Lennox Lewis VS Joe Louis

In the hope of silencing the guff about Joe Louis having a padded record, I am going to present some cold hard facts.

Total number of fights against top 10 ranked opponents:

Joe Louis 31
Muhammad Ali 34
Lennox Lewis 15

Percentage of total career fights which were against top 10 ranked opponents:

Joe Louis 47%
Muhammad Ali 62%
Lennox Lewis 37%

Total number of successful defences of the undisputed title:

Joe Louis 26
Muhammad Ali 21
Lennox Lewis 7

These are the cold hard statistics, about what these men did in their respective eras. I don't need to add that Lewis fares a lot better in this comparison than most fighters of his era. If we set Louis and Ali's record's on Wlad's, then we would realy see some destruction.

 

Mercer would probably of got the decision against Lewis if the fight was a 12 rounder.
Lewis never ko'd anybody late in a fight throughout his entire career and Mercer was coming on strong.

Old Holmes gave a fresher Ray a full 12 round boxing lesson using his boxing brain and superior ring craft.

Theres levels to this here game and Holmes , Louis ,Tyson etc were a level above Lewis , whose size was really the best thing he had going for him.

 

One thing you can say for Joe Louis is that he fought the top fighters very early in his career. He turned pro in `34 and he was facing former heavyweight champions by `35. It was uncommon. He was that good.

Joe had the greatest left hand in the history of the heavyweight division thanks to Mr Blackburn.:good

 

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Again Janitor, nobody is questions Louis' accomplishments in his era, This is why he's universally ranked ahead of Lewis in an ATG sense. But that doesn't mean he could beat Lewis h2h. I simply don't think he could, at least not he best version of Lewis. But it's a red herring to keep on commenting on Louis's accomplishments unless they pertain to how he would be bet Lewis in a h2h match.

 

Since Lewis retired the idea seems to have crystallised in the consciousness of many, that he was some sort of invincible monster head to head. This is really not the case. Great though he was, he is still the only top 10 all time heavyweight to be stopped by a single punch that found the mark.

Louis was the best finisher the heavyweight division ever produced, and that is exactly the fighter that poses the greatest threat to Lewis. You really don’t need a lot of imagination to see how he might win this fight.

 

You might. The way I see it, Lewis got caught against McCall while both were trying to land. At that time Lewis was still a work in progress, the same as can be said when Louis lost against Schmeling. The only difference is Lewis was caught with a single punch, and Schmeling caught Louis repeatedly. not sure how that becomes a plus for Louis but whatever.

The second loss Lewis received was pure stupidity on his part. He's hands were down, his chin sticking out. That's something Louis would never do in entire career, never mind when he became champ. That version of Lewis could lose to 20 dozen fighters if that's the one you feel would be stepping in the ring with Louis. But the version such as the Lewis who showed up at the Rahman rematch was an entirely different fighter, as was the one who walked through Ruddock, Golota and Grant, and gave a boxing lesson to Tua. I personally tend to think it would be one of these versions of Lewis that Louis would be facing. On the flip side, Lewis would likely be facing the Louis who rematched Schmeling as opposed to the one he lost to.

It's when these versions of the fighters are analyzed that I give the nod to Lewis.

 

I think the interesting thing about this fight is that these two are more similar than people think, despite being decades apart in very different eras.

1. Both fighters had great jabs and thunderous right hands.

2. Neither fighter was really known for footwork, they generally relied on the center of the ring and stalked their opponents.

3. both were great inside fighters as well.

I've sometimes thought of Lennox Lewis as a bigger stronger Joe Louis, so I give him the edge simply because I think he is a similar fighter to the Brown Bomber only larger.

 

Lewis did not have the skills of Louis in fact no one had.

Do you see the pinpoint combinations. Two, three.....six punch combinations? Unheard of in any era by any other hwt.

Louis had excellent footwork. Watch his bouts with Carnera, Max Baer, Galento where he nimbly side steps and counterpunches. Textbook stuff.

Louis best punch was the straight right but every punch he threw was textbook and deadly.

 

hope you dont think this bull still easy win for lennox