I was considered a great champ...But in my first amateur fight I was floored SEVEN times, but I learned as a pro...Who am I ?
Suzie, the opening bell just rang and you flattened me,,,Yes, my favorite heavyweight Joe Louis in his FIRST amateur fight in 1932, was dropped SEVEN times by Johnny Miler, a Detroit lightheavyweight....:good
I wonder what Louis was thinking after the fight, whether he thought he'd still succeed, let alone to the extent that he did. More to the point, I wonder if his opponent had any clue how good Louis would go on to become! Would have loved to get his reaction once Louis had built up that great career, I bet he went on about how he "put that bum down 7 times" to his drinking buddies lol.
Louis did get up 7 times though, which means accorded to Billy Conn is a sign for greatness so to speak.
I posted up something about it a while back. Joe was talked into leaving boxing and getting a job at the Ford plant after that fight. But after working there for a bit, doing hard labor pushing the truck frames to a conveyor belt, Joe was so sore and getting **** pay that he felt if he was going to get paid that little and feel that bad, he should just stick with boxing . Once back in the gym, he basically felt at home. And the rest as they say, is history. :smoke [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKA8f0Oya3k[/ame]
Absolutely. It takes something within you to get up that many times and continue on, especially in that specific situation with having no experience vs. someone with experience.
There was a fighter called Max Marek who also beat Louis as an amateur, and once Louis had made a name for himself, this Marek had 'the man who beat Joe Louis' in writing put above his shop :nut
I believe it was Holman Williams who said he was actually sold on the kid's future after seeing him get up from the canvas so many times. :good "I wasn't sure of Joe until that night he fought Johnny Miller. You remember Miller, of course - a tough, hard-hitting guy who was Michigan State AAU champion of his class. Miller knocked Joe down nine times in three rounds, but Joe was on his feet at the finish. I knew then he had something."
