Former HW champions pick the winner in Louis-Schmeling II

Wasn't Dempsey hired to work with Shmeling in training camp? How could he pick against him?

How many of us back then would have expected fight to turn out as it did?

 

Who's?

 

I have to question if this list does represent the expressed opinions of these men.

I think that Dempsey switched his pick to Louis as the fight got closer, and I think that Tunney was fairly unequivocal in picking Louis.

I think the only person who was entirely consistent in picking Schmeling was Jack Johnson.

 

Maybe that's exactly why. Didn't Sullivan showed on Jeffries training camp to give him support and later picked Johnson as the favorite? Of course, he wasn't hired or anything.

 

Funny how all the fellas Louis actually fought went for Joe, he definitely made an impression on them.

 

Interesting, I was going to say all the men who had actually fought Louis picked Louis (2 of the 4 had fought Schmeling too).

The others were probably just using the common reasoning - pick the guy who won by KO the first time.
9 times out of 10 I'd do the same thing.

 

I wonder who we all would have picked if we were around at the time ?

Schmeling was the older man. And had been inactive for most of 1937 - but that wasn't unusal for him.
He was a fading force ... but that was not necessarily obvious at the time.

Louis hadn't fought anyone in Schmeling's class since being KO'd by him.
Louis had struggled against Pastor and Farr and was dropped by a Braddock coming off a layoff.
He was 24 years old though, and a fierce puncher.


I probably would have picked Max. atsch

 

Its not hard for me to believe, I just think that I read somwhere that he picked Louis. I think most of these guys gave last minute picks from ringside.

Will get back to you.............

 

There was no love lost between the two Maxes...and conversely, Baer liked Louis and I think deeply respected him.

 

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It is interesting to think about who you would pick in this scenario.

Louis was the up and coming undefeated fighter, who had just been exposed and knocked out by Max Schmelling. Schmelling was the proven experienced fighter.

Picking Joe Louis might be something like picking David Haye to beat Vladimir in a rematch. Or maybe Michael Grant over Lewis or something like taht.