Joe Louis vs Lennox Lewis

-Well, the most obvious difference being that Schemling is an all time great former Champion, and Cooper and Tubbs were fringe contenders at best. But they were heavier, Schemling has nothing on Tubbs' love handles.

 

I would be very comfortable saying that Lewis faced the better competition, but that dosn't necisarily mean that he would win.

It still comes down to styles in the end.

Louis had problems with all sorts of styles, but I am not quite seeing Lewis sitting among them.

 

You don't see a big long strong hw with good power being a problem matchup for Louis? how do you figure buddy?

 

A big long strong heavyweight with good power, is a problem for anybody, but it was a style that Louis worked well against.

If you tried to fight him at range, you effectivley gave him the room to do what he wanted, and played to his strengths.

 

I think that Conn also smothered him and gave him no room, and that this was a factor in his sucess.

 

You don't see a big long strong hw with good power (in the late 30's-
early 40's) being a problem matchup for Joe Louis (in prime circa 2000?)
How do you figure buddy?

 

huh?? I have no clue what you're saying.

 

Nostalgia is a terrible thing. atsch

 

Do you accept that Schmeling is greater than McCall and Rahman, and if not why?

 

Apart from Ali I think Lewis presents the hardest puzzle for any other champion to solve head to head.
That doesn't mean he is my no 2 ,he isn't though he comfortably makes my top ten, it's his combination of size, boxing ability, and power that makes him a monster for past champions to deal with.
I take Louis by ko but not with any degree of confidence.

 

You should never be confident with fighters of this calibre.

Give me a persons top 20 list, and I would expect their #20 to be a serious threat to their #1, unless their #20 was tailor made for their #1.

 

Nostalgia for a fighter that was active decades before I was born?

Breakdown why you feel Schemling was not an all time great Champion. You actually think Bert Cooper and Tony Tubbs were better.....

 

Ha, he's not even talking about McCall and Rahman. The post he quoted was regarding Bert Cooper and Tony Tubbs. atsch

 

Lennox could be a bit too tentative at times against fighters that asked questions of his chin - he fought like he didn't have very much confidence in taking any big shots - which to me would be a massive problem against someone who feints as much and as well as Joe Louis did.
This could get messy though if Lennox reverts to octopus tactics and smothering continually although I think Joe would be in and out before Lewis could hug him in. Lennox simply can't fight inside or trade with a guy of Louis' size and speed. This would need a good ref .

Versus any come forward powerful fighter Lewis is always the first to concede ground and I have also seen enough guys match Lewis' jab whereas I've never seen anyone take Louis jab away from him?

Lewis didn't throw the jab with enough authority - too often pawing and drawing it back again, a risk taker he was not!? And the more experienced guys could bully him a bit at times because he didn't know enough to deal with them. And he was often a bit too worried about his own work Looking good rather than it being effective and he'd wait too long some times to get into positions where he'd look cute doing it.

And Lewis really was a guy who "didn't like it up him" so to speak and could get frustrated and start appealing to the ref when things were getting uncomfortable. An older Holyfield gave him a pretty tough going over in the rematch, and on experience alone really? By round 7 Lennox was blowing and flat footed, dropping his hands by his waist and could only really "dredge up" brief cameos when he got to that stage in fights - he had to move and punch separately and when he got tired his punches had to be really levered up? He couldn't maintain his form in longer fights consequently he never scored a knockout later than 8 rounds in his entire career? And I think in this one it wouldn't take long in the early going for Lennox to taste Louis' power and start fighting with anxiety. After 7 or 8 rounds against top level guys Lewis always ends up getting disorganised and just kinda gets by on his size and clinging on continually.

In terms of his size Lennox was huge yes, and an athletic guy for someone so big but he wasn't anything Joe Louis hadn't seen and destroyed before? At a shape under 6'5" Lennox best fight for me was Razor Ruddock where he was 227 lbs and I think he was just sloppy and relatively lumberous anything 235 - Louis could fight at his absolute best up to 207 lbs so there's only really a 20 lb difference there nothing particularly unusual for Louis who faced 6'5" Abe Simon twice who was in solid muscular shape at 254 and 255, and 6'7" Buddy Baer who again looked relatively skinny really at 237 and even up to 250, and Primo Carnera who was another freak of nature at almost 6'6" and 260 lbs, he knocked down Tony Galento at 233 and 3 quarters who had a much lower centre of gravity off his feet into the air with a fairly effortless left hook? So no I don't see Lennox size being any problem at all for Louis - it wasn't really that much of problem for a pretty jaded Version of Holyfield?
Louis by KO probably somewhere around 8th round when Lennox gets knackered and starts to unravel