Who wins: Anthony Joshua or Joe Louis?

Skills vs Size
I'll take Louis.

 

I love the old time classic boxers and have tons of respect for them, especially guys like Joe Louis. And I do often pick the old timers to win against modern fighters in these fantasy match-ups. However, when it comes to heavyweights, I just have a tough time seeing the classic fighter overcoming the huge size difference more often than not. So while I think Louis is certainly capable of beating AJ, especially if he lands one of those short right hands right on the chin, I still have to go with AJ being the more likely victor here. And I almost hate to say that because Joe Louis is one of my favorite fighters (and by the way, I do like AJ too and don’t really understand why he gets so much hate on here). But it is almost like my heart wants to say Louis, but my brain is telling me to pick Joshua.

 

Joe Louis is superior in ability however he is also too small to beat AJ. He was barely a cruiserweight by modern day standards.

 

he was 205lb in his prime so he's still heavyweight by today's standards, just a very small one. Holyfield wasn't much bigger at all. But honestly i do think Joshua would win (dont let the classic forum see this). In this particular fight Joshua would be dealing with the significantly better inside fighter so he'd probably fight Louis at range and use his size to his advantage and counter when needed. He'd probably also be able to manhandle Louis in the clinches because he's likely significantly stronger than Max Baer. I think he'd stop him.

 

Joe Louis better inside fighter faster handspeed I'd pick him to be joshua although joshua is a livedog

 

Good grief... another nostalgia thread.

No question Joe Louis was great - for his era. Until he got older he wasn't much more than a CW. Louis was also on the chinny side.
AJ and many modern HWs beat Louis relatively easy. There is a reason for weight divisions.

 

Anthony would never lose to joe who was a lw and moved way to lose it's obvious

 

If ussyk can kick AJ's ass, then joe louis can too. Joe louis is the best HW champion in history.

 

We've literally just watched Joshua fight a smaller guy and fail to use his size to his advantage in the slightest... and people are still saying AJ because he is bigger?

Edit: didn't notice most the posts are from before AJ lost to Usyk. My point still stands for anyone about to come in here and pick AJ due to size though.

 

I was going to come in here and start making jokes about how Joe would beat him

But because people genuinely believe Joe could beat AJ I've got to state that you're on crack. Every fighter from the 30's gets mutilated by Big Femi and if they even saw Fury they'd retire.

 

Maybe Joe wouldn't fight Anthony. After all, if he managed to beat Joshua somehow, he might be forced to fight Fury next. And we all know how poorly Joe did with bigger men.

 

Louis was not 6'2 himself. 6'1.

 

Usyk is better than Louis. Cement feet Louis will get his head knocked off.