Why did Louis go down against Galento, Baer, Braddock, and Walcott?

Pretty much a little bit of everything you said. A little bit of lax in defense, a little bit of meh chin, a little bit of power and talent (they were top contenders after all), a little bit of fluke.

Honestly sometimes I feel that Louis is caught off balance. If one takes a simple look at his career, you could come to the conclusion that he was easy to drop but hard to knock out. My theory somewhat explains that.

 

You could argue in his defense that they were all dangerous punchers, but each case is a bit different.

Braddock was out to throw him a bit of a curve ball, and just maybe Louis underestimated him a bit.

In the Galento fight I think that he got careless. Galento had got under his skin, and Louis wanted to teach him a lesson.

Baer just hit like a freight train, and his size forced Louis to come to him.

Walcott was a very slick counter puncher, and just found ways to make him walk into traps.

In all it was a number of factors. The abnormally high number of ranked contenders that Louis fought was a significant risk factor. Louis's style required him to put himself in harms way, and yes you may even take it as a mark against his chin, to a fair an proportionate extent.

 

Years ago I read a story - perhaps it’s apocryphal- and I don’t remember the exact details but here’s the story:
A trainer had a hot prospect that he was wanting to show off to another trainer. He has the other trainer come to his gym to watch the bad ass tee off on some hapless sparring partner. The hot shot nails the sparring partner and he falls but gets back up. The sparring partner gets dropped again and gets back up. This goes on a few more times. The one trainer asks the other what he thinks about the prospect? The other trainer says I want to know who’s the kid that keeps getting back up?
The sparring partner was Joe Louis. Don’t know if it’s true or not but it’s a cool story.

 

Poor chin, defensive shortcomings, dangerous punchers....

He got sent to ***** street against Conn, who couldn't punch his way out of a wet paper bag...

Louis had one of the worst chins of any HW champ in history.

 

Galento had a style that you couldn’t really prepare for and no other fighter could mimic it in sparring. Also, Galento would often leave himself wide open to the left hook in order to bait his opponent to hook with him, but Galento was always in a position that he’d land first. Louis made a textbook mistake of hooking with a left hooker and paid for it.

Walcott was extremely clever and pretty much the full package as a fighter. His only short coming was getting proper management very late into his career. Walcott had the combination of timing, handspeed, and power to make any heavyweight pay for even the most minor mistake.

Louis in the Braddock fight was still somewhat inexperienced and underestimated Braddock, so he tried to force an early knockout and paid for it.

No explanation needed for Baer, since he could knock any fighter into next Tuesday. This also goes for his brother Buddy as well.

 

OK so let me get this straight.

He wen't for ten years domination the heavyweight division without getting stopped, yet he not only had one of the worst chins of any heavyweight champion, but he also had defensive shortcomings?

That is simply not possible.

If he was not proficient in either chin, or defense, or both to some extent, he would have got stopped a lot!

 

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Yep ,a little of them all .This is why I'd fear the worst if Louis had to face Foreman ,Dempsey ,Tyson or Lewis .Not sure Joe s chin survive s what they'd dish out .

 

Boom goes the dynamite. You hit this one on the head.

 

It was Buddy who floored him,not Max ,although technically he put him halfway through the ropes.

 

Every case of a Boxer getting knocked down is a moment, which has its own set of unique circumstances and characteristics and so, I'm not sure any of the above can satisfactorily answer the question relating to Joe Louis, specifically.

Persistent, offensive rampancy in Heavyweight Boxing, against ranked opponents, represents a succession of significant high-risk ventures. Even heavyweight out-boxers can be floored (Ali; Holmes) so the occupational hazard for boxer-punchers seems a given, to me.

Louis fought inside of the danger zone, as a matter of course - and, as such, he had to have some defensive savvy, in order to do so and survive. As an offensive fighter, I think he was capable of defending quite brilliantly, at times, with basic ducking, slipping and countering skills - and, despite his much maligned footwork, he could also use his feet to avoid danger, if needed.

However, that his patient, continual risk-taking saw these risks realized, on occasion, is no mystery.

 

Why did Wlad get KOed by Purrity, Sanders and Brewster?