Rate Joe Louis' defense

Whitaker suffered multiple kd's throughout the course of his career too. Guess his record can be chalked up solely due to recuperative ability.

 

Difference being, many of those times Whitaker was more off balance than stunned by the hit. When one is dancing around and bending at the waits, that tends to happen sometimes.

 

By the way, I've never said he had a glass chin, in fact I've said he has a decent chin. However, his recuperative abilities are better than his chin, but that doesn't mean his chin was glass

 

And an equal number of those kds (maybe more) were due to Whitaker going down when struck while properly balanced. Still didn't get all that much, though.

 

It wasn't his recuperative abilities, or his chin, or his defense.

It was all of these things in some measure.

It had to be.

Let's look at the only two heavyweights who have rivaled Louis, in terms of longevity, and depth of opposition.

Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes.

Both were defensive specialists, who were renowned for their durability.

Louis has to be at least an 8 in these three variables, to get as far as he did, with the style that he had!

 

Joe Louis was one of the most flawless fighters i have watched. He
was a textbook fighter who was technically very effient and his main
vulnerability was fast footwork. Joe defense wasn't like Chris Byrd
but sound basic's enabled him to block and evade most offensive
punches.

 

Laughable how most here bashing Joe would most likely presume to put Ali above him in terms of defence. I have a question to ask, Can someone tell me who are five guys who were career heavyweights with a better defence then Louis?

 

Everyone has a blind sides but his was among the best. Can you tell me about all the other career heavyweights with a better defence?

 

There was room for improvement.

He could simply have chosen less dangerous challengers!

 

I think his defense was very good. He only got into trouble when he was either complacent or fighting someone who was super awkward

 

I voted very good.

It’s already been said - a puncher like Joe will naturally and unavoidably compromise his D in moments of unconditional offensives - you can’t have your cake and eat it too - and those offensives had a high % success rate anyway.

Though the “economical” angle on Joe might sound cliched, it is still so very true. So later in the piece, Joe might’ve been a bit miserly on a few attributes held in potential, treating bouts like a 9-5 job, punch on, punch off. Had some wake up calls when he ran the budget too fine, then did so much better in the rematches when he understood he was required to splurge out a bit more in the face of the given opponent.

The Baer fight is ALL about what a young, enthused and fully energised Louis was capable of - in all depts. including his D.

That’s why it can be misleading selecting the Louis form this, that or the other fight to face up with a fellow ATG HW.

Give prime Louis the exact opponent in question and he will let it hang out accordingly. And if he happened to trip up the first time, he is THE guy you have to afford doing so much better the 2nd time around - such was his/his teams learning , due adjustments and follow up successes.

 

It must be factored in that prime Louis was always stalking looking for the ko .He was a proactive fighter always on the offense.