Technically compare Joshua/Wilder/Fury vs 1920s-1950s boxers

From a technical perspective, it isn't close. If you take Louis and compare him to Joshua and Fury, the 2 best names on your list, i am afraid they fall short.

Joe Louis had one of the best straight right hands in boxing history and one of the greatest jabs. Additionally, he had a strong right uppercut and an excellent left hook.

Fury never developed a great left hook. Fury often uses his left as a decoy to set up his right. Whereas Louis was a two handed puncher.

Watch the triple left hook Louis landed on Max Baer. 3 hard fast left hooks on a guy the weight of Wilder who had never been stopped before.

Louis could throw 5-6 punch combinations in 2-3 seconds where every punch in the combination was a hard punch.

Fury can't throw 5-6 punch combinations with power. He is too big. He can throw 2-3 punches in combinations and then he tends to hold as he has to reset himself. On rare occasions, he can throw more than a 3 punch combo but a lot of those are pitty pat shots.

Joshua has a wider range of punches. Jab, right cross, left hook, right uppercut etc. But even then Joshua under utilizes the left hook. And he certainly can't throw combinations with the speed and precision of Louis.

Now defensively Louis could get sloppy and was prone to being knocked down by lesser fighters. So too have Fury and Joshua. I do think pound for pound, Fury has faster feet than Louis. But he is so big that despite his fast feet, he is a relatively easy target. Still, in the interest of fairness, i will give Fury the edge when it comes to defense as i am assuming a 210 lb Fury would be able to dodge punches a bit easier than Louis.

1) Cutting off the ring. Louis even with Fury and Joshua. Louis struggled vs movers but so did Fury and Joshua at times.

2) Combinations. Louis >>>>> Joshua >>>>>>> Fury. And Dempsey too is above those 2.

3) Defense. Fury >> Louis >> Joshua.

4) Ring generalship. This is hard. I would say out of all the guys listed, Louis, Fury and Parker are stand outs. Louis knew how to break down his opponents methodically. Fury knows how to use his size to bully fighters. Parker knows how to stick to his strengths vs harder hitting guys. Schemling also knows how to deal with physically superior fighters. Can't really pick here.

Overall, its a hard question because there are so many fighters involved. I will say this : in terms of combination punching, Louis and even Dempsey are leagues ahead of the modern guys listed. Now if you included Usyk, then i would probably rate Usyk as the second best combination puncher among the whole bunch behind Louis.

I will say the modern guys like Fury and Parker are on the same level as Louis or Schmeling when it comes to ring generalship. They know how to use their strengths and exploit their opponents weaknesses.

Seems to me that the old school guys had better left hooks. Both Louis and Dempsey had outstanding left hooks while none of the modern guys mentioned can be regarded as having atg left hooks.

I will say this though : the modern guys seem better on average at throwing left uppercuts.

 

Not a single heavyweight since his time has gotten close to Louis… expect Toney but that wasn’t his weight lol.

 

Usyk is an Olympic medalist getting paid… Joe Louis is a pro among pros and the only heavyweight I’ve ever seen who could size down to 135lbs with his style.

 

Joshua is really technically sound especially in terms of punching technique and hits like a freight train but Fury's does all these things a guy his size shouldn't be to do like his movement and recovery. Wilder is the least skilled of course but he has a sheer explosiveness that if you aren't a mover he is gonna hit you clean eventually and it's a matter of if you can take it or not then go on the keep outboxing him.

Boxing looked visibly different in those era's and there was more clinching but Joe Louis stands out as a guy who stood ahead of his time. Even nearly 90 years later not many heavyweights can throw punches in combo's like that.

 

Baer is crude compared to Fury, Joshua, Parker, and possibly Dubois.

Baer relied on having a great chin and excellent power in his right. He wasn't well rounded in defense and offense like Parker, didn't have as much skill to box on the backfoot as Joshua or Fury. Baer is pretty much worse than Fury, Joshua and Parker in all categories except for power and chin.

Baer is somewhat in the same league as Joyce and Wilder. Joyce relied on his size and chin. Wilder relied on one punch power. Baer relied on chin and one punch power. I would say Baer hit harder than Joyce and about as hard as Wilder while having a much better chin than Wilder. However, peak Joyce probably has a more consistent work rate than Baer and a better jab. None of these guys are super skilled. I would say Baer is on the same level skill wise as Joyce and probably a bit more skilled than Wilder.

Baer vs Dubois is interesting. I think Dubois has a better jab. I think they are both weak on defense. However, Baer has a better chin. Dubois is probably quicker and physically stronger. Neither is a great technician but given Dubois recent success vs a wide range of styles, i will probably give the overall edge to Dubois.

I need to rewatch a bit of footage of Sharkey and Walcott and i will come back to you on those.

 

Wilder looks like **** in any era.

 

And Joe Louis' punching mechanics conversely looks impressive as fook in any era.