Feeding him to Baksi while enjoying a top 5 rating was probably a bad move, but he would have been exposed sooner or later. The Baksi fight supposedly ruined his eye but even than his rebuilding was finely crafted with winnable matches against rated Oma and LHW Champion Mills. He got more cracks at the LHW Champion than Charles, Marshall..etc.
Marshall wrecked Mills,and Charles would have dissected him. The Daily Mirror's post fight headlines for the Oma fight were, "Oma Coma Aroma". Lee Oma ? Who would ever bet on one of his fights? In his next bout, 2 months later, he kod Tommy Gomez inside a round!
The only anomaly I can think of is Bert Gilroy ,who was clearly world class despite never beating anyone of that calibre .
Absolutely. Ome is the definition of erratic, he makes Satterfield look predictable and stable. If they fought more than twice, they could have traded wins for eternity.
Louis's, Ko stats indicate his power was largely a thing of the past,three stoppages in his last 10 fights . He marked up Charles with his jab ,as he did Marciano but his right hand was in a scabbard of rust. The Savold fight was a year before Louis fought Marciano. I'd go with Walcott as Rocky's hardest hitting opponent myself.
I would pick Walcott because he was more potent at the time he fought Marciano. Walcott was dangerous against anyone. He decked a lot of the guys he went the distance with. However, regarding Louis's right hand, it was not so much in a "scabbard of rust" because as you know he decked Agramante with it just months before. Three stoppages in his last ten fights is not the whole story because (as you know) five of those fights were with three guys who nobody was knocking out at that time one was champion Charles. Nobody knocked out Brion and two of the ten fights were with him. Agramonte went the distance with a lot of big punchers Cleveland Williams included. Louis also fought him twice within those ten fights. It's not like it was seven separate opponents. One was the champ. Four of the fights were with two guys nobody was stopping during that period! Bivins, Charles, Brion and Agramonte were the only guys that went the distance with Louis during those last ten fights. Who else was knocking them out during that period? Why should that explain such a drop off in power? Didn't cagey Tommy Farr push prime Louis all the way in his prime years? It's not like even the best heavyweight of all time knocked every fighter out is it? Let me confirm, Louis was not as potent but he was still a relevant, current contender in his own right. He was not dug up. In fact George Foreman had the same record in his last ten fights. One of them was Crawford Grimsby...
Agramonte was stopped by Walcott less than a year prior to facing Louis ,he was down 4 times,he had also previously been kod by Pat Comiskey. Three months after facing Louis ,Agramonte was on the deck 8 times against Bob Baker ! Baker stopped him in their other fight. Clarence Henry had him down twice too. Flooring Agramonte once in 20 rds is no great feat. What is significant imo is that upon arising Agramonte took the fight to Louis and held his own in the trade off. That would not have happened if Louis still had anywhere near his former reflexes and firepower. Louis was still a contender when he fought Marciano, but no longer a top tier puncher ,and imo not a 2nd tier one either. Louis injured his right hand early against Farr that has to be factored in their fight. I don't believe Agramonte,Brion, or Charles would have gone the distance with a prime Louis. Louis said ,in his prime he would have taken Charles out inside 8 rounds. The stats and more tellingly the films, show us Louis's power was greatly diminished.
Agramante was tough though, you can tell watching their fight he was a live capable guy. Walcott was a good puncher so there is no shame in being stopped by him or Comisky when you fought that often at that level. Louis put him down and Agramonte proved to be as game as he was against all the other punchers who he got off the floor to go the distance with like Henry and Dunlap. He decked Oma and Dunlap himself. Punchers a like Elkin Brothers, John Holman, Cleveland Williams could put a dent Omilio Agramonte over the full distance. So whilst he did not stop him Louis was in good company putting Agramonte down like he did. The Brion fights were competative and fast paced. Nobody stopped Brion until his final year as a pro. Joe rocked big and game Cesar a few times and let go quite a heavy two handed combination at the final bell of their filmed fight proving he still had plenty on that right hand. You can tell Louis hit hard in that fight.