Joe louis skill level

I’d disagree with all of those but Ezzard but I can see why you’d say them names.

 

Clicked on this to see that I already liked it last year lol.

Who would you say is the better puncher between Joe Louis and Mike Tyson from a technical perspective?

 

The attention that post got was mad, it's got twice as many likes as my second most liked post, or something like that. Between Louis and Tyson, it's actually a very intriguing comparison. I would argue they are the 2 finest offensive machines at Heavyweight. What Louis had that Tyson lacked was a strong inside game, and he had a more advantageous stance than Tyson.

Tyson had a very aquared off stance, which had the benefit of allowing him to momentarily shift to southpaw to create angles. Henry Armstrong can be seen employing it as well, it's very old school stuff. But a big disadvantage of the stance is the position of the feet, because you would have to take more steps than someone in a more bladed stance to cover a particular amount of distance, and Tyson himself resorted in what were basically hops to compensate, rather than the more economic and safe step and slide footwork. In the Peek a boo stance, the weight is also shifted towards the front foot, meaning that Tyson's head would be automatically be up front, so he would have to necessarily rely on his reflexes and defencive radar to avoid punches, which is obviously very hard to consistently do. That also makes you more vulnerable on the inside, because you can be far more easily pushed around and controlled if you are standing squared up and with your waist close to your opponent, and with your weight on your front foot. See Duran for example, yes he is leaning forward, but his waist is not up close to his opponent and has the required balance to throw with both hands.

Louis had a more sideways stance, with his weight balanced between the 2 feet or towards his rear foot, brining his head backwards, meaning that it had a built in defence engrained in it, and it allowed him to see right hands coming from light years ahead, and he would require to take half the steps Tyson would to cover the same distance, not to mention that he was a terror on the inside. Louis has a big technical advantage in this regard, which is huge for obvious reasons. When it comes to offense, it's close. I'd say Tyson was a better body puncher than Louis, and could change levels (head and body) better. But Louis was his superior when it comes to throwing 5 or 6 punch combinations, both at setting them up and chaining them together. Not to say that Tyson wasn't incredible at it, but Louis might be umatched in this department as far as Heavyweights go. Defensively, I've already noted how Louis had it easier due to his stance, and he would very often punch and move his head off line simultaneously. But as noted in my original post, he would sometimes neglect his defensive responsibility and eat punches he could easily have avoided because he was too sure of his offensive skill. Tyson was sure of it as well, but one of Cus' main rules was to always move your head after punching, and prime Tyson would listen to that advice, at least prior to Rooney's departure, when he then proceeded to screw everything up.

It's a good match up, but I'm going with Louis overall.

 

You can hold on to that opinion all you want. Won't make it true

Liston didn't really fight in the 70's.

Frazier, Foreman and Liston paid homage to Louis and called him the GOAT. Even Ali admitted in it on one of his interviews.

Louis was a far better technician than all those guys and a more clinical puncher. None of those guys are in the same category as him if we're talking pure boxing skill.

 

Another very nice right up, much appreciated.

Finally, I somehow only JUST noticed this, but is your profile picture from Hajime no Ippo or is it from Ashita no Joe? I've read the former, not the latter but have recently put it on my list after reading how influential it was.

 

It's Joe. My first profile pic here was actually a manga panel of Takamura. I changed it to Hagler for about a year to honor him after his passing, and then I settled with this one. Ashita No Joe is really good, the first season is a bit clunky due to the limitations of the era, but the quality writing is still there. Ashita No Joe 2 is just phenomenal. I like it just about as much as Ippo, and I like some aspects of it better.