Joe Louis vs. Ray Mercer

Joe Louis take 13 rounds to take out Billy Conn 174 lb...what people think if wlad fights Bernard Hopkins? He would be crucifyed..

 

Hopkins is a terrible example to use tho. He's been a middleweight for 73 years. Guys like Spinks, Moore and Charles are better examples tho i respect you are simply picking the champ of the time.

 

Billy Conn blah, blah, blah.

There was a time when people recognized the fight for what is was - A CLASSIC BETWEEN TWO GREAT FIGHTERS.

Now it seems to have become merely a knock against Joe Louis.

Hey, let's see Wlad Klitschko take on a challenger a month for six straight months. Let's see Joe Calzaghe fight a few 200 pound guys.
It's okay "imagining" these modern guys doing better than the old-timers, but nothing much is happening. Some of these guys go up 5 or 7 pound to the next weight division and complain they weren't big enough.
It's not Joe Louis's fault that some small guy actually had the balls and confidence to give him a good fight. Billy Conn was fearless as well as excellent. It's a credit to Conn. He would have given plenty of heavyweights a good fight, IMO.

Larry Holmes had 20 pounds on Michael Spinks.
Muhammad Ali had 27 pounds on Leon.

Louis came in dehydrated and having dropped weight too quick, if you wanna accept the same excuse as one of those that George Foreman gets for losing to Jimmy Young.

Not to mention that Joe Louis won by a devastating display of combination punching and a brutal KO.

 

Which Henry Cooper book have you got ?
I definitely read that. I'll check as soon as I get my book back. Unless I read it somewhere else .....
It was the first fight, 1963.