joe louis vs slapsie maxie rosenbloom...

Yes, it was commonly thought at that time that Joe Louis avoided Maxie Rosenbloom...Not because Louis thought he would lose to Rosenbloom, but Louis wouldn't look good against Slapsie Maxie...Rosenbloom made everyone look, not at their best....

 

It´s the same as Lewis avoided Byrd and Ruiz. Everybody knew he would beat them but he wouldn´t look good in doing so.

 

I don't think so. Louis didn't avoid Maxie Rosenbloom. He avoided Lem Franklin in 1942 and Elmer Ray in 1946. Other men his management was weary of was Melio Bettina, Harry Bobo, Lee Q Murray, and Jack Trammel.

 

Rosenbloom would do his best to make it ugly until getting knocked out. Jimmy Adamick did the job, no reason why Louis couldn't. Maxie was no longer at his best in the late 30's.

 

Louis-Rosenbloom would have been interesting if both were in their primes..maybe Maxie would have been sort of a Jimmy Young type for Joe to deal with.

 

Lee Ramage was very close to defeating Joe in an 8rnd. Held a big lead at the time of the KO.

 

The truth is often somewhat eccentric when it comes to who a champion is really avoiding.

It does seem that Melio Battina is the man who Louis's managment feared the most, incredible as that sounds.

 

Yaa. What about Lem Franklin and his incredible 19-0 with 17 knockouts run from 1939-1941? Franklin wasn't just beating nearly all of the Ring Magazine top 10, he was brutally knocking them out!

 

He initially avoided Ruiz because Grant was a top 5 fighter on every sensible ranking. Lewis did the right thing.

Byrd is a completely different matter as he was actually Lewis' deserving number one contender before and after he knocked out Tyson. I don't think Rosenbloom was ever number one, though he hovered in the top 5 for a period during his reign. Though, I have no desire to dive into that can of worms again, just don't think its a fair analogy.

 

Wladimir Klitschko was Lewis's number 1 contender for 2 straight years in 2001-2002. Not byrd. Unless your talking about 2004?

 

Its always possible that Louis's people feared Franklin, but is there a smoking gun on that one?

In some ways Franklin disapeared as spectacularly as he arrived.

 

Byrd was the IBF #1 and Ring #2 for two years after defeating Tua. Lewis was given special permission to fight Tyson first and defend the IBF belt against Byrd by the end of the year. Lewis stalled until the deadline and dumped the title instead. Byrd beat Holyfield for the vacant belt, Lewis said he was wrong about Byrd and would now consider facing him...he took more time off and signed to face Kirk Johnson instead.

Wlad was Ring #1 but was oddly never an official mandatory as he was still cleaning out his fellow classmen like McCline. Byrd was for all intents and purposes next in line. The upset to Sanders cost Wlad his ranking in early 2003, leaving Byrd as Ring#1 until stand in opponent Vitali impressed against Lewis, rocketing to #1 in hopes of pushing a rematch.

 

IBF doesn't mean anything. What matters is the RING rating. RING rated Wladimir Klitschko as the # 1 man for TWO straight years...yet lennox never fought him. That's who lennox ducked. not the number 2 man..byrd(who wladimir destroyed)

 

Nah, you can't duck a fight that isn't on the table. Byrd followed up his loss to Wlad by beating Tua an in elimenator to secure a title shot all the way back in 2001. It was determined that after Lewis/Tyson, Byrd was next line in for a shot. Meanwhile, Wlad took a step back to beat #9 Jefferson and used Mercer and Botha as target practice. There' wasn't anyone calling for Wlad/Lewis just yet, he was simply being groomed as a futuer challenger down the road.

Now Wlad was considered for a title shot after defeating the red hot McCline in 2002 and Lewis did dismiss him as a possible future opponent but there wasn't a former offer that I'm aware of. Wlad might have forced the issue had he not been upset by Sanders.