Holmes or Louis: Who had the most impressive record?

I'd say Louis.

Even more consistency than Holmes, far less close calls, Louis's best wins are far better than Holme's best.

Holme's would be hard pressed to equal Louis's one round murder of, say, Schmeling.

 

By Far Louis..........Louis always gave rematches in close fights, and though louis ducked black fighters Harry Bobo, Elmer Ray(in fairness louis knocked him out badly in a live exhibition), Lee Q Murray, Lem Franklin, Jack Trammell..........he didnt duck his mandatory # 1s the way Larry did.

 

I dont think it is even competitive to be honest.

Louis and Ali are in a class removed from every other heavyweight champion in history in terms of resume.

 

I think Louis's resume and record are both more impressive than Holmes, but not by the vast margin that some here are making it out to be. Holmes stayed unbeaten through 48 pro fights, and was never KO'd in his prime. Louis was Ko'd or stopped in all three of his defeats weather they occurred during or past his best. Holmes fought some of the best hitters in history and normally came away with a win. He was also phenomenal coming back in his 40's to show that he could still perform as a top rater in one of the most competitive eras. Holmes came close to matching Marciano's record for best undefeated streak as well as Louis's record for most title defenses. Some say he should have selected different challengers, but if we really dig deep, nearly every champion is guilty of not fighting every last good fighter of his day.

I will always rate Louis a few places higher than Holmes, but to say that he is in an entirely different league presents an opinion contrary to my own.

 

Quite possibly yes. But alot of them i listed were ranked in the top 5, which is pretty high. I got my opinions based on newspaper reads louis managment quoting how dangerous bobo and ray were.

I totally agree.

 

Holmes for me....his only ko loss was againts a prime Tyson...

 

Louis fought some massive hitters himself, and being a bit smaller than Holme's merits mentioning as well.

Joe did wipe his ass with both Baer's, and both were disgustingly powerful punchers.

 

Buddy Baer is a very underated fighter. The man had skills for his size.

 

This is very true. Buddy Baer was larger than Gerry Cooney and arguably hit harder. ( though I think Cooney was a tad more skilled but still ). Louis proved himself against some real monsters. There's no getting around that.

 

And considering he weighed under 200 pounds at times...

Just a P4P consideration. Holme's had some superheavy measurments, for instance.

 

Buddy must have been strong to break that bulls neck in "Quo Vadis"!

 

I never heard or read anything about that, but I question how big this bull was, or weather or not it was drugged. Even the biggest, strongest and most daring of men, would get killed by a full sized healthy bull that was trying to charge them. Frankly, that story sounds like bull**** to me.

 

Maybe they just had a medium/small sized bull that wasn't in a rage and they had him kill it or some such?

Guy was ****ing huge, a lot bigger than Max who was a freak himself.