Conn 1 Max Baer Schmeling 2 B. Baer 1 or 2 Schmeling 1 A fight that could have been fun to watch would be the Red Burman fight. He came right at Louis, body punching aggressively out of a crouch. Louis returned the favor and knocked Burman out with a punch to the heart. It's described as an action packed 5 rounder on boxrec that left the audience thrilled.
funny you have started these threads, I was going to start a thread "Pick your favourite Fighter's Top 10 and then follow that up with picking the Top 10 of his Top 3 Opponents... that thread would through out loads of discussion, who had the best Top 10 among them and would also lead into all kinds of comparison's of everybody's picks and their opponents top 10 comparisons. it could end up being a huge & resourceful thread...
i just thought about it today and to be honest, Im actually inspired to do it by the old Ring Magazine anfd KO Magazine posters, of all things, because every month they had a different boxer lol... So many boxers to choose from!!
Funny thing: when I wrote the article on Burman on Wikipedia, I erroneously thought h had dropped Louis, lol and that misinformation was there forever until I found out how wrong it was!
1. Walcott (every good fighter has one more good fight left) 2. Schmeling 2 3. Max Baer 4. Conn 5. Braddock
1) Max Baer (by the Bomber's own account) 2) Godoy II (he didn't like being crowded but adapted to it here) 3) Braddock (Louis did all the maneuvering in this one as Jimmy never took a backwards step, going out like a Champion) 4) Conn I (Joe said this was when he faced his best opponent - "Billy Conn had it all!") 5) John Henry Lewis (Criminally underrated and overlooked win - JHL was on a torrid winning streak and nobody else ever beat him via stoppage in his previous 116 bouts, let alone like Joe did . He'd stopped Violent Ray in 12, won over the Championship Distance, blew out the aforementioned Red Burman within two rounds, defeated five other world champions, including Braddock, and Louis amateur conqueror Max Marek. HOFer Len Harvey, Tiger Jack Fox, Patsy Perroni, Jock McAvoy, Al Ettore and Johnny Risko were among other conquests. He was indisputably an ATG never dethroned LHW Champion. Additional mention: Louis didn't initiate much crowding during his career, but one exception was Jack Sharkey, an interesting shift in tactics for the Bomber. Buddy Baer II is a fine visual on how he'd have dealt with today's unskilled superheavyweights. One didn't beat him with size.
People don't realize John Henry Lewis had a run at HW before losing that fight. The Ray fight was scheduled for 15 the last of several 15 rounders he won. Since the earlier Braddock loss was considered a robbery Lewis had a pseudo title claim as Braddocks inactivity started to mount. The crazy thing about John Henry Lewis is he retired before his 25th birthday with over 100 wins. Just think about the bonkers resume he could have put together if he retired at 35.
I terms if demolsihing a proven opponent... M. Baer Schmeling II Walcott II Conn II Carnera/Godoy II/Nova/BBaerII
We're absolutely on the same page here. It does JHL a considerable disservice that the Louis blowout is how he ended his career. Reportedly he was going to finish by defending against Len Harvey in a rematch, but his eyes let him down when examined. Otherwise he'd be far better remembered. Braddock's final three career outings were his best. He said the first four rounds against Louis were as good as he ever got, before the Bomber's superiority combined with Jimmy's mounting arthritis turned the fight. Still, it took a technically perfect right hand, elbow completely tucked in on the drive through (with a perfect camera angle to catch it from behind Joe) to produce a result nobody else was ever able to inflict on Braddock.
