Who would you expect to beat Joe Louis at his absolute peak ?

Janitor,

Louis had mundo issues with good boxers, and his defense was to blame. Check the Schmeling, Pastor, Farr, Conn, Walcott, Chalres, or Conn films. They rarely missed. The skilled boxers landed on Louis for three reasons.

1 ) A low guard.

2 ) A stick your face forward type of stance that shortened the distance between his head and the other fighter.

3 ) Easy to time and predict footwork that lacked lateral or circular movement, or dynamic bursts of speed.

If you tally it all up, you’ll see what I am talking about. I would call Louis defense and footwork average at best. He could not clinch or block shots well either. Louis was decent ducking or parrying shots. Much of Louis defense was a feared offense

The punchers who landed on Louis either visibly shook him up on film, or knocked him down. Louis could not recover from one good shot from Schemling. I would call Louis chin average among heavyweight champions. It was suspect vs solid punchers, and questionable to big punchers.

 

Not as ridiculous as the Peter McNeely vs Jack Dempsey thread. I think that thread was meant to be facetious though. McNeely was able to "envelope Tyson in a cocoon of horror" before being stopped in one himself.

 

I never said he had poor defence, but his defence is certainly not top-class. Watching film is enough to see that he is open to be hit by accurate punchers.

As far as a suspect chin, he got knocked out by Schmeling and Marciano. The second was past his prime and against an elite puncher, but it must be counted when we are comparing chins, because guys like Ali and Foreman didn't get knocked out when they were past their prime and facing elite punchers...

I have my doubts about how hard Schmeling can punch. I'm sure he was in the upper tier of the 1930s, in fact he was one of the best of the 1930s, but a ~190lb man can only punch so hard (this includes talk about Marciano and Demspey, though). If Schmeling can do it, then there's no reason for a bigger, harder puncher being unable to repeat the feat.

 

I disagree with the Klitschko notions.

Wladimir has a glass jaw. He might be the favorite, but anybody who can punch is at the very least a very live underdog against Wladimir.

Vitali didn't really do anything. His shining moment is a gruesome TKO loss to a very old Lennox Lewis...most of his "demolition victories" are over complete cans. He has very few good wins over ranked, prime, legit contenders.

 

I don't think Klitschko's chin is as bad as people think. He was ambushed and caught cold against Sanders. In the other two loses he just gassed out. I don't recall mentioning Vitali in my post. Vitali had a great chin and punch but less overall ability than his younger brother.

 

I think it's a bit unfair to compare Louis with today's top boxers, since boxing and boxers have evolved. If Louis had been active today and at his prime he would be bigger and stronger while retaining the handspeed and skill of the Louis of ca 1937-1942. The only fighter I would bet on against a Louis that's active today is Ali, because of his blinding speed and fantastic skill.

 

How could you possibly conclude that boxing had evolved in any positive way by comparing Louis to the heavyweight beltholders of today?

Putting some of these these overweight slugs in the ring with Louis would be cruelty to children.

Would you want to watch what Louis would do to Peter, Ibragimov or Chagev?

 

Then show me where I went wrong besides saying I disagree with just about every point you made. I have films, news reads, and specific rounds to show you why I feel my points are correct.

 

If Louis had been a small heavyweight with slow, predictable footwork, a "stick-your-face-forward" type stance (!), a low guard and a questionable chin, he would've been decapitated. We're talking about a guy who fought literally dozens of world class opponents and was stopped only once in 70 professional fights prior to his swansong against Marciano, and even then went seven rounds on his feet with one of the hardest hitters of all time before he was finally taken out. A fighter with the make-up described by Mendoza would have been iced numerous times in all those big fights.

 

If Billy Conn almost acheived it.. Then a prime Larry Holmes would have pecked and poked his way to dismantling the smaller slower Louis. Joe was a damn living legend .. God Bless J L Barrow..

 

Nobody.