champions, and Rosenbloom would have made it nine.

So it would have been a good fight, but certainly not one that Louis should have been under any pressure to take.

 

Would've added a bit to Louis' legacy if he beat Rosenbloom impressively, but really, how much more legacy does the man need? He's almost unanimously #1 or #2 HW all time, and in the top 10 of many P4P lists I've seen over the years.

Doesn't get much better than that!

 

The best outcome of it is for us, we’d at least have film of Slapsie.