Sam Langford vs joe Louis

I've got Louis,I think his jab makes the difference, but he could well hit the deck here ,and a loss by ko would not astonish me.

 

Louis takes this easily.

Louis>Wills>Langford.

 

I disagree.

 

I think Louis

 

I got Louis. Only a handful I pick against him.

 

Don't want to come across like a smart Alec but Louis has got Jack Blackburn in his corner. Chappie was one of the great trainers and fought Langford several times. He would devise the strategy and Joe would carry it out. Poor old Langford, great though he was, hasn't really got a shout here.

 

If under the rule set of Louis' time he probably busts up Langford with his jab and superbly timed counters. If the ref allows a lot of infighting like we see here, Langford does considerably better:

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Louis I think beats him, he can control distance with his jab and then land the combo's. He's gonna get hit though and have to fight.

 

People are right to favor Louis but it should not be treated as a given.

Some food for thought:

Joe Williams on being asked how Sam Langford would do against Joe Louis.

“Just too much of a fighter. There wasn’t anything Sam couldn’t do and if he had a weakness then nobody ever found out what it was. I have plenty of respect for Joe Louis as a hitter, but I can’t see him hitting Sam hard enough to make him mad”

Jack Blackburn

“My boy (Joe Louis) is still two years removed from his prime. By then I will have him in Langford’s class.”

Joe Jeanette

“How that baby could hit. Nobody else could hit like that. Well, maybe Joe Louis could but Sam only weighed 160lbs. Joe Louis was about 195.”

Gunboat Smith

“Langford vs Dempsey both in their prime would have been bad news for Dempsey. He could be hit with a right hand and if anybody had a right hand it was the tar baby. I will go further and declare that Langford would have waded through every heavyweight champion we’ve had including the current soldier boy Joe Louis. Louis is a great champ, but he is inclined to get hot and bothered when the going gets rough. Langford was as cool as an iceberg every minute that he was in there. He never lost his head.”

 

If we all agreed with each other, this forum would be a boring place.

Sam Langford went the distance, no less than
111 times in 245 fights according to Boxrec.
In big fights Sam Langford was actually pretty lazy from what I can understand, long periods of inactivity, lots of holding. He even had fights ended by the ref, due to inactivity.
The only real reference to Langford's defensive ability I can find on Boxrec, is in his bout against Jersey Joe, which does say he looked good defensively.

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I must be missing something, because nothing in this video, gives me any impression that he could perform against Joe Louis. I think Joe Louis would start a flow, that Sam wouldn't know how to stop.

Props to Langford definitely a great fighter, but overcoming a size and skill advantage on a fight is not an easy thing.
Langford couldn't do it consistently to Wills, no way he can with Louis.

 

Langford was a monster but I can't pick against Louis.

 

Blackburn didn't do him much good in either the first Godoy or Schmeling fights.Just an observation.

 

Charlie Rose, who saw many champions and lived past 90 felt Langford was the best. He also said Sam would KO Joe Louis after a few hard rounds of slugging.

While Louis should be viewed as the favorite, if we take a look at how Louis did vs pressure fighters ( Maricnao, Godoy 1, and Galento ) p, Langford's chances go way up.

Langford was a pressure fighter. He had a better chin than Schmeling and IMO hit as hard or harder. I could see an upset.

If might be shocking to some of the younger members of the forum, but Louis wasn't viewed as a top 3 all-time great until the 1960s. Why is a good question, were old-timers in Jeffries, Johnson, and Dempsey viewed as better? To those who lived through the times, the answer is yes. Thankfully there is plenty of film on Louis for us to judge.