Louis reflects on the Conn fight

sounds like Joe Louis all right. This was a great fight. I remember when it was first uploaded on youtube years ago.

 

This fight kind of indicates Louis's real weakness wasn't speed, it's tricky and crafty counter fighters and infighters.

 

There was a pristine version of this fight on YouTube and now it’s gone. Was great. They have a pretty good color version still viewable but not as good as the black and white version that was out there. Anyway great find and a great fight. Top 10 HW title fight of all time imo

 

Definitely has been way too big of a misconception for way too long, and I'll stand by this forever. Louis had TONS of issues with pressure fighters and good counter-punchers, I think that his biggest weakness was with crafty guys who could fight out of a crouch.

 

Louis mentions the word fast again and again in his comments and basically says he couldn't do anything with him when he was on the move. He said he was moving too fast to get set for his punches. He also says "All he had to do was stay away from me and box and he would have won the fight. But Billy was out to get me."

These comments make it blatantly obvious Louis was having trouble with his speed, when he was on the move and not sitting down on his punches.

Speed, speed, speed.

 

But while he was having trouble with the speed,it didn't really bother him when he was still able to body blow and slow him down near the end,even if someone argues about his struggles with Walcott was proof, Walcott was more of a counterpuncher with his bag of tricks.

 

Maybe it's just me but the old time fighters seemed to give an honest assessment of opponents. Much humbler. I appreciate the honesty.

 

If he wasn't having trouble with his speed why was Conn comfortably ahead after 12 rounds?

This is what Louis literally said "By then he was ahead pretty good. All of the officials had him ahead. All he had to do was stay away from me and box and he would have won the fight. But Billy was out to get me."

Louis stakes no claim at all to having slowed him down with body punches. He implies after a big 12th round, where Conn stuck it to him good, Conn was more aggressive and less evasive leading to Louis having the chance he needed.

Louis struggled with Walcott when he was well past his best. Louis was 57 fights deep, 33yo, had been champ for over a decade and had defended 23 times. He was many years removed from his peak. Walcott won the title 3-4 years later, so we know he was travelling OK.

I guess we could say Walcott showed a heavily compromised Louis could struggle with a talented hard hitting guy with excellent countering abilities. Despite this he still knocked him out in the rematch.

 

Yet Conn didn't remotely fight him every minute of every round. He fought him at times, but was quick to get out or make him reset. He moved a lot just like Louis said, but he also spent time in close and did some good work in there, and had some moments both moving into the clinch and moving out of them. You can visibly see that after his big 12th round he's moving less and looking to sit down on his punches more. He thought he might be able to get him. Conn did take some hard shots throughout the fight it must be said, but he took too many over the space of too short a time in the 13th, leading to him succumbing. He showed a helluva chin that night, to go with his speed and skill.

 

If I may recommend the recent book on Louis and Conn. I liked it alot. One of Billy's sons helped with the book as well. Can't imagine my Pop being Conn and not writing a book about him. That goes with alot of other greats as well.

 

My man Joe was as real as it gets.
His take on what happened in that fight is as unbiased and objective as possible.
No whitewashing, no sugarcoating. No apologies, alibis, excuses or elaborated theories.
Just an ATG saying his truth.

 

Well for all what is worth, Conn's version matches Louis' version on this specific point.

When I was a kid I saw once an article in the Readers' Digets about Conn with his explanation on what happened:

1) Conn knew he was clearly winning in the cards.
2) His corner told him to stay away from Louis because the fight was already won.
3) Simply put, Conn coudln't resist the temptation to go for a KO and paid the price.

 

Conn's speed was certainly key, JT. My observations in this post are intended to expand on, not contradict, your comments.

Whilst Louis was a boxer puncher, rather than slugger, he did like his feet to be set to, so he could turn his body into each punch of his fluid combinations.

Louis didn't "load up" on his punches and Conn was fast. Key to Conn's success was that he "loaded up" on his punches to an even less degree.

Louis threw punches at Conn with the intention of hurting him.

Prior to the 13th round, Conn's punches weren't typically thrown with the intention of hurting Louis, but rather disrupting his rhythm and stopping him from getting set. They typically weren't hard enough to hurt Louis, but were hard enough to keep Louis off balance and prevent him from getting set. Calzaghe made a (2nd half of his) career out of similar tactics, when he fought punchers.

Put simply, Conn resolved to be constantly moving - either moving his feet, his arms throwing punches or both simultaneously. He was either moving out of Louis's range or throwing punches when in Louis's range. The key was never to be static with his feet, whilst not punching when in Louis's range.

Sure, Louis still had some success in the first 12 rounds, even a subpar Louis was too good not too, and I suspect that wore Conn down to an extent, but as both Louis and Conn alluded to, when Conn got overconfident in the 13th round, held his feet and swung his punches with more leverage to generate greater power, that gave Louis the opening he needed to land a power combination flush, and that was all she wrote.