Zhang vs Joe Louis

buddy baer had 53 knockouts out of 57 wins

he was ranked in RINGs top 100 punchers of all time. He could whack with that left hook. He was also 6’6 240lb with an 84” reach

 

Louis KO 6 Zhang

 

giant size difference. pick louis with not much confidence.

more interested how anyone can watch primo carnera stumbumbling his way through fixed fights and think he could beat zhang's sparring partners sparring partner.

 

Zhang is better in every department, faster hands, better combination puncher, harder puncher, faster feet, better chin, I can’t see anything that Carnera is better at.
Unless you’re being satirical…

 

Workrate, jab and stamina.

 

but what if you only took evidence from actual boxing matches where the mafia haven't told his opponent what to do?

 

I don't think that affects the points i made.

Give me a list of his fights that were without a doubt fixed and i will take a look at them.

 

every single fight where owney madden was his manager.

edit - this isn't some modern cospiracy, i have a book about madden from 1987 that talks about it.

 

Zhang doesn’t waste punches, that ‘workrate’ from Carnera would land him in serious trouble like Joyce, he’d be hitting Carnera at will, timing Carnera’s jabs with stiff left hands and right hook follow ups, Carnera’s higher workrate would allow Zhang to punch inbetween Carnera’s punches since he’s much quicker, he’d land often, also you can’t use the jab in the same way whatsoever against a southpaw.

 

The fact is his workrate is higher than Zhang's whose output is glacial.

The rest is opinion.

Jabs can absolutely be great weapons against southpaws. Loads of paws also had great success establishing a dominant jab against righties with Hagler and Whitaker being high on the list. It's simply the same in reverse.

 

that's fair.

my assessment is that the only worse looking lineal hw is corbett and there's context to that. he was very ahead of his time in terms of the physical aspects of boxing and i think fitzimmons looks alrite yet corbett was doing ok till he got ko'd.

carnera looks slow as hell. his basics are awful, big and looked in shape.

then there's the fact he was managed by a gangster and some of his biggest fights have been questioned since the day they happened.

 

Rest assured i'm not calling him a great heavyweight, just supporting my opinion.

 

The knockouts were generally against guys not known for durability who were generally not world class. Can't imagine what results would put him in the rings top 100 but even by the standards of his own era he doesn't stand out in terms of the results he was able to achieve.
Lem Franklin and Curtis Sheppard were likely bigger hitters despite being 40-55 pounds lighter and Max Baer absolutely has far more impressive knockout credentials despite being a big light heavyweight/small cruiserweight.

 

Big Bang bangs everything and he would bang slow Joe Louis into next week. Louis hated southpaws and big punchers. Zhang is more refined than Carnera and hits far harder than he does. He counters Joe all night just like Schmeling did.