I agree whole heartedly that Louis was an absolute pretender to what he'd been. You are 100% correct. However. It is also 100% correct that Joe Louis was still the legitimate outstanding contender when Rocky beat him and about the same weight as Foreman was against joe Frazier. That's an elite #1 contender. It's perfectly solid and accurate to say so. That version of Joe Louis was still a match for most #1 contenders without being half as good as he once was. In the past 18 months or so Louis had knocked out Elmer Ray, Nino Valdes, Lee Savold, pat Valentino and Freddie Beshore. He'd also beat Cesar Brion and Jimmy Bivins. That's a good run.
Sure because Rocky is the most romanticized fighter on any fight board .. people can play whatever distortion games they like but Rocky never even fought let alone defeated one hard punching, natural 215 - 220 pound fighter remotely near their prime in Witherspoon's talent class. Not one. The closest you have is the shell of Joe Louis .. seriously .. delusional .. I rate Rocky higher P4P than Witherspoon but H2H, get serious ...