How competitive was Joe Louis at age 37?

Compare him to Ali and prove that claim.

 

In all fairness to the man's point, he is obviously referring to the padded part of Louis' record, which is substantial.

 

Very high. Top 5 in the world. He was actually the #1-ranked contender when Marciano beat him. He had beaten multiple guys who were legitimate contenders, and had won all his comeback fights since Charles in clear-cut, if not always spectacular, fashion. If a young guy had come up and done exactly the same thing in the same time-frame, he would've been considered a potential great champion for sure, I'd say.

Yes, the fight was fairly even for the first five rounds. Marciano started taking a noticeable edge in the sixth and seventh, and then he broke the match wide open and destroyed Louis in the eighth.

Eh, Charles had beaten him convincingly in their first fight, and Walcott was pretty much the same man he'd been in '47-48 when he should have had a win over Louis in the first fight and wasn't far from winning the rematch, whereas Louis had slipped several notches since that time, so I really don't think Louis would've had a serious chance at beating either of those guys at that point.

Yes, with his technically-sound style, talent and physical tools, I think Louis could probably have hung around in the top 10 for a few more years after that, basically beating everyone below the cream of the crop, but losing to the elites. Unless the Marciano knockout sent his career into a freefall like so many of Rocky's other opponents were.

 

He was SLOWER. He was not slow. If you look at the later Louis fights, he didn't have much power left, but won because he could tag opponents so often. His jab was still good enough to cut faces up.

It's all in the footage.

 

I agree. The comparison would be with Ali, who (while he hit far less hard than Louis) was fairly powerful in his prime as a result of his handspeed. By the time he was pushing his mid-30s, that handspeed had diminished, and his power had diminished proportionately.

 

atsch


Shall I laugh or shall I cry,I'm still deciding. :think

 

I'll make it more accurate for you lad.

After his prime his movements were slow. He relied then on experience and still some decent power left.
In his prime he had a powerful and let's say fast jab, but it was technically awful. Plus his chin was weak. Max Schmeling set the blueprint on how to floor Louis after throwing his awful jab.

Any questions?

 

Blackburn was a great teacher,and was then rated as one of the best Welters of all time. The jab was good, it was his being lazy and droping it...Schmelling saw that...Then did what was new for the world....got films of Joe's fights and had them remade in slow motion....
Louis's jab was a very good one.But Louis was running the roads with broads and not training for the first Schmelling fight....
That is where the mistaken impression that Joe had a bad jab comes from....You don't whipe out the division as a contender with out a hell of a good jab.

 

Unless your name happens to be Rocky Marciano.

Come on guys with out jabs on been great champs. Carman and Fullmer come to mind.

 

Joe Louis had some deficiencies, but he was never technically awful. In fact, when it came to punching technique, he is arguably technically peerless.

 

In his second year as a pro ,at the age of 21 Louis kod two former world championsand 4 rated contenders,in his career he kod 6 men who at one time held the world title,his only losses were to 3 men who at some point held the title one when he was young the other two when old and past his prime ,I dont see the padding.

 

Lous chin was very good, equal to Holmes, they were KD sometimes, but they almost everytime got up and won this fights. A myth that Louis had a weak chin...

 

Ali is the only other heavyweight champion who even came close to beating as many ranked contenders as Louis.

As for the rest of the pack Louis beat more ranked contenders than any of them by a ratio of 2 or 3 to 1.

 

You don't know what you are talking about.

Louis's chin was never exposed. He was only ever knocked out by other heavyweight champions and then only after a sustained beating over many rounds.

the notion that his sucess was due to good managment is preposterous.

Which fighters exactly was he steered clear of?

Louis fought more top fighters than any champion before or since.

 

Realy?

Where is this paded part of Louis's record exactly?

He was thrown in with former heavyweight champions 9 months into his profesional career and it was a diet of top fighters for the next 15 years.