Here's the rare one-round blowout of the bomber aginst Jack Roper. After the fight, an investigation was conducted as to why the fight was sanctioned in the first place. [yt]ucHyPugha5k[/yt]
Almost none of Louis's title opposition could be described as being poor fighters (the term "bum" is distasteful, unless applied to Sven Ottke or John Ruiz). Jack Roper was an exception, and Louis dealt with him accordingly.
Roper was a more interesting title oponent than he might initialy seem. He was a switch hitter and gave Louis some problems by switching from orthodox to southpaw and back. Eventualy his luck ran out. "I zigged when I should have zagged". Jack Roper Although one of Louis's less qualified oponents he did have some quality wins. Art Lasky Patsy Peroni George Bresica Gunnar Barlund
Although I have all the respect in the world for Joe Louis, for the life of me, I'll never understand why Jack Roper received a title shot.
Very true, but come on Chris. Roper had lost nearly 50% of his professional fights. Its no wonder there was an investigation as to why that fight was made. You can talk to me all you want about the Chuck Wepners and Scott Ledoux's of the world, but Roper is quite possibly the most unjustified title defense in the sport's history.
That is quite a competitive title to aspire to. Roper was coming off a five win streak that included Patsy Peroni. I think there have been less deserved title defences on paper.
Perhaps, but I still think that if Louis was looking for a quick easy match, he could have found a soft contender who was still a bit better than Roper, and may have prevented an investigation in the process. Still, Louis had some very impressive wins in his 25 title defenses. I'm actually pretty impressed with Buddy Baer's credentials, although he's not talked about much historically.
