Joe Louis's title defenses against Afro-American fighters

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who cares what skin color his comp was

 

Joey Joe?

 

I really don't believe that there were any others.. Walcott and JH. Lewis were the only ones that I can think of.. There were of course, several qualified men that I think might have been deserving of shot such as Elmer Ray, Lem Franklin, Jimmy Bivens ( who Louis fought after his reign had ended, ) but timing never made for those fights to take place.

 

I want to have a thread trying to speculate the last time the term 'afro american' was used.

 

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don't forget his defense against Jim Kelly...afro-tastic

 

Joe did set a record which will never again be beaten.

'18' straight defenses against white challengers.

Floyd Patterson attempted to get that record,,,,,,,,,,,,,,cut short at '6'

Muhammad Ali,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,'4' in a row

 

I wonder what kind of hair products they were using,,,,,,,,,,

 

But,,,,I don't see any picks sticking out from the hair......

 

Clearly Joe Louis feared the slickness of black fighers.

 

Soul Glo

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Anyway, afros aside, the only black fighters that Joe Louis defended his title against were John Henry Lewis and Jersey Joe Walcott.

Of those that he didn't fight, I think that Jimmy Bivins had the strongest argument for a title fight, though he did peak while Louis was in the army. The black fighter who had the best claim in the pre war period when Louis was most active, is probably Lem Franklin.

I do think that Jersey Joe Walcott was the Harry Wills figure of the period, the title challenger who built up the strongest claim.