Marciano beating Joe Louis

Obviously that was only a shell of Louis that he beat but Louis was still one of the best fighters in the world at this stage.

He would not have been able to beat Charles or Walcott but he might still have been able to beat guys like Layne and Matthews.

 

Will you please read my post before making retorts like this? NO ONE that I have EVER seen has claimed that Louis was the same against Marciano as he was at his peak, and I specifically stated that SEVERAL TIMES during my post. If you want to dispute my position, do so with something other than stock replies to strawmen of your own invention.

 

Regardless of what you think of the era Louis's ranking at the time made him a legitimate target and a legitimate win. He was still recognised as the champion by the BBBC after beating Lee Savold.

An analogy would be if Lennox Lewis came back today and picked up an alphabet title.

Ironicaly the last person who wanted the fight was Marciano. He idolized Louis and didnt want to fight him.

 

If that old man was possibly the greatest champion of all time in his prime and is still one of the best fighters in the world.

How many of these fights have you seen?

ARGH. How many times does it have to be said that Louis of 1951 was not "vintage" Louis??? Why is this same strawman beaten down over and over again and treated as a dismissal of the opposition's argument? NO ONE disputes that Louis was not his "vintage" self when Marciano beat him. The question is: WAS LOUIS STILL A GOOD FIGHTER AT THAT STAGE? And the only fair answer is a resounding yes.

Jimmy Bivins was a top-10-ranked future Hall-of-Famer, and Louis had comfortably beaten him two months before facing Marciano; Cesar Brion was a tough-as-nails, prime top 10 heavyweight, and Louis had soundly defeated him twice during those eight matches; Lee Savold was a veteran contender coming off a major win who had only been stopped once in the last 10 years and 55 fights of his career, and Louis had knocked him out in dominant fashion. Louis had just beaten Savold, Brion and Bivins, back-to-back-to-back, in his last three fights before facing Marciano. ANYONE who does that is a legitimate elite-level heavyweight.

 

is your avatar marciano hammering a forearm into louis' kisser? :yep

he was a brutal fighter.

i think marciano/louis is similar to lewis/tyson in the respect that two huge names were fighting each other but one was well past it and badly overmatched.

weren't a lot of people especially in the American press picking tyson to ko lewis in round 1 too? Lewis and Marciano deserve some credit but in reality they are no more than decent wins. however, the names of their opponents make the win more impressive to the public

 

I would say that Louis was much more a going concearn when he fought Marciano than Tyson was when he fought Louis.

He was still at the cutting edge of the division while Tyson just had his name.

 

Louis couldn't time his right hand anymore, but his jab and left hook were still there which became apparent in the 4th and 5th when he had his moments. Louis did show he could hang in with a big banger without too much movement or offensive reply. He took some huge shots in the first two rounds.

 

Exactly...Louis was still a top rated heavyweight when this bout occured. That is true even though Joe was just a shadow of his former self.

Marciano took a lot of punishment in this bout, but he was impressive from the standpoint of overpowering and kayoing the still dangerous Louis.

As for Louis, it is sad to see him finish his career this way. In his prime, Louis may have been the greatest fighter ever to fight at heavyweight, and that includes the big, superheavyweights of today. It would have been nice to see such a great champ retire unbeaten.

 

Read about how much Marciano thought of Louis. Rocky didn't even want to fight his hero at that stage of his career (or at any other time if Rocky was to choose). I believe Rocky even cried after the fight.

Rocky likely could have beaten Louis very early had he wanted. Simple fact of the matter is Rocky didn't even want to be in the ring during that fight.

 

Yeah Louis was Rocky's hero, I read that in his biography.

 

I would have given Louis a 6.

A prime Louis would have knocked Marciano out cold.

 

I wouldn't say that for sure.

The last thing a boxer tends to lose is his punch and Louis did manage to hit Marciano.

Marciano had a great chin and he never tired.

He could have outpointed him though.