Joe Louis vs Lennox Lewis

Joe Louis was hurt more than a few times as well by much lesser fighters than Holyfield. Evander was an underated puncher anyway and Lewis took everything he had in two fights.

 

Randy Turpin, Jones, and Carmen Basilio, you have to understand Ray was past his best when he went to Middleweight, not saying he was bad or not great there, but he could lose.

Also why have you still not answered my question, since size does not matter at all, do fighters generally considered more skilled that Joe Louis beat him. Hell just answer for WW versions of Robinson and Armstrong. You have not answered because you know what would happen in those fights do to Louis' size and strength advantages. You know that when you have 2 very high level fighters that are great, the one with a 4+pound weight advantage, not fat but muscle mass will win.

 

Lewis was a versatile big man with a lot of talent, but clumsy up against a Joe Louis.

Best Lennox could hope for is rush Joe early on or hang his weight on him in the clenches and maul his way to victory because he won't out run Louis, he is too big a target.

Louis gets off first. He will time Lewis. He won't need a comparable reach or faster feet either. Joe Louis is too sharp and potent for a Lennox sized heavyweight.

Don't get me wrong Lennox has an excelent chance too....but it is a punches chance only. This is prime vs prime. Lewis showed overall dominance during his era but it was all most in hindsight...He got there in the end. Slip ups along the way. He never got off the floor to win. Louis punches too fast.

 

And Lewis was knocked out by McCall and Rahman with one punch, while Louis endured brutal beatings from Schemling and Marciano before being stopped.

btw..name me some other fighters Rahman and McCall knocked out with one shot? You can't. So don't give me these guys would knock out anybody crap.

Louis would kill Lewis. Too fast, too smart, too relentless, hits too damn hart.

 

Those who keep saying Lewis never got off the floor to win, should keep in mind that throughout his entire career he was only on the floor twice. That's less than Foreman, Tyson, Frazier, Liston, and a number of other great fighters including Louis himself. :deal

And it's not that Louis couldn't win, he certainly could, but it would be hard for me to imagine Louis getting on the inside of Lewis without him getting hit with either a right hand or an upper cut somewhere along the line and I think given the size difference it's fairly safe to say Lewis has more one punch power than Louis. For Louis to win he would have to get in on the inside and land combinations, which, off the top of my head I can't think of many if any fighters who were successful at doing that. That was likely Tua's plan until he got nailed hard enough to make him not to want to try that strategy.

 

Chainging the subject LOL. You were talking about Holyfield.


Louis got Knocked Out by Schemling and knocked down way more than Lennox Lewis did. Max Schemling was under 200lbs the night he KOd Joe Louis. At least McCall and Rahman were 220+ lbs. How many other good heavyweights did Schmeling KO?

Guys like Galento and Conn hurt Louis so your point about Holyfield hurting Lewis doesnt mean ****. Holyfield was world`s above those guys. As was much of Lennox`s opposition in comparison to Joe Louis`s opponents.

 

Top rated HWs: Johnny Risko, Steve Hamas, Young Stribling, Mickey Walker. Far more than Rahman and McCall. Schemling is an all time great heavyweight, they are not.

The point is that Holyfield like Louis was an accurate counter puncher with a good jab and right cross. If Holyfield can find and hurt Lewis, Louis can.

A compact pressure fighter like Galento and a slippery technician like Conn don't fight anything like Lennox Lewis. Meanwhile, Holyfield and Louis are of a comparable size and style. But I mean sure, Lewis can hurt Louis but can he put him away? Of all the great punchers and finishers Louis faced, only Schemling stopped him in his prime by completely out classing him with a barrage of right hands over the course of a long fight. Lewis has no late KOs in his career, and Louis learned from the Schemling experience and developed better defense. If you want to make a case for Lewis, this isn't the way.

I disagree. Louis has the stronger resume.

 

Louis, beats lennox with utter impunity. Joe, would have to stop himelf lauging at davenport & pepe correra incompetence!!

 

Its possible that Louis would have beaten Lennox. But I'm not all hell bent on using the McCall and Rahman fights to make that bet. In the McCall fight, he was complacent and still rough around the edges while one of the greatest trainers of all time resided in the opposite corner. The result was also quite possibly an early stoppage. In the Rahman fight he was 35 years of age and had his head up his arse. We all saw what happened in the rematch. Joe Louis certainly proved on more than one occasion that he could handle very large men with out much trouble. But I doubt the variety he faced had Lewis's combination of size, power, skill, amateur pedigree and quickness. From 1996-2000, Lennox was a customer for anyone. Joe's best bet would be to catch him on an off night while fronting one of the best performances of his career. On average evening however, I'd be hesitant to pick the bomber.

 

I only brought up McCall and Rahman in ironic context because ETM's response to me:

"Joe Louis was hurt more than a few times as well by much lesser fighters than Holyfield"

Why so much concern about Louis getting hurt by inferior fighters when Lewis was actually KOed by them?

My actual reasoning in picking Louis was because of Holyfield's success in the rematch against Lewis when he attacked the body, backed him up with the jab, and rocked him with counters. Louis' superior hand speed, power, stamina, equal accuracy, and all time great finishing abilities leads me to believe he could find the same openings and finish the job that Evander couldn't.

 

That's actually pretty good reasoning. But all of this has to be contingent of course upon weather or not Louis could take some of Lennox's big shots as well as how Steward decides to have Lewis fight this bout strategically.

 

I don't know, I think it would be foolish for Lewis to try a blitz. He would be too open for counters and probably get Max Baered out of there.

Lewis' only hope is control the distance with his jab and clinch like he's never clinched before the moment Louis is in range. Louis is still going to find his openings like Holyfield did, he'll get to the body and he'll eventually time the jab. I don't tihnk Lewis has any margin for error ,the moment he gets staggered or falls into the ropes, Louis is going to be all over him.

 

That could very well happen, but my hesitation to banking on it is that the giants whom he unloaded on had extremely poor defense, were prone to counter attack and relatively slow from what I can see on film. We also have to remember that Holyfield had to take a fair number of shots in order to land some of those inside punches you talked about, and I think Evander's chin was better than Louis's.