Has there ever been a long tenured heavyweight champion who avoided no particular opp

Let's examine the underlined statement.
Look at the men these guys beat during Louis reign
1937-1948 and the men that beat them.

Leroy Haynes.
During Louis's reign Haynes had 20 fights and won 8 of them.
His best wins were:
Bob Olin wtko6 1937Olin was a LHvy
Buddy Knox wtko4 1937
The same year he was bombed out by Lorenzo Pack in 2rds and Tony Galento 3 rds.
Show me any time of Louis's reign when he merited a title shot?

Tiger Jack Fox.
Best wins were:

Jersey Joe Walcott w 10 1938
Jack Trammell w 10 1938

Losses?
Al Gainer l 10 weighed 170lbs Fox 173lbs 1937
Melio Bettina Ltko8. Fox weighed 173lbs 1939

A small window of opportunity for Fox after the two wins in1938, but being stopped by Lhvy Bettina in1939 put paid to that.

Freddie Beshore L10 1948.



Curtess Sheppard.


Best wins:
Lee Q Murray W10 1941
Joey Maxim Wko1 1943
Gus Dorazio W 10 1944
Buddy Walker W D10 1944
Buddy Walker W ko8 1944
Nate Bolden W10 1945
Losses:
Jersey Joe Walcott L8 1939
Lee Q Murray Ltko 6 1941
Jimmy Bivins L 10 1941
Lem Franklin L ko5 1941
Joey Maxim L10 1942
Buddy Walker L10 1943
Lloyd Marshal L10 1943
Buddy Walker L10 1944
Lee Q Murray L 10 1944
Melio Bettina L 10 1944
Jimmy Bivins L 10 1945
J J Walcott L ko 10 1945
Archie Moore L10 1946
Jimmy Bivins L 10 1947
Jimmy Bivins L 10 1947
Archie Moore L10 1947
Lee Q Murray L10 1947

What year should Sheppard have gotten his shot?


Lem Franklin.

Best wins.

Lee Savold Wko2 1939
Abe Simon W 10 1939
Jimmy Bivins W tko9 1941
Curtess Sheppard W ko5 1941
Tony Musto Wko2 1941
Abe Simon Wtko5 1941

Losses.
Eddie SimmsL6 1938
Paul Williams L6 1937
Bob Pastor L ko8 1942
Lko1 1942 Harry Bobo
Lee Savold L ko10 1943
Gus Dorazio L 10 1943


Franklin merits a shot after his streak in1941
Bivins
Sheppard
Musto
Simon
But in Feb1942 he was kod by Pastor, so a very narrow window of about a month.

 

I think Dempsey and Wills were probably brothers werent they?


I am sure i can remember reading a few articles when Bowe was champion how he and mike were 'Brothers' and friends and he had no interest in fighting him for this reason. Does this count?

 

True. Bowe and Tyson were both from Brownsville and refused to face each other. There's an interview of Tyson in prison where he says this and an interview online somewhere of Bowe too. That was until recently where Bowe has done a 180 and has been mocking Tyson lately.

 

Louis was afraid to fight no one. Just think what his record would look like if WW2 had not reared its head.

 

Bowe has long been not right in the head. At least since washing out of the military & taking his wife hostage. He is mean & childish about Lewis too 7 challenges him.
Who would hand him his butt now if they fought.

 

With Louis' massive title reign it is very hard to find anyone he avoided. Moreover, the term avoided is iffy when one considers they may simply be going for the most money. But if I would struggle to find some whom I would consider deserving but did not receive the shot I would say Lem Franklin, Jimmy Bivins and Elmer Ray. In Franklin's case it had to do with the fact that he absilutely handed Abe Simon's **** to him. Beating the stuffing out of him and KO'ing him in 5 rounds, yet, Simon got the title shot. That's a tough one to stomach. With Bivins, I just have a soft spot in my heart for th guy. Interim light heavy and heavy champ, yet neither Lesnevich nor Louis gave him the shot when they returned from Service. Lastly, Ray, who had such a good run between 46-48. Louis immediately fought Billy Conn on his return, which was probably Joe's biggest purse of all time. Can't knock him for this. Strangely, I never noticed before, that Louis took a 15 month break after the Mauriello fight. He probably could have slotted Bivins and Ray in there, but eventually it went to Walcott. I know I'm nitpicking, but those are the only ones I could say were deserving but lost out during Joe's awesome reign.

 

It doesn't matter one iota how many black opponents you fight, for the same reason that it doesn't matter how many Mormon opponents you fight.

It comes down to the ranking of your opponents, and how you did against the top ten.

 

Franklin had a good year in1941.
He beat
Bivins . July
Sheppard. Sep
Musto. Sep
Simon.Oct
Louis going into 1942 beat
Buddy Baer. Jan . Almost a mandatory rematch due to the controversial circumstances of their first fight
Simon. March
You can say why didn't Louis fight Franklin instead of Simon as Franklin had beaten Simon?
There is a fly in the ointment.
Franklin was kod by Bob Pastor in Feb 1942
Would a Franklin fight in March have been sellable to the public after he had been kod by twice Louis victim Pastor?

 

Ray had a very long unbeaten run but the vast majority of his opponents were third raters His name opponents are Walcott ,Charles, and Savold
Wlacott lost a split dec to him in46 ,and won the rematch on a majority decision a year later.
Charles lost a decision in1947 that was seen as a blatant robbery at the time,then kod Ray in 9 rounds a year later.
Savold was kod in 46. So were are looking at 46-48 as you said. Ray was number 2 when Louis fought his number 1 challenger Mauriello and number 2 again when Louis fought his next number 1 challenger Walcott.
You can say Louis could have accommodated Ray between Mauriello and Walcott but in 47/48 Louis was looking for the exit. A fight with Ray would have been high risk for comparatively little reward.
Bivins I don't give much chance to beat even an old Louis ,though Lesnevich certainly avoided him and several other worthy contenders.
In conclusion Mendoza's list of black challengers that he thinks Louis avoided does not stand up to close scrutiny.And the inclusion of Fox,Haynes,and Gains among them is simply ridiculous.

 

Don't forget that according to Mendoza, Louis was owned by the mob , had verdicts given to him by crooked referees and was accorded favourable treatment by promoters.
He also states Louis fouled Buddy Baer, so it's just possible he isn't entirely objective on the subject of Joe Louis?:think

 

Wlad has done an astounding job fighting his top competition. Especially at an advanced age. It's ludicrous to hold Vitali against him.
However it's silly to try and knock Joe Louis. His resume is impeccable.
The only critique of Wlad's record to me is Sanders. I believe the brothers love each other so much that they had this mindset of if you defeat my brother I will defeat you to avenge his loss. In It's own way it was a beautiful thing but in retrospect Vitali not getting Byrd and Wlad not getting Sanders is a slight blemish on their records. Collectively it enhances their legacy but individually it's a minor knock. Hindsight is always 20/20 though.
Wlad's 18 title defenses is an incredible achievement as a unified champ.

 

Wladamir Klitschko.

 

It's a fact that Roxborough had been a numbers runner.END OF You are a racist ***** who lives to tear down great fighters who are not JEFFRIES , MARCIANO, or the KLIT's.

 

McVey, after reading this, the first thing I thought to myself was, "Yeah, but the Pastor fight was February 24th and the Simon fight was the following month, so I'm sure the title fight with Simon had already been signed prior to the Pastor-Franklin bout." Well, not so. I did a little research on this and as it turns out the Simon fight was signed a couple of hours after Pastor-Franklin. The press thought this a little funny, but who knows. They were giving Simon stick more than anything. Apparently before he got the whuppin' from Franklin he fought a draw with Turkey Thompson, which was considered a robbery (The UP scored it 7-3 for Thompson). So, he was really considered unworthy by their standards. One writer stated facetiously, "The Wellesley girls field hockey captain is as deserving as Abe Simon." Brutal stuff to Simon's psyche I'm sure. But at least the media spoke up and didn't let this go unnoticed. Anyway, interesting facts on the time period.