Joe Louis would’ve cleared the 70s

Load of nothing no offence intended but absolutely Louis could clear the 70s the best guy was beaten by Ken Norton, Foreman couldn’t “fight” not in way that would bother Louis… he legit at times threw punches at a$$ height, Frazier is made for Louis what’s left? Lennox would savage the entire 70s line up in two years.

 

Aside from Patterson and Ali I guess, Louis would have the fastest set of hands for the era imo - speed often kills, no mean advantage.

And, Louis’ hand speed wasn’t too far shy of the aforementioned fighters anyway -

Louis’ hand speed was further qualified by the fact that he could throw appreciably harder with either hand while delivering his lightning combos.

In certain ways I can see how both Louis and Frazier might present as poison for one another.

Would Frazier’s relentless swarming be that bit too much for Louis or would Louis still be able to work his beautifully short hooks and uppercuts to wreak major damage on Frazier?

Godoy was no Frazier but Louis did show he could land powerful punches while in extremely up close and personal quarters via a far better application of himself than in the first Godoy fight.

I can’t see a close fight over the route, rather, a fight that at some point tips strongly in favour of one fighter or the other with an ultimate, later round KO/stoppage.

We know Louis could learn and improve as and when necessary during his actual career. An intangible quality.

Like the first Conn fight, Galento’s KD of Louis is overplayed as a discredit to Joe, imo. It was a flash KD - Louis up fast and perfectly fine.

Again, if that KD meant as much as some try to suggest (similar disproportional treatment has been applied to Louis’ less than stellar performance in the first Conn fight) then Louis clearly would not have enjoyed the successes he did enjoy during his actual career.

When a fighter has as many fights via the frequent scheduling that Louis had and fought under, glitches against the good, the bad and the ugly become a more likely occurrence.

We could over accent on glitch features to the careers of Ali, Frazier and Foreman also.

For a couple of examples - Frazier was rocked to his heels and almost dropped by old Eddie Machen. Frazier was also notably wobbled by Manuel Ramos.

Based on those examples, we could then run with the line “We’ll, if THEY could do that, what would Louis have done to Frazier……?”

Finally, In terms of extrapolation and admittedly more guess work by association, I think that Louis, fighting among what many believe to be a more talented field, could well be even better than he actually was given a more fertile bed from which to grow to a top level fighter.

 

The seventies would be hotter than Barbara Bouchet in Caliber 9