I watched the Dempsey-Sharkey and Louis-Sharkey fights back-to-back on YouTube recently. It was hard to believe that it was the same man nine years apart. Against Dempsey, Sharkey looked big, powerful, fast, well-conditioned, and confident. Against Louis, he looked smaller, slower, and more cautious. Naturally, what happened in the intervening years would explain most of these differences, but the point is that Joe Louis would be facing a much different opponent than the one he faced in August, 1936. Interestingly, when both Dempsey and Louis faced Sharkey, each was coming back from a serious defeat. Dempsey had lost his title to Gene Tunney and Louis had been KO'd by Max Schmeling. Had either lost to Sharkey, it could have been a career-ender. In 1927, Sharkey was on a roll, and Dempsey was still rusty. It was a risky bout for Dempsey, and for a while Sharkey had the better of the fight. By 1936, Sharkey was just a name. He had not won a big fight since his controversial title victory over Schmeling four years earlier. It still could have been a risky fight for Joe, but Joe boxed carefully, scoring several knockdowns in a fight that he easily won. Assuming we are talking about the Joe Louis of August, 1936, fighting the Sharkey of 1927, Joe would be facing a determined, skillful fighter. Sharkey would be trying to duplicate Schmeling's upset, trying to lure Louis into dropping his left after jabbing. (He actually tried this in 1936 as well, but without any kind of success.) Louis' camp would be aware of this and would be drilling Joe on correcting this. Joe would be using his jab and combinations on both head and body. In Max Schmeling's autobiography, he noted that Sharkey was most dangerous in the early rounds, the third round usually being his best. I believe that Louis would bide his time through the early rounds, working on wearing Sharkey down. Against Dempsey, we saw both the best and worst in Sharkey - he could lose his cool and in so doing turn potential victory into defeat. He made that one mistake against Dempsey and a rusty Dempsey took him out with one left hook. While I don't believe there would have been any issue over low blows in a Louis fight, I do believe that Sharkey may be overconfident coming into such a fight, and I can see Joe patiently jabbing away, waiting for the right opening as he did against Paolino Uzcudun. As he did against the Basque, when Joe pulled the trigger he may well have duplicated Dempsey's feat. If not, Sharkey would be severely shaken and Joe was a great finisher. I do not believe that Sharkey would have dominated Louis for any length of time as he did the Dempsey fight. In conclusion, I believe Joe Louis would have stopped the prime, 1927 Sharkey inside of six rounds after a brisk contest that was competitive for as long as it lasted.
