The brown bomber's baptism of fire

We are often guilty of looking at fighters records on boxrec and not analyzing what the number's actualy mean. I will use a well known fighter to demonstrate how the detail is somtimes overlooked.

Joseph Louis Barrow turned profesional on the fourth of July 1934 debuting against Jack Kracken.

For his 5th profesional fight six weeks later he took on Buck Everet 39-16-3. Everet was a tough oponent coming off a win over Don Red Barry.

For his 10th profesional fight four months into his career he took on Stanley Porreda who boasted wins over Primo Carnera, Tommy Loughran and Earnie Schaff. This was followed by fights withLee Ramage and Patsy Peroni who were both big players on the heavyweight scene.

Six months into his career he was ranked at No4 by Ring Magazine.

Eleven months into his profesional career Louis took on the previous heavyweight champion Primo Carnera who had only just been releived of the title by Max Baer.

In his fourteenth month as a profesional fighter he took on the recently dethroned Max Baer who was still regarded as the best heavyweight in the world.

He bloted his copy book by loosing to Max Schmeling but the record reveals two things-

1. He had been inactive for six months before the fight despite having fought on a fortnightly basis prior to that period of inactivity.

2. He had been fighting profesionaly for only a year and eleven months at this point.

It is interesting that following this defeat he chose a former champion in Jack Sharkey for his next fight. This was a bold move given that his confidence must have been badly shaken by the loss.

He took the title from Jimmy Braddock only two years and eleven months after his prfesional debut beating the previous record set by Jim Jeffries.

 

This is partley true but he did somtimes choose his own fights. He took the John Henry Lewis fight against the wishes of his managment team.

 

This is probably true but besides the point.

What I am trying to get across is how quickly he was moved allong.

 

Louis is an interesting case because he was the first champion who enjoyed financial suport and good managment from his first profesional fight onwards as most do today.

Although this gave him an advantage over many of his contemporaries his backers wanted a return on their investment and wanted it quickly. They therfore moved him on to better known oponents who would draw bigger gates as quickly as they could.

It is quite remarkable that he did not pick up a couple of loses in this period. He certainly had a couple of close calls.

 

How many fighters can you think of who have taken on a former world champion in their first fight after a loss.

Name em

 

And?

It is not much of a mark against sombody to compare them to Ali.

 

You seem to be evading the question rather. Most champions after a knockout loss take on a tomato can next.

While Sharkey was past his best team Louis would have had to treat him as being as dangerous as Schmeling.

 

He took on Ron Lyle who by this stage had lost to Jerry Quarry, Muhamad Ali and Jimmy Young.

In hindsight it was a dangerous asignment but at the time it might have looked like an easy step back towards contention.