Mike Jacobs Was Reluctant To Match Louis With Black Challengers

Yeah, I came in to edit, but you beat me to it. I looked at the wrong Walcott fight by mistake.

 

What did 2022 do to you @mcvey ??

You started 2023 w a vengeance! Great thread.

 

Is that all there is?

 

Louis got $103,611 for the Mauriello fight, so quite a bit more than for Walcott even though Mauriello was an equally heavy underdog.

 

Again, the Walcott back story was not as exciting as even Mauriello. Walcott was kind of like Lee Savold by then. An old contender. Jersey had salvaged his career with only a few decent wins into a comeback after retiring during the war years but nothing so far was that outstanding. Walcotts most recent best wins were split or majority decisions over Joey Maxim and Elmer Ray, who he had to fight twice each to get a split result win.

New Yorker Tami on the other hand was a boy wonder. 77 fights and still only 23 years old, Mauriello had fought on big New York shows at every weight class from welterweight to heavyweight right through the war. He’d beaten Lee Oma and knocked out Lou Nova and British champion Bruce Woodcock. These were more colourful wins than Walcotts snoozy split decisions.

 

so like I said, Walcotts most recent wins were disputed and it took two fights to earn a split result win over either Maxim or Ray. Zzzz

woodcock represented a big draw in Europe. He was rated for such. Nothing wrong in that. He came to America to fight in an elimination bout to establish a challenger for Louis. Mauriello sparked him. Much the same way as Baksi came to Europe. But Woodcock also held wins against Oma, Savold and Lesnavich so he was no slouch either

yes I’m not saying there was rings on his fingers or bell on his toes. I’m just saying Mauriello, with kayos over woodcock and Nova looked a more exciting challenger than Walcott snoozing to split decision wins.

 

snoozy woozy. For somebody who long defends all official verdicts you seem to have a hard time swallowing that, going into the Joe Louis fight, Walcott had not decisively beaten either Ray or Maxim.

He knocked out the reigning Lightheavyweight champion! How can you say woodcock was not world class? He had official wins over rated fighters.

Prove it.

 

"Woodcock had no business being ranked"

Even to the degree this is true, isn't it hindsight? Going into the Mauriello fight, Woodcock was 25-0 with 24 KO's and the British Empire champion. He was stopped by Mauriello, but later in the year KO'd Lesnevich. According to boxrec, this was the only time Gus took the count in a long career. The following year Lesnevich was fighter of the year with four wins, including stopping both Mauriello and Bettina.

"Woodcock's fights with Savold and Oma were fixed."

Those came in 1948, though, even if this is correct.

"Savold"

For me this was an unimpressive win for Woodcock, as it was on an alleged low blow. How do you know it was fixed, though? And why wasn't the second and more important Savold fight fixed if someone was fixing fights?

As for Oma, he was a playboy often in poor condition, and therefore very erratic, with a weak jaw. He was stopped 17 times in his career. It certainly was no surprise that a guy who could put the durable Lesnevich down for the count could do the same for Oma. I know that the British press felt this fight smelled. I am just saying what happened is no shock if on the level.

At the end of 1946, these were the NBA ratings:

Champ--Joe Louis
1--Elmer Ray
2--Tami Mauriello
3--Bruce Woodcock
4--Jersey Joe Walcott
5--Joey Maxim

 

And that’s why I can understand why a Mauriello fight was more of a draw to the paying fans than a Walcott fight turned out to be.