Louis brilliantly counters a charging Max Baer

Beautiful. Peach of a left hook.

I especially like the answer to the outstretched lead hand. When modern slicksters do that the other guy has no clue what to do with it.

 

Baer is a slob but there is no more aesthetically pleasing heavy to watch than Joe.

 

Baer really does look sloppy.

 

Both Holmes and Lewis liked to tee up their opponents for the right cross follow up that way.

 

Yeah, common tool for fighters with big right hands. Hearns did this as well, most notably against Benitez.

 

Baer didn't need any help looking sloppy. His footwork is completely amateurish. Louis is just making him pay the price for his lack of skill.

 

Note the side stepping counter punching Louis in this fight.

Watch his bout with Ramage to see Louis bobbing and weaving and then coming over the top with counters.

 

Willie Pep he wasn't!:-(

 

There's a mentality among some fighters and some trainers that when a guy like Baer is put in with someone like Louis, he shouldn't even try to polish up his skill too much because it's hopeless to compete in that department, so instead just bore forward and bludgeon the guy.
I think it's a flawed philosophy but sometimes it pays off no doubt.
To be fair to Baer he did try a more compact crouch and cross-arm guard for this fight.

 

Absolutely.

For Baer it did work, especially against Schmeling. He knew his right hand was his neutralizer and did everything he could to land it as much as possible, even if he looked sloppy and unorthodox. But this is Louis at his best.

Baer also usually did try to take away a guys more effective weapon. He guarded against Carnera's uppercut with the cross armed, kept his open glove up against Schmeling's right, and never leaned down for Galento's left hook. But he would gladly walk into most everything else if it meant landing his right in return.

There is also the Comisky fight, where Baer
is against a bigger but less athletically gifted slugger and adopts a more defensive counter punch approach successfully, flashing hand speed because he was looking to counter and not wind up.

 

This demonstrates (as if it were necessary) that Louis was hardly this plodder with slow feet he's sometimes made out to be.
Nice clip overall.

 

I agree-- most championship-level boxers would have been too embarrassed to continue after throwing a punch as awful as that first right!