I just love this knockout. Does anybody else think that this is one of the better knockouts of all time? Just with this supposedly beinig Louis' last fight at the time. It was a beautiful combination of hooks. For me, I never get tired of watching it.
Yeah, it was a great finish to an otherwise dreary fight. Walcott tries to fool Louis with that shuffling and shoulder-swivelling that he does. Louis timed a right perfectly, stopped Walcott in his tracks, and rained in some perfection combination to put Walcott away. Louis should never have come back after that. I know he beat a few guys like Lee Savold and Jimmy Bivins and whoever, but he wasn't the same. After KOing Walcott was the right time to retire, but tax and other debts forced Louis back.
It would have been like if Jordan had retired after the 98 finals-one of the greatest endings to a brilliant career. Unfortunately, in both cases, it wasn't meant to be.
It also reminds me a bit of the Dempsey-Tunney long count knockdown in some ways. An over-the-hill champion with a killer instinct producing one last classic combination when given a chance. The Dempsey-Tunney thing is great. Dempsey slips a Tunney jab and bangs in a right over it, Tunney is slightly stunned, Dempsey senses he's hurt and pulls out a vintage left hook to knock Tunney into the ropes, then a right, then another crushing left hook bang on the button and two or three more rapid fire rights and lefts while Tunney is falling. Tunney had been handling him easy up 'til then. Still Tunney, perhaps with the help of a long count, did better than Walcott against Louis, and got up to survive and win the fight. There's nothing like seeing an aging great fighter turn the clock back for a moment to produce a flash of the brilliance that made them great. Louis-Walcott 2 and the Dempsey-Tunney knockdown are fine examples.
In some ways it was the only time that we ever saw what Louis was really capable of because it was the first time he ever needed to really really pull all the stops out to save a fight.
Even there Louis didnt need to let off a barage like that. I think he knew he had Conn verry quickly.
How about the Conn Fight? Seriously,I know what you mean,Louis said it was his last good finish,poor old Walcott he thought he had to be more aggressive after losing that razor thin dec in the first fight,
