What if Joe Louis never became a boxer? Who'd have been champ?

We are thinking along similar lines here.

 

Perhaps Lou Nova, and then . . . Two Ton Tony Galento!!!

 

Janitor's right. These are great possibilities:good. Stuff like this is the reason I read the Classic.

 

And I'm just enjoying the ride, Brother. Thanks again:good

 

Maybe Walcott gets the chance to actually completely replace Louis. Wasn't Blackburn supposed to set a sparring match between them to decide who he would train but Walcott got sick and didn't make it? Without Louis Walcott might be the dominant force then and be in everyone's top ten now. A well fed and trained by Blackburn young prime Walcott would be a nightmare for many fighters.

 

Possible but there are so many unknowns with that.

We just can’t be sure how Walcott would have fared in the pre-war division, with good financial support.

 

Walcott did not have the consistency of Louis, he had flashes of brilliance. He was able to win rounds against great fighters making it look easy.

You could see a highlight reel of early rounds against Louis, Marciano and the swathe of contenders he beat with the coup de grais being his ko of Charles. You could watch it and be convinced he was a great fighter.

But unfortunately a fight is 15 hard rounds, not a 30 second highlight reel. Walcott wasn't consistent enough in his younger "physical prime" days nor was he consistent enough in his older "boxing prime" days.

 

Ezzard Charles' wife was white. He seems to have got away with it.

 

Louis ducked Johnson and Moore. He also ducked lamatta.

 

Louis ducked inside ropes and that's about it

 

I've never read anything about his family or whether he had children.Nothing other than his boxing career and the fact that he was a first class gentleman.
Cheers :good

 

I think Braddock is getting a hard deal here. He was as good as Farr in his last ever fight. And Farr was as good or no better than anyone. Guys like Nova, Burman, Farr, pastor, Ettore, Godoy and Max Baer were all about the same kind of level during this period.

Without Louis to beat where was the big splash for Schmeling to make? He was still yesterday's news.

Nova had two wars with Baer. I cannot decide if those wars (even though he won them) or the Louis fight finished Lou off. If it was the Louis fight that finished him off then Nova would have been a better fighter against Savold than he was. Until Savold beat him Nova had a big profile.

On reflection, Nova has the real edge over the early 1940s guys. Without Louis he could have been a great champion. I think Arcel spoke very highly of him and he did look champion material versus Max Baer.

The Galento fight was a serious blip on the way to the title but it proberbly came too soon after the first Baer fight. Novas wins either side over a max Baer who beat galento (and ruined Pat Comisky who with Nova looked the next best up coming star) for me over shadow the Gelento loss.

Interestingly, on radio, the Gelento v nova fight sounded a more competative and less foul filled affair than the scribes made it. For such a dirty fight and with a neutral crowd in Philadelphia, I could not hear any boos at all.

 

I have looked for film of the Galento fight to no avail, I assume it doesn't exist. I had the same reaction after reading about and listening to the audio!

 

Yes this business of it being a foul filled disgrace must be an urban myth. It was a big fight, huge crowd, both fighters interviewed on the radio afterwards and no immediate controversy about foul tactics. I've seen the famous photo of Nova leaving hospital with bandages and alarming swollen face but there wasn't any more alarm about his condition as he was interviewed. The listener of the broadcast would not have felt as though Nova was any more Marked up than the average loser.

I wonder why that "nova was disgracefully treated" spin was put on the result afterward? It certainly wasn't there during or immediately after the fight was it?

Perhaps there was a campaign to resurrect Novas profile by using the foul play angle?


Nova looked an excelent fighter against a still very good Max Baer. I've seen both fights.

Is there film of Louis vs Nova?

Time has forgotten that the Nova title fight was actually something of a show down and one of Joe Louis's highest grossing title fights.

The public certainly bought into Nova more than any other challenger.

 

Give me a break, stuff did not get reported. One had to go out of there way to get reported. 25 years later JFK was whoring up in the White House and the Heavyweight Cham9 Sonny Liston was trying to pay off hookers with sandwiches.

You had to work at it for 5th estate to pinch someone once they were in. The Brown Bomber was banging Mae West, Lana Turner,and Ava Gardner without it getting reported and yet it not being a secret.