He seems to have been a terrific 1930's black heavyweight that fought a large portion of his career in Europe. Fast, strong, big puncher, terrific chin. Louis' mgmt wanted nothing to do w him.
Interesting .. everybody talking about how there were no black heavyweights for Louis to even consider fighting and here was a guy , forgotten by history, that was openly ducked by Schmeling in Europe and no one wanted to go near .. http://dublinlaurenscountygeorgia.blogspot.com/2014/02/obie-walker.html
I would not trust a webside story where Joe Louis twice is called Lewis. From his record Walker seems to be a good but not great competent fighter. Absolutely as good as many of Joe Louis other challengers. His colour was not a problem in Europe, but a black fighter challenging for the title against Louis in America was a no go at that time.
I'm very interested in his series with Elmar Ray. There is something masochistic about the way Ray kept matching him and matching him.
I used to write about the forgotten 30s-40s african american heavyweights...Obie Walker was one of them I became interested in. It was a very deep era, a lot of good african american heavyweights that got shunned from the big picture. I'll write something up on Obie later.
