Aren't they always when they are not yours or totally in line with them? The higher end boxing follower will realise this is as much an old wives tale as carved in stone. Frazier was stopped early once in his career, and by a guy who would probably stop plenty of top heavyweights early, possibly including Louis. Frazier has numerous ko's and stoppages inside the first 3 rounds. Ali come out hard and tried to take advantage of Joe's perceived warming up period yet was still behind on 2 out of the 3 cards and even on the other after 4 rounds. Let's not even begin to pretend they are of Frazier's calibre. Louis' official stance was that it was for things he said about Louis himself, not his wife. This would not bode well for a match vs Ali who thrives on mental warfare. Joe claimed he wanted to take him 10 but says he changed his mind after getting dropped in the third and thinking he hits too hard. I am not 100% sold as Louis felt Galento's power in the first (and a couple of other times earlier than the third) and sure as hell came forward threw some serious punches after knocking down Galento in the 2nd. The bell was close however. Galento was quite gassed during the third and this continued until the end. Excuses. Louis was peak around the Galento fight. Hell, Galento claims he committed enough to stop boozing a full two days prior to the fight. Louis was also 8-1 over this dangerous opponent. Ali would have toyed with Galento, carrying or no carrying. Frazier has much better defense, is harder to hit, throws consistently more compact hooks and sure as hell has more stamina. Louis would be in with a live one.
Louis was not perfect .. he could be challenged to varying degrees by crouching, swarmer types .. Galento, Godoy, Farr ..
I think Fraziers best hope is landing a left hook very early to put Louis down. But Louis is going to get up from that. And he will be back in the fight. I don't see Frazier with the recovery abilities to come back from a few clean shots from Louis. His power is too much.
Oh, another thing helping Frazier is Eddie Futch. Win, lose or draw it is guaranteed Frazier would have a brilliant game plan.
Louis was in way better form against Schmeling II. That was not just his peak physically, but his peak effort.
I don't want to formulate an opinion just on the easy impressive wins, i want to include the struggles. He was in way better form because his opponent allowed him an easier time. Louis said after the Galento bout that Galento was the toughest he had faced. The Schmeling fight was just 12 months earlier prior to Galento, it was the same Louis. Louis had improved since being battered by Schmeling where as Max had gone the other way. Louis actually nominated his peak as around the Galento fight and a couple of years forward, not the Schmeling bout. It's easy to get carried away as Scmeling had defeated him previously but there were a couple of intangibles there.
I would agree though that it was his best effort, Louis exploded on Max in their second go in a manner not seen in the rest of Joe's career. Had it been the Schmeling of their first bout its possible he still may not have made it into the second round.
Strange he made no mention of this in his autobiography, in fact when Galento staggered him in the first round he wanted to get him out as soon as possible because he was mad as hell.Blackburn had to caution him to take his time. Louis' comments on the fight,page 152," Joe Louis My Life," are in direct contradiction with your opinion ,and he never mentioned that Galento maligned his wife in any way. Louis never carried an opponent in his life ,not even his close friend John Henry Lewis of Ali's fight with Terrell, Louis said," I would have been ashamed to do that".
Prime Louis...the second Schmeling fight in 1938?...takes Frazier apart. Great left hook vs the best combination puncher of all time...
Why do you think the Schmeling fight was easy? He was fighting for a real cause that fight. He almost has a different style.
This close to the game in the 60's understood Joe was a slow starter. Very common knowledge. Stopping tomato cans early means nothing. Numerous references concerning Galento insulting Louis wife. Page 179 of Joe Louis The life of a Heavyweight...,,,"and even talked dirty about Marva"
