What do you think of John McGlothlin view on Joe Louis?

He fought Walcott twice and 1 of his 3 losses was to Charles, 2 of the greatest fighters of all time

 

Among the decent and well known points, there are some horrible points such as:

Ali rating higher because he regained the title. Joe could have lost the title every other fight and regained it a dozen times or so. But Joe didn't lose the title. Ali did.

Joe waiting "till the last year of his reign" to face Walcott in hopes that Walcott was slowing down. A) Louis somehow knew it was the last year of his reign? That makes no sense. Joe and Jersey Joe were the same age and Louis was slowing down a lot more and a lot faster than Jersey Joe, who was seeing a late stage renaissance.

The only fast fighter in his prime Joe faced was Conn. Bob Pastor was pretty quick and had very elusive footwork. Say what you will about Walcott's age, he had recently beaten Oma, Bivens, Ray, Murray and Sheppard (some of the guys Louis supposedly ducked) when Joe had his duo with him. That was as good a run as Walcott ever had.

And worst of all, this crap...

• Louis’ vaunted military service during WW2 was anything but. He made a deal with the government to shill for them in return for never seeing combat, toured with a segregated all Black unit, never complained about it, or did anything to help Black servicemen achieve equality

He was "shilling" for the armed forces that were facing two existential threats to the nation? Shilling? And he got a helluva lot closer to combat as Dempsey or Ali and just as close as Marciano. BTW, where was Jersey Joe during the war? Oh, that's right he had 6 children which put him way down the draft list.

 

Joe louis fought a lot of black folks in unofficial matches also he knocked out in the 1st round an atg lhw john henry lewis. Is pretty dumb to asume he evaded black fighters given the context of that era

 

There's some interesting stuff on quora and some dreck.

 

Louis refused to box exhibitions in the UK before segregated audiences of troops. Marciano's closest brush with action was mugging a civilian in Wales he was in the stockade when his unit went to France.

 

It was metaphysically impossible to "shill" for the armed forces in World War II, a completely righteous war. Hell, peaceniks like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie joined the damn Army.

 

Should Louis get some extra points for not losing the title in his 12-year rein?? I know Ali got strip, and I am not knocking that against him, but Louis made sure that there was no Joe Frazier in his era to question his championship status. If Ali won the FOTC, the thought of Frazier being the true heavyweight champ would sound foolish. I do think Ali should lose major points in the lost to Spinks though. I don't care how "Shot" you may be, you can't go losing to 7 fight novices. At least Louis loss to ATGs like Charles and Marciano.

 

Okay, I see a lot of Louis fans on this page, but some facts they are presenting to attack John McGlothlin are just wrong.
Here are the plain facts -
Louis did not fight a black heavyweight for almost 14 years. Doubt it? Go check his record, its true.
The only black man Louis fought during that 14 year period was a half blind light heavyweight in his last fight, with Joe trying to send him into retirement with a big payday. If you doubt it, goggle John Henry Lewis.
Louis ducked ranked black contenders during his bum of the month club to fight unranked white fighters, again, if in doubt, check the record.
Louis bought the title, period. He paid Braddock to break a contract with the number one contender and then fight him instead. That also is on record.
The guy who said Louis was vulnerable to fast movers was his trainer, Jack Blackburn. Other boxing people, like Manny Steward, noted it historically. That wasn't something a modern fan made up, Louis's trainer said it after the first Conn fight.
I don't care about what someone else posts, but if you are going to attack it, try telling the truth. Louis bought the title and ducked every black heavyweight for going on 14 years. Those are facts.

 

Should Louis just denied the likes of Simon a title shot when they were beating the top black fighters to get the title shot? And a good 3 of those years were frozen, We have to face facts here, the black contenders really did not rise until after the war.

 

You might try doing a tiny bit of checking before writing complete garbage. Dempsey volunteered for WW2, and fought with the Navy at Okinawa, going ashore even. He was the oldest line commander during WW2.
As for the fast mover, argue with hall of fame trainer Manny Steward, who said folks close to Louis in Detroit told him Louis's team wsa careful to keep him away from fast heavyweights. Or argue with his trainer, who said after the first Conn fight Joe had trouble with fast movers.
Do a tiny bit of checking before vomiting complete silliness.

 

I’ve read some of his stuff, and while he does cite a lot of sources, I always feel like he’s made his mind up in advance and is picking things to make his case. Heavy bias to Liston, Holmes and Hagler to the point of being repetitive.
I remember him doing an H2H of Hagler vs Calzaghe, and said Marvin would be “too strong”, with zero evidence to back it up….he completely hand waved the difference between Middle and Super Middle, suggesting that they’d have met at a catchweight, which he thinks wouldn’t have made a difference to either fighter. That’s easy for him to say.
That was the last one of his I read…too much bias.

 

You are wrong. Lem Franklin was ranied #2 and Simon #6 when Simon was picked over him.

 

Going by achievement an longevity, Louis will alway be up at or near the top maybe until mankind becomes extinct but h2h matchups , he wouldn’t be near the top 2

 

I checked. Dempsey lied about supporting his family and got a free pass to be a slacker. They staged some photos with Jack working in overalls and spats. Jack Kearns bought off Maxine so she wouldn't testify against him at the trial. Then she "died" in a fire in Mexico, only to live another 20 years. Memory-holed, you might say.

Dempsey knew what he did, joined the National Guard during WW2, then got a commission in the Coast Guard, landed on Okinawa unopposed, not a shot fired in his direction, and called it good. Brave warrior.