Ive seen many comments about Joe Louis doing fantastic in this era. I personally don't see it. Spectacular hand speed but the foot speed would really put a dent in matchups such as Tyson Fury. How would he fare with the top 5 heavies today? Lets say Whyte, Wilder, Fury, Usyk, and good ol' Joshy.
5-0 or 4-1. No current heavyweight throws combos the way Louis did. Say all you want about his foot speed, but he always was in perfect position to throw a punch. His jab was a battering ram, and his threw his combos off the jab. He wasn’t tossing wide punches. His combinations were short and devastating.
Fury and Usyk would beat him imo. Wilder can win, if he somehow manages to land one right hand. I mean he landed it against Fury, who has better head movement than Louis. A record of 3-2 or 2-3.
Tyson Fury and Usyk school him with ease. Joshua ? Nah Joshua's chinny ass might get knocked out. Whyte gets blasted out (LOL) I'd give Wilder a decent chance to lay him out based on sheer speed and power though Louis would be the favourite. Those 2 are perfect examples that make me question whether boxing has evolved or not. Absolutely abysmal technique
He has has weird style whee he would shuffle along, and then all of a sudden come to life, and WHAM! He was obviously not fleet of foot, but I think that there was some playing possum, or maybe just timing his tremendous bursts of speed. I don't know, but as you noted, it worked. By the way, he would start out as a cruiser, unify the belts, and move up. So I would say that he would do very well.
Sugar Ray Robinson said as much, I believe it was in a bit at the end of Joe Louis' autobiography. But he points out how people may look back at Joe and assume that fighters that came afterwards would beat him as he was deemed to be flat footed, when in actuality he had great footwork, as he was always in position to throw his punches with everything behind them....and I reckon that Sugar Ray guy may have known what he was on about lol
