If Louis Had Never Faced Schmeling..?

I totally agree, Joe Louis did not take Max Schmeling seriously at all, he figured he was another fighter who had lost his title, not a threat at all.

 

Sometimes in life we tend to become very complacent, taking things for granted. We have what appears to be a touch of a cold, a sore throat, congestion for example, it becomes the start of Pneumonia. Joe Louis as mentioned on another reply to a post on this thread, took Max Schmeling for granted, did not expect a tough fight at all, did not prepare for Max as he should have.. Max, however prepared for Joe by noticing that he dropped his guard when throwing a punch, making Louis vulnerable to a right hand, and Max has a very good one. Another thing that in Europe, Adolf Hitler was preaching to the Nazi military that their race was the master race, that would soon take over the world very shortly, as they had begun to march into various countries. Schmeling must have thought this fight was a patriotic duty and had to emerge with a victory to appease the Furor. In the rematch of course, Hitler did speak to Max of the importance of bringing back the title to the homeland, displaying German superiority. But Joe demoralized following that 1936 humiliating knockout loss, was better prepared with fury to do what should have been done in the first place, he then stopped Max right away.

 

My first instinct, would be to respond that he did OK for himself after the first Schmeling fight, but for that you may still be right.