I'll pick Sam Langford at his best to beat prime Louis. Sam was a good power hitter who I think would crowd Louis. Louis himself admitted he hated being crowded. So I'll say Langford KO somewhere between 8-12. Great fight though however long it lasted.
Pretty much the way I remembered it, Nat didn't talk badly about Ali's abilities and gave him pluses for his foot speed, he honestly didn't believe what he had seen of him warranted a top ten placement. Going back through most of Ali's 60's goes I've been surprised to find myself often unimpressed now myself. On Louis vs Sam one thing to me stands out, Langford never had a trip hammer punch machine in front of him like Joe.
This is such a great, great fight. These two basically spent all their time trying to trick guys into throwing, trying to convince them it was safe to fight, then destroying them. Although they don't look that similar, they in fact, in a sense, have exactly the same style. It would be fascinating to see. I've no idea who would win. It's a 50.50 proposition IMO, but Sam is a 50.50 proposition at worst versus all but the biggest great fighters. At some point, yes, the size advantage would tell, but Joe isn't big enough. Gun to my head i'd probably pick Louis to get there first.
Many old timers who saw them both felt it would be close. Charlie Rose picked Langford to win after a few hard rounds of slugging. I'd go with Louis here, mostly because Sam Langford had little defense vs the jab, but if Louis doesn't fight smart, I can see Langford winning. Sam Langford in his prime was a very hard fighter to stop, who's chin was battle tested my many punchers.
In 1951, Abe Attell was asked how Langford would do against Louis. This is what he said: "Just too much fighter. There wasn't anything Sam couldn't do and if had a weakness nobody ever found out what it was. I have plenty of respect for Louis as a hitter, but I can't see him hitting Sam hard enough to make him mad." I have another quote from Jim Blackburn if anyone would like to read it, just post and tell me. All quotes are from the book SAM LANGFORD: BOXING'S UNCROWNED CHAMPION by Clay Moyle.
Clay, your biography book on Sam Langford gave me much enjoyment and made me realize for the first time, how great Sam Langford was as a fighter and as a fine human being. Ould Sam was the real goods.
It was a fantastic book. Very well written, very well researched. It confirmed everything I ever thought about Sam. It also quoted someone (I can't remember who right now) as saying how much better Sam would have been had he had access to a the benefits of a real training camp. Imagine how good he would have been with today's training/nutrition advances. I bought the book on Amazon. Recommend it highly.