[GIF] Joe Louis check hook against Galento

Touche' And I'm the 1st to.point out Louis's suspect chin and defensive lapses. But how many heavyweights today have you seen that could do that with that precision? And it's not like Louis only did that once or twice. If you look at his career that's what he did. Hell, how many heavyweights today actually use the left hook efficiently?

 

Lovely looking punch but, yes, Galento offers no head movement and no guard with his right hand. He was a good target for Joe so I see the point of both camps in this thread's debate.

Probably best to enjoy it for what it is - a lovely shot - rather than dissect fighters' careers over it. You could find a two or three second clip that shows pretty much anything, maybe even of Galento showing good defence! I get that Louis is great but the excellent form he shows throwing this punch would only be a tiny part of the evidence to bring me to that conclusion.

 

Also this isn't a check hook. It's a counter on the retreat. Check hook comes with a pivot to get off the line.

 

Yes it is a counter. I reacted befor I really looked at it a few times and called it a lead. My bad.
I still dont believe the whole check hook thing. Never heard anything called that til a few yrs ago and I've been watching this sport since 77 and trained in various gyms including Fraziers and never heard of anything called a check hook. Just my 2 pennies

 

I was going to mention that but check hook is a silly term and this is close enough.

 

I also started watching boxing in the 70's and literally have watched 1,000's of pro and amateur fights since that decade and never heard the term "Check Hook". At least not until the last decade.

 

I remember Eddie Futch saying Tyson had the fastest hands of any heavyweight since Joe Louis. This underscores that observation.

It’s easy to think of Louis as being slow of hand because his footwork was so steady and plodding.

 

So everything

 

Louis hooks were a thing of beauty. Watch his first knockdown of Charlie Retzlaff (Louis's last win before Schmeling bout) Retzlaff was a dynamite puncher of his day tall and lanky like a wilder and Louis catches him coming in with a peach of a hook and yes pivots off line so if you want to use the en vogue term "check" hook you can. So many of Louis fights his hooks are amazing and were often overlooked because of his booming overhand right.

 

Forever on here I've been saying Louis handspeed wasn't much removed from Ali and might even be comparable. Older film does little justice most of the time but clips like this make it all too crystal clear.

 

To be able to block like that while exploding yourself is pretty impressive.

 

I've never seen so many scramble in an effort to build up a guy, one that wasn't even in Ring's top 10 Heavyweights. All of a sudden there are superlatives all over the forum and he is really something special.

He's a good fighter for sure but lets see what the future brings. It will be manic in here if he gets beaten impressively in the rematch or wins that and loses unexpectedly thereafter.