Joe Louis vs. Muhammad Ali

Its also entirely possible that Ali keeps Louis on the end of his left for the majority of the rounds,ties him up when he has to and lands enough rights to keep Louis wary and cautious,and closes the show stopping Louis on his feet around the 14th,personally I see Ali taking a decision.Louis had a decent defence but didnt move his head much ,could be hurt and floored ,though he recuperated well,what you look like in the gym doesnt mean a whole lot in the ring,most of us have seen good "gym fighters " who looked entirely different in an actual fight,fact is Louis never demonstrated fast feet in the ring,maybe because in his prime ,he was allways the one initiating the action ,,the hunter rather than the hunted,apart from Galento,B Baer ,and Mauriello ,who all "went for broke",and gave Louis some sticky moments,most opponents backpedalled away from the "Bomber "to keep from being "bombed". I can see Louis hurting Ali,I can also see Ali momentarily staggering Louis,he hit a bit harder with his right than people appreciate,and if Conn at 169 ,and no hitter could get Joes attention,Ali could,you say its the punches you dont see that affect yuo the most ,entirely true ,but this would work both ways ,who had better handspeed than Ali? Due to his better durabilty and crouching style ,I give Dempsey a better shot against Ali than Louis,and for the same reason ,I thinkhe would have taken Louis inside three rounds,though Louis is the more complete fighter.

 

This is how I see it too, McVey.

Full kudos to Manassa for a well written and original post supporting Louis, but I smell an air of desperation in many attempts to find a conqueror over prime Ali. You have to dig really deep to find any sort of weaknesses or problems that were evident in his actual fights (at least from 64-67 which is the relevent time frame).

Whereas, it is much easier to pick holes in Louis' accomplishments. As tremendous as he was, there were a few inexcusable losses, knock downs and struggles along the way.

Of course, there are no absolutes in sport, certainly not in fantasy match-ups, but if we are playing the odds...

 

Most of the punchers Louis met floored him,[apart from Max Baer ,who was scared stiff],and two of them kept him there,of the punchers Ali met three floored him,none stopped him .Ali stopped bangers like Liston,Foreman ,and Lyle,and ruined another,Frazier.The idea that Louis was murder in rematches is abit exaggerated ,I think,Conn was washed up by the time he fought Louis again,he had gained 13 pounds all of it suet ,he was an easy target for Louis,Walcott gave Louis fits in both fights ,and the Champion was behind on points going into the 11th and last round,the ko of B Baer was contraversial though terrific to view,Baer,s handlers contended that louis landed after the bell and refused to let Buddy out for the second,,the systematic disection of Arturo Godoy in the rematch was probably as good as it gets for Joe,but Godoy was never that formidable to begin with.