Sorry; I used the longest film, not necessarily the best. This video can be choppy at times. This content is protected 1. I thought it was clear right away that Paychek was afraid of Louis. As was no surprise by now, it was the immortal left-right from Louis that put Paychek down for the first time. Also, no surprise, Paychek got up. Afterwards, Louis stormed in, trying to score more telling blows, but looked a tad sloppy and not too sharp imo. Silly me. A left hook scored the second knockdown, and rather easily I might add. Paychek looked like he would have gone down from anything halfway decent by Joe. Joe moved right in after that, threw the left-right, and Paychek bounced off the ropes and lurched towards the deck, like a sailor on a ship that's shifting back and forth. Paychek actually could have prevented himself from going down, but with Louis right there, poised for the kill, Paychek took the knee, clinging to the bottom rope like it were a life-raft. Paychek got up and ran for the round's remainder, narrowly completing the round. Louis. 2. Paychek was nervous as hell. Right here is classic Louis. A beautiful double left jab seceded by the right hand and Paychek went down-hard. Paychek was hurt so bad that when he went down, his whole body was frozen, and boy he must have had a headache after falling to the canvas. Verdict: Great, great knockout. Funny how at first I thought it was a bad performance from Louis, but it's not, a real classic JL KO.
Poor guy. He had no business being in the ring with Joe Louis. If you're Paychek that's a hard way to earn a paycheck. At least it wasn't a prolonged beating.
If my memory is correct, there was an article about Johnny Paychek and they spoke to members of his family. They talked about how big his hands were, with very prominent knuckles. They also said that he was embarrassed, if not ashamed, of how he froze against Louis.
Good summation. Paychek really doesn't seem that good. If he says he froze, I'll take his word for it, but to me he fought reasonably bravely, but just didn't have the weapons or skill to hold Louis off. Off this film, I don't see a reason for Paychek to be embarrassed or ashamed. He got up three times and that final right might have finished anyone. Paychek had a good statistical record, but was fighting out in Iowa, hardly a hotbed of top boxers. He had KO's of way past it King Levinsky and Al Ettore. His toughest opponent was perhaps Maurice Strickland, with whom he split two newspaper decisions. Basically a journeyman who was pumped up by weak opposition. Fighting Louis was sort of like a college football team being matched with the Super Bowl champion.
I could imagine with modern officiating that this would be stopped beyond a shadow of a doubt when Paychek took the knee, if not after the second knockdown. He had absolutely nothing for Louis, and it was obvious. That said, I could never grow tired of watching Louis blast people out early It's like early Tyson in that regard, as far as I'm concerned, as great as a proper competitive struggle is, there's also something to be said for displays of outright dominance.
