Then why does he have more quotes atributed to him than virtualy any other sportsman in history, including a couple that have become standard phrases of the English language?
Because Louis had inner smarts, had dignity and never had a need to boast...A great fighter, and a wonderful dignified human being...
I've no wish to denigrate a great champion and fine man ,but not all of Louis's quotes were his, several of them were supplied to him by other men ,such as Marshall Miles and Truman Gibson.
Yeah, I have little to no doubt Louis had lines fed to him, snappy one liners to make him have character. His entire marriage was more or less arraigned, something Louis certainly never sought out or even wanted. And the public interviews of him blandly going on about how marriage is great? Arranged. Not that that has anything to do with the mans intelligence. Simply means he had people behind the scenes whom had interest in him financially making him all PC and proper for the public.
Not off hand, though," we will win because we are on God's side" ,was not his. I beleive this came from Russell Cowans,his secretary and tutor, hired by Julian Black. Cowans was a sportswriter for the Detroit Chronicle ,he spent a couple of hours a day teaching Louis arithmetic, and grammar. Jimmy Cannon who was close to him ,also gave him some one liners.
You are wrong on this one he badly wanted to marry Marva,whom he met in The Cotton Club, she was introduced to him along with two other girls ,one was Edna Mae Holly, later Ray Robinson's Wife, the other was Lena Horne who later became his mistress. Louis married Marva Trotter at 7 .45,and left to fight Max Baer at 8.00pm Julian Black and his wife were the witnesses and Roxborough and Blackburn attended, Marva's brother the Reverend Trotter conducted the service,Marva's sister Novella was the maid of honour,and ---------- I was an usher.
I also heard that Joe really wanted to finish the fight quickly so he could go home and consummate the marriage, hence with Baer he came out blazing with extra drive and fire just so it could end quickly and he could go home to his wife...poor max never had a chance
I have heard before that Louis was married the same day he fought Bear. I didn't realize that it was 15 minnutes before. This could very well be why Bear is quoted as saying. "I define fear as standing across the ring from Joe Louis and knowing he wants to go home early."
He was not a fool he just had a low IQ. I posted a thead on this and turns out all his friends said he was a slow kid and he indeed went to a school "for slow kids".
Apparently Ali reading skills were not high. One of the reason he snapped at Parkinson when he was getting interviewed was Parky pulled out a book to explain a quote and Ali thought Parky was gonna ask him to read which is why he reacted the way he did. Those were the thoughts of Parkinson.