Yes but every champion initially plans to get out of the game quickly. Joe Louis initially said that he would retire after he avenged his loss against Max Schmeling.
I guess that it comes down to a trade off between money and legacy. If he had fallen under a bus after the Williams fight, he would be remembered as the guys who was going to be the next Joe Louis! If it is purely a legacy issue, then perhaps he should have got out after the second Bruno fight. The Golota fight would have been a good not to go out on, although he ruined it by failing the drugs test, for no performance benefit. The Lewis fight at least made him money, and he didn't embarrass himself. It was very sad to see such a great fighter reduced to losing to Williams and McBride. Those fights simply weren't worth the money.
His mentality changed and had so much going on in his life that he stopped training the way that made him great. It's one thing to move your head and its another thing to move your head correctly. He would still move it at times, but not the way he was trained to originally.
good post. He used to bob and weave avoid the punches as you know and then he was inside to land inside punches. Later it was getting hit and then being inside. He punched hard enough to get guys out later, but it became less and less, and he was a rather small heavyweight when he came up. I think he would have been greater almost in the 1960s.