From 1936-1940, how many of Joe Louis' oppoents would be in the top ten today?

The below is Ring Magazine's annual rating for heavyweights in from 1936-1940, which gives us a snap shot as to who Joe Louis' top competition was. My contention is Louis ruled over a weak time in heavyweight boxing, but don't just take my word for it, Ring Magazine themselves also called the 1930's the weakest decade of heavyweight boxing.

Taking Louis out of the equation, which of the below would be good enough to crack the top ten, which I think it at it weakest in years? As always detailed comments are welcome.


Key

Red, for certain
Orange, very likely
Yellow 50.50
Green, an outside chance. Say 25%

1936

Jim Braddock, Champion - Floored Joe Louis

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Joe Louis
Gunnar Barlund
Jack Trammell
Maxie Rosenbloom
Ray Impellittiere
Leroy Haynes
Sonny Boy Walker
Al Ettore

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1937

Joe Louis, Champion
Max Schmeling
Tommy Farr
Nathan Mann
Alberto Santiago Lovell

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Jimmy Adamick
Lou Nova
Bob Pastor
Roscoe Toles
Andre Lenglet

1938

Joe Louis, Champion
Lou Nova

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Bob Pastor

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Maxie Rosenbloom
Len Harvey
Clarence (Red) Burman
Roscoe Toles
Gus Dorazio
Tommy Farr

1939

Joe Louis, Champion
Tony Galento
Bob Pastor
Lou Nova
Tommy Farr
Max Schmeling
Johnny Paychek
Red Burman
Gunnar Barlund
Roscoe Toles
Lee Savold

1940
Joe Louis, Champion
Max Baer
Arturo Godoy
Red Burman
Abe Simon
Buddy Walker

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Pat Comiskey
Lee Savold
Otis Thomas
Lem Franklin

I count five guys wit a chance to rate, that's it. How many do you count?

Furthermore, it is clear the best Louis fought in this weak timeline outside of Max Bear ( who didn't want to be in the ring and was pretty much pushed out of his dressing room ) either floored Louis ( Braddock, Schemling, Buddy Bear, Galento) , Ko'd him ( Schmeling ), or took many rounds in a decision loss ( Godoy ). You could add Tommy Farr into the mix as a guy who took 5-6 rounds in a decision loss, but I do not think he would be in the top ten today as he was too small, and didn't hit hard enough.

 

Wow. So many errors here! Where to start?

1 ) Not to rehash older threads, but Louis only fought two African American men in 26 title defenses. Many African American opponents who were ranked and clearly better than some of Louis title defense opponents. So you see McVey, Louis did not fight everyone in his era, and before you attempt to say two African American's would not draw, take a look at the gate from Walcott vs Louis 1.

2 ) As you said before Vitali should not fight his brother, who was often ranked #1 or #2. Both brothers for years were #1 or #2 for years, leaving #3 as the best option. Sanders, and Adamek I think we're #3. Peter could have been #2.

3 ) Vitali only fought 7 opponents rated in the top ten by Ring Magazine at the time he fought them you say? STOP LYING. We have been over this before.

The following opponents were ranked when Vitali fought them. I may be off on one, but it's clearly more than 7 as you falsely claim.

Chisora
Adamek
Solis
Kevin Johnson
Gomez
Peter
Sanders
Lewis
Byrd

That is

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Kirk Johnson might have been ranked when he fought Vitali, he was before. Vitali never had the chance to rematch Lewis, and its clear other ranked guys in the time such as Haye or Valuev backed out of fights to face Vitali.

Furthermore, opponents such as Hide, Briggs, or Donald would rate at the top of the list for Joe Louis to fight if they were around from 1936-1940.

 

To start out with a positive, do you think the ranked opponents I color coded were the best Louis fought from 1936-1940? Can we find common ground here?

To get ranked today, you can't lose to journeyman, and there is your problem as almost all of the people ranked from 1936-1940 have there share of losses to journeyman. Those are not hypotheticals they are facts.

When I watch the names I listed, at least one ones on film, even the better ones such as Tommy Farr would not rank at heavyweight today. Galento was ranked #1 for a while in 1930's. If he's #1, I think it speaks volumes about the competition. Galento is not skilled, he's short and round with some power. Yet he floored Louis. And so did Braddock who had not fought in two years who would not be ranked today. B Bear did the same. If managed correctly B. Bear might be ranked today for a short time until he fought someone, but really he's on Wach's level and would be nothing but a garden variety big man today.