Should Joe Louis Have Really Struggled With Conn?

There are certainly several factors to consider, such as:

- It wasn’t Louis' best performance.
- He had been very active leading up to the fight, defending his title in each of the previous six months (the "Bum of the Month" tour), including his previous defense less than a month before against the hard-hitting Buddy Baer, who even knock him down. But Conn was pretty active before as well.
- Conn was in his prime and highly motivated.
- Conn's fighting style was difficult for Louis to handle.

However, Conn was also a very good fighter. He was probably the strongest title challenger Louis faced, alongside Walcott and perhaps Schmeling (although Schmeling wasn’t quite at his best anymore). Maybe Conn is a little underrated because he fought in Louis' era and due to his career interruption during WW2. It's quite possible he could have been heavyweight champion in another era.

Conn had an unbeaten streak of about three years, with 19 consecutive wins before he lost to Louis. He knocked out Gunnar Barlund in 8 rounds, clearly defeated Lee Savold on points, dominated Bob Pastor and knocked him out in round 13 in 1940. Pastor was already one of Joe Louis' better opponents, faced the black heavyweight fighters of his time, and was on par with the best in the late 1930s / early 1940s. He knocked out Roscoe Toles and Lem Franklin, defeated Turkey Thompson twice, and split with Jimmy Bivins (W-SD and L-SD).

But back to Conn, all of this suggests that Conn was one of the top heavyweight boxers of his time, second only to Joe Louis.

All things considered, I think it’s quite plausible that Louis could have struggled against Conn.

 

"Tokyo Douglas", "FOTC Frazier", "New York Polo Grounds Conn"................

 

I was not suggesting 23 is always superior to 32. But look at the fighters' careers. Conn was peaking, active, ambitious. Spinks was winding down taking a pay-day, already achieved the ultimate goal, and yes, i don't think his legs/knees were in good shape.

 

The Chavez-Taylor of the 1940s, except that Louis had more than 2 seconds to win when he won.

 

I gained more respect for him after reading the book about his life.

 

The key also is ring age....Wilfredo Gomez for example was entirely worn down by 29 with the poundage he took against the likes of Salvador Sanchez, Lupe Pintor, Azumah Nelson, Rocky Lockridge and, to a lesser extent, Dyong Yum Yem, Leo Cruz and Juan Laporte.

It also happens in the entertainment world. Ricky Melendez, of boy band Menudo, was hospitalized due to wearing out, when he was 14 and a half!!! Those boys sometimes had to do 3 two hour concerts in one day, and sometimes they had to do a concert in the morning, board a helicopter, fly to another city, do another concert in the afternoon, board another helicopter, fly, do a third concert in another city and board a third helicopter and fly to their hotel to sleep, to repeat the same sequence the next day. And they were the Latin Beatles, these concerts were not run of the mill things. Many times , crazied fans would get on stage and throw them to the floor or to the crowds....sometimes security and police were not enough to hold the fans behind the fence. You can get an idea of what it was t be in that band on a daily basis by watching the first ten minutes of this video:

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I guess it depends on how much pounding you have pyshically taken even if you are young.

But yeah 23 and 32 are generally, very young, I wish i was 23 or 32 still!!