Some verry interesting insights there. Joe names the first Abe Simon fight as one of his toughest. A fight which most boxing fans would have thought to be comparativley easy, despite going for 13 rounds. It just goes to show that you never realy know what its like for the man in the ring. He names Delaney (a no name fighter) as the hardest puncher he ever faced. For comparison, George Chuvalo named Lamar Clark as the hardest puncher he faced. This tends to confirm my view that the George Foremans and Max Baers of the world do not necesarily hit an order of magnitude harder than the hardest punching ham n eggers. He says that he was gun shy after his loss to Max Schmeling, and that this contributed to his laclustre performence against Tommy Farr, as I had suspected. He further brings up a relevant point that his title challengers had an advanage over him, in that they had more film footage to work with.
I agree across the board ... some interesting insights ... I recently read in another article that Louis felt Satterfield was a bigger hitter than Marciano or Liston ...
I calll BS on him not giving Walcott's punches any weight and saying Godoy was a "worse cutie". Seems like the typical thing of champions not giving proper due to the ones that really troubled them and as, in this case, made them look foolish at times.
Could be but remember that Louis did come under a ton of criticism after the first Godoy fight ... we remember Walcott more because of his historical importance but no doubt Godoy fought a far better Louis and gave him fits the first time ..
Right, he also just happened to not feel like fighting the first fight against Billy Conn. But then he realized he needed to get going and be sharp at round 10, which is why he later caught him to him in the 13th round. It's most difficult to be objective about something, especially when it's an opponent that's doing something well or making you look bad. Joe seems like the type to give credit to tougher customers who were clearly not a match for him as opposed to the fighters that may have actually given him the most trouble. I could be wrong on that, though.
My mistake. It was actualy Mike DeJohn who he named as the hardest puncher he ever faced. Even so, the point still stands.
For the record, Louis hated Godoy, and seems to have at least respected Walcott. Godoy probably embarased him at least as much as Walcott. If Louis says that Godoy was cute, then it is probably worth listening to.
It's funny, JL always struck me as an honest guy with no axe to grind who would give credit where credit is due when I've seen/read interviews of his. I really got the impression that he could not be bothered to BS anybody. I think that is part of Louis's enduring appeal, his humbleness and apparent modesty. Joe's autobiography appeared to be about as frank and honest a bio as one could hope to read.
This is essentialy the case, but Louis had a few hang ups. He did not like to admit that anybody had hurt him, and that is why he often got up after a knockdown without taking the full period of grace. The suggestion that somebody hurt him seems to be the one thing that ired him.
Hi Janitor. Re your last sentence, you say that the suggestion that somebody hurt him was the one thing that ired him, but in the linked article on this thread, he openly admits Borchuk hurt him and indirectly admits Galento did.
Its funny how sometimes fighters pick a guy they knocked out as a harder puncher than the guy that dropped him or KO'd him but I guess its those really hard ones that you don't feel but they reach beyond the pain threshold and shut your lights out. Abe Simon was a rugged guy and very strong you can see that by looking at him in the ring and it took Louis into the 13th before he could stop him. Farr,Gody and Conn were all tough fights for Louis but Schmeling stopped him when he was still a tad green and Marciano when he was a tad old but even in his prime he would have had trouble with Marciano and remember Schmeling was past his prime when Louis fought him in fight 2. Walcott had him down 3 times in 2 fights and was slicker than Godoy (who was awkward) Marciano was awkward as well but hit much harder than Godoy. Interesting article but sometimes it takes an outside observer to call it.