Was Billy Conn-Joe Louis I a meeting between the p4p #1 and #2?

If not, who you got?

The fight took place in the summer of 1941. Louis had won 18 title fights in a row, sixteen by KO. He still had two absolutely outstanding performances in his future. He was a cully cove.

Conn had won 19 straight. His victims included Melio Bettina, Fred Apostolinii, Solly Kreiger, Gus Lesnevich and Bob Pastor. He had beaten every man he boxed since July of 1935 (though needed some rematches to beat some of these guys). He too is a cully cove.


Armstrong had just lost, Ray Robinson wasn't quite there yet, Burley lost to Bivins at the end of 1940 -- thoughts?

 

...because...

 

Angott's out I think. Zivic has a better case surely? Zivic just beat Armstrong and had beaten Angott very clearly one year earlier.

Robinson was 20-0 or something like that if i'm not wrong?

Charles had just lost to Ken Overlin, like days before this fight, and he was nowhere at that time.

 

He was, but would he be #1 or #2 having just lost? Wouldn't he at the very least be below Zivic? If so, is Zivic above Conn or Louis?

I don't think Robinson, Pep or Charles had done enough to make the top two in the world.

 

I think Zivic is worth consideration, even though he had posted a loss to Mike Kaplin a few months prior to Louis-Conn. He didn't have the best end to 39/start to 40, but in August 1940 he beat Angott pretty clean by Boxrec. In October he beat p4p #1 Henry Armstrong , nearly killed him in round 15 to pull out the win. I'll lay it out a bit better:

29/08/40 - Beats Angott
04/10/40 - Beats Armstrong
15/11/40 - Raucous DQ2 Of Bummy Davis
15/11/40 - Draw with Lew Jenkins that could easily have gone either way I think.
01/17/41 - Knocks out p4p top five Henry Armstrong
18/04/41 - Mike Kaplan beats Zivic clean
19/06/41 - Billy Conn fights Joe Louis

Note that i've left off some keep busy affairs for Zivic, and that he won all of them. The question is, does Kaplan knock off Zivic, IF Zivic had become p4p #2 behind Louis? I think the answer is yes, what do you think?

 

Well, it is and it isn't. Cochrane wouldn't lift the welterweight championship until after Louis-Conn, for example. Chalky Wright wasn't the featherweight champion yet. He would lift that title three months after Conn beat Louis - in short, this list probably doesn't illuminate what was actually happening on the ground too much at that time, and it might be worth removing or changing.

 

I don't even know what a p4p end of your list is...if it's a sort of composite "who did best this year" thing, then I would have to go for Zivic over both Louis and Conn...if it was just what was happening in February of that year, i've no idea, I can't even work out if it was true on the day they fought! Hence the thread.