Wlad on his best night vs Prime Joe Louis, assessed with your head, not y'r heart.

For the record I dont think that Louis would be a particularly small heavyweight today.

Look at him next to Sonny Liston or Muhamad Ali. He is huge. I think he would easily have the frame to carry 220 lbs or more if he were given to a modern trainer.

Weight can be misleading in many ways.

I think that Chris Byrd would have been a small heavyweight if he had been brought along in Louis's era and that David Haye would have been a large heavyweight yet one is a cruiserweight today and the other is a heavyweight.

 

Truthfully, I think Louis was just fine at the weight that he was without having to put on much to compete in today's era. Being 200 Lbs, didn't stop him from utterly destroying giants like Carnera, Baer or Simon. If I were his trainer today, I might be inclined to adding maybe another 10 pounds of muscle, bringing his weight up to a still very lean 210 Lbs, but that's about it. I don't see a 230 pound Louis being necessarily better. Fighters today put way too much emphasis on being as big as possible and consequently, I don't see them benefitting much from it. Nikolay Valuev looks like **** at 330 Lbs in my opinion. Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chavaev and Samuel Peter are not particularly pretty looking, nor very impressive at their current weights either. We also have to remember that men like Evander Holyfield began his career at cruiserweight, and ended up around 210Lbs, yet he was possibley the best or one of the best heavyweights who fought over the last 20 years.

 

Can the 16 people who picked Wlad to win please hang their heads in shame.

 

joe louis is one of my 5 favorite boxers but he didnt have a great chin. 168 pound Billy Conn shook him up. That slob Galento had him down.

This might be the case of whoever lands first will win. Louis didn't have an attacking style. He waited for his opening. He might be too willing to sit at a distance. He needs to get inside to unleash those hellacious combinations. That will be difficult considering his style and Wlad's size, jab, and movement.

The best Wlad i have seen was the one who fought Brewster in the rematch and would be a handful for anyone. He was throwing 70 punches a round (about 50-60 jabs), moving, hooking off the jab, and throwing uppercuts. Very hard to call for me.

I wonder who Bert Sugar would pick? :think

 

I made the Holmes analogy to show that you don't have to face offensive masters (they are rare) to be known to have a good defence.

Of course Louis had a better arsenal than anyone Wlad fought.

I agree.

 

How can you be so sure?

In my opinion, Klitschko punches as hard as or harder than anyone Louis ever faced and brings it with better speed and delivery as well. A knockout win for him is certainly not out of the question, although it is more likely that Louis finds the knockout before Wlad does.

 

You tell me to read up on my history yet don't have any idea whatsoever that the reason the fight was stopped was due to the three knockdown rule being in effect, and it was indeed the third time Witherspoon had been down? Hell, it looks like you don't even know Witherspoon was down three times!

Man, this is just priceless

It was no typo, it was yet another false fact to suit your particular stance. If that's a typo i'd hate to see BS

The smileys are due to me having trouble staying on my chair

 

Holmes defence was excellent, but he did have a penchant for getting hit with a few too many right hands at times, sometimes due to a hanging jab or similar.

 

Correct. Even Louis most educated fans have to admit the best boxers he faced in Pastor, Schemling, Conn, Walcott, and Charles all gave him a very hard fights. Louis had mondo problems with a jab and good footwork, and Wlad’s jab and range would be an even greater obstacle for Louis.

Wlad Klitschko has more gifts than any of these guys, and if he is fighting a slow footed / low guard temp type of fighter in Louis, he cold very well blow him out.

Louis could not win the way Purrity or Brewster did. He could win the way the way Sanders did, though I think Sanders style was far different than Louis’ was.

 

Wlad's defence is crap.

You guys are talking about him like he was a giant Canto.

 

Wlad is not easy to catch. He moves his feet well, has a great guard, and fights tall.