How well would the Heavyweight "Oafs" do today?

I've enjoyed the big lug from day one (I saw his third pro fight, and a fair few since).

I never thought he'd get this far.

His interviews are hilarious and he has a great turn of a phrase.

I fear for him when he faces the likes of Klitschko or Povetkin, but I'm on the train as long as it's rollin'

So fuc*in' true !

The bal*less di*kwits who came up with parts of words being blocked out should be blind*d, castrat*d, shot and pis*ed on.

 

I thought Fury looked absolutely rubbish in those early fights.
And I was impressed by his improvements too, he's looked good since 2012, although his conditioning seems to have taken a backward turn again.
I actually gave him an excellent chance of beating Haye in 2013 when almost everyone else was saying he'd get killed. Then, I think people severely overrate Haye.

Fury's probably still got some improvements to make to, and could well up his game a bit more.
I am completely surprised by how much credit he's been given in recent months though, and I put that down solely to the fact that Wladimir Klitschko has completely run out of worthy opposition, so people are looking to build up some of these mediocre "contenders" as better than they are.

As for big "oafish" fighters who fought Joe Louis, people usually haven't seen much film of them outside of the time they got battered by Joe Louis !
Imagine how bad Fury would be make to look by the end of a few rounds with Joe Louis, if he makes it that far.

I remember seeing one of Buddy Baer's early fights (perhaps KO1 Gene Stanton?) and he looked much better than Fury at that stage of his career. In fact, in many ways the novice Buddy Baer was able to show more (in terms of fluid and fast movement and straight punching) in a rubbish 1 round fight than is immediately evident when you put him in with Joe Louis.
Obviously, when you put these big targets in with Joe Louis they be best to go into their shell a bit.

 

The early Buddy Baer fight I've seen is the one with Jack Doyle from 1935.

My ex-trainer friend watched a couple of Carnera matches with me. He immediately thought Carnera looked better against Sharkey, and looked afraid from the beginning against Louis, which he thought hampered Carnera, although he felt it made sense to be cautious.

 

Just on Tyson Fury.

I haven't been impressed with him either on his accomplishments so far nor on how he looks.

He has some skill and can easily outbox a marginal opponent, but he appears to be a rather flabby arm puncher with scant power for such a big guy.

Years ago guys would have fought him from a crouch, got him against the ropes, and worked over his body. Now a Hammer just stands straight up and plods toward him w/o ever working the body or even throwing many punches. That seems to be playing right into the big guy's mitts. It is no surprise that Fury wins easily.

 

I recently watched Jack Johnson, Dempsey, Louis, and the Rock's past victories, and got to thinking how would the likes of Tyson, Lewis, the Klits, etc. fare a half a century ago (or much more) in the past Heavyweight division?
Enough of the stupid-**** era comparisons!!!

 

greetings rib!
Not at all; I love the 'what-if 'fantasy fights.
I just have gotten tired of this: Would a 2000+ Klit manhandle a 1923 Dempsey? Probably. Would a 2000+ Dempsey manhandle a 1923 Klit? Probably. A prime Joe Louis in 2005? A prime Rock in 2005? The comparisons go on and on. Many hate me for troweling out the differences but I'll alway stand by my statement that you simply can't compare fighters from different eras, especially when it reaches 30-40-50 years.

 

They could be top 10.

 

Like the crouch Joe Louis used against Buddy Baer and Abe Simon?

 

Louis didn't have to because Baer was the one who fought out of a crouch and was aggressive. He actually carried the fight to Louis in the early going.

Simon was a real big man in the sense of having a wide torso and huge upper body, but he wasn't all that much taller than Louis (I would guess somewhere between two and three inches) and appeared to have relatively short arms.

Bottom line was Louis had no trouble reaching either man at any point. Louis did work the body.

Hammer did have trouble reaching Fury and really didn't even throw many punches.

*My take is that if Baer, who had the physique to fight like Fury, tried to do a jab, grab, and run style like Fury, he would have gotten no where near a top ten rating. He would have been told by the promoters "Son, you won't draw flies fighting like that, and this is a business which relies on the box office. When you actually fight the other guy, come back and I'll promote your fights. Until then, I'll match guys who put fannies in the seats."

It was the Depression and there weren't that many folks who had money to slosh around on a fight that wasn't entertaining.

 

Joe Louis fought out of at least a semi-crouch, surely.

 

He did employ the crouch and in the first Buddy Baer fight.

 

Primo was a very underrated fighter. There is a lot of footage on him and he always looked to have decent skills to me.

 

He wasn't great but he WAS hard to beat and therefore an elite fighter in his own right, as much as anyone who was not a great fighter anyway.

Paul Galico and Bud Schulberg created an angle that everyone bought into. It was sensationalized for effect and only partly holds up. There was substance there but nobody wants to believe it. Hollywood has a lot to answer for.