Slickness, Thy Name is Walcott

I just saw that fight on Ringside on ESPN Classic. Walcott seemed like he'd be a nightmare for anybody with that weird ass style. That right hand he dropped Louis with was beautiful.

 

Max Schmeling style. Signature move to floor Louis.

 

The massive heavybag amuses me.

 

Walcott is no Riddick Bowe.

 

A prime Bowe would've crushed Walcott. Jersey Joe would be dominated from the inside and outside. What good are those stupid dance moves when you're getting your head snapped back every few seconds with some monster uppercuts?

In fact, you might say that Riddick Bowe would've had Arnold "creaming" his pants. :hey

 

Walcott is a fascinating case.

He is a tremendous talent who was never given the breaks he needed but still won through despite everything. If he and Joe Louis swaped career circumstances then Walcott might have been a dominant champion and Louis might have been another member of the black dynamite crew.

There has never realy been another fighter like Walcott stylisticaly. I cannot think of anybody who I could compare him to.

 

They make it virtualy imposible to snap your head back with monster uppercuts.

 

Well, being an inaugural inductee of the IBHOF (before that honor was so eggregiously demeaned) was certainly an appropriate representation of his stature in boxing's history. And Jersey Joe remains the oldest universally recognized World HW Champion of all time. (Although Foreman broke his linear record, over four decades later.)

 

Walcott was a testimony to the selftaught, graduate of the literal school of hard knocks, who pull it together relatively late in his career, and armed with his hard earned bag of tricks, became one of boxing's great wizards. It's a pleasure to watch those fights with Louis, Carles and Marciano to see him strut his stuff with that patented walkaway move, and that shoulder weaving routine of his. That shifty move of his to ring center in round seven against Charles in '51 when he threw that classic sneak left hook is one of my alltime favorite highlights. The way he shifted his body to the left in close prevented Charles from seeing the left coming at him and preparing himself for it. It was a masterpiece. And when it was over, Jersey Joe was moved to tears of joy, repeating over and over "thank God", "thank God", instead of the arrogant gloating and ranting that often accompanies a fighter's triumphs these days. Guys like Louis, Charles, Walcott, Marciano and Patterson were not only gladiators in a brutal sport, but more importantly, they were sportsmen and the greatest of gentlemen as well. This one of the reasons I tend to hang out, so to speak in the Classic Forum so much, more so than the General Forum, because I'm slowing becoming more and more disgusted and alienated by the rap/hip-hop culture and the accompanying thuggishness in today's boxing scene. It's rampant of course in all sports, but I don't give a damn about other sports, just boxing, and I like the way it was, and the charactar of the sport as well as the participants of this sport's noble past.

 

That's a sensational KO by Marciano over Walcott i must add.

 

Very True and joe was like a Heavyweight Hopkins in regard to age but he could punch like hell and pinpoint a KO, he was my top slickster/puncher

 

Man, that is frightening. It looks even better up close. I've never seen anyone else who could move quite the way he could.

 

Thanks for the link Minotauro. Walcott was a one of a kind boxer mover. A joy to watch. It does look like Walcott mailed it in vs Marciano in the 2nd fight. IMO, Wlacott could have got up before ten.