Joe Louis, along with Muhammad Ali, are usually the two picks for the greatest Heavyweight of all time. Even if you pick one over the other, there seems to be only a small minority that doesn't consider these two as the 2 greatest Heavyweights ever. No need for more idle talk, let's get into it. Aside from debatably Jack Johnson, Joe Louis had the greatest and certainly the most devastating path of destruction in his wake before getting a World title shot, out of any other Heayvweight in history. As early as his 11th pro fight, he would bestroy the former #8 rated contender Charley Massera in only 3 rounds, who fell out of the ranks after losing to Al Ettore prior to fighting Louis. Only 2 weeks later, he fought the #10 rated Lee Ramage. #6 rated Patsy Perroni would visit the canvas 3 times, but would be fortunate to survive 10 rounds, though he obviously lost. Lee Ramage would fall in 2 in their rematch. A bit later he would beat the #8 rated Natie Brown. He would then proceed to destroy the #4 rated former champion Primo Carnera, before beating #10 rated King Levinsky, and then #1 rated former Champion Max Baer in 4 short rounds. #4 rated Charley Retzlaff wouldn't go past the 1st round. #2 rated Former Champion Max Schmeling would infamously upset Louis in their first encounter, putting out the single best performance of his career. Joe Louis was obviously not happy about that loss. #4 rated and former Champion Jack Sharkey, the man who got the title from Max, would only survive for 3 rounds. #3 rated Al Ettore would only go 5. Future top contender Bob Pastor was also soundly outclassed. Same for Natie Brown in the rematch who only lasted 4 rounds. Thus, he was finally allowed a shot at Braddock's title. Though Braddock only accepted it given the condition that a percentage of Louis's purse would be donated to Braddock for his future fights. Braddock made a good business decision, given how Louis knocked him out unconsious in the 8th, becoming king and would then become the greatest champion the division has ever known. While Braddock would only have one more fight before retiring. In his 1st defense, he would fight #2 rated Tommy Farr, who would put up a respectable showing, despite losing clearly. #3 rated Nathan Mann would only last 3 rounds. #1 contender and former Champ Max Schmeling would famously get massacred in 1 round, in perhaps the most historically significant fight ever. Light Heavyweight champion John Henry Lewis would not fare any better. #1 rated Tony Galento would get stopped in 4 and #2 Bob Pastor would be stopped in the 11th. #2 rated Arturo Godoy would provide himself difficult and Louis would win sloppily. Afterwards #5 rated Johnny Paycheck would be annihilated in 2, before Louis rematched the now divisional #1 Godoy, whose face is what ended up sloppy this time after the match was stopped in the 8th. #3 rated Red Burman would get knocked out by a body punch in the 5th. While not yet rated, Abe Simon, who would be as highly rated as #5 by the end of the year, would visit the canvas four times prior to being stopped in the 13th. Same applied to future contender Tony Musto. #5 rated Buddy Baer was most definitely knocked out by the end of the 7th round, although his team climbed up the canvas before the referee ever made any decision, thus making this a DQ win for Louis. After that, the revered P4P great Billy Conn would put out the most perfect performance a fighter could perform against Louis, leaving him unbalanced, with very little room to attack, and 2 steps behind. However Louis's greatness truly showed when Conn made one mere mistake and got knocked out for it. Top contender Lou Nova was dominated and stopped in 6. Now #4 rated Buddy Baer would get dispatched in a single round similarly to Schmeling. Only difference is, Louis destroyed Max with aggression and brutality. While Baer was destroyed with well thought out technique, punching efficiency, and finesse. #6 rated Abe Simon would be Louis's final win and title defense before the war, signaling the end of his prime. Whereas many aged Champions decide to face weaker competition due to their age and uncertainty of their current abilities, Louis would only face the #1 contenders of the division after his return and prior to his first retirement. Billy Conn would be much less effective in the rematch and would get knocked out by a picture perfect right uppercut and left hook combination. Tami Mauriello would be destroyed in the first round. The excellent Jersey Joe Walcott should have won the first fight according to many viewers of the fight, although it's lack of footage makes it unclear whether it was a close fight or a straight up robbery, it is known however that Louis left the ring before the verdict out of shame. But as always, Louis would make things clear in the rematch, knocking Walcott out with a barrage of hard punches, before announcing his soon to be short lived retirement a few months later. In a comeback attempt to regain the title, Louis would lose to the great Ezzard Charles. Afterwards, he would proceed to gain victories over #4 rated Lee savold, #7 rated Cesar Brion and the wonderful although also past his best, Jimmy Bivins. Thus, he would fight one last time in a losing efforst against the only Heavyweight Champion to retire undefeated, the #3 rated Rocky Marciano. Now that's a Heavyweight resume. Beating the 5 champions before you. Having 25 consecutive defenses of the title. Having 37 wins over top 10 ranked Heavyweights, only 1 less than Ali. And having 10 wins over Hall of Famers. He and Ali really are the crème de la crème of Heavyweight Boxing.
Another fantastic post. I wonder if Liston's, as well as Johnson's, pre-title run compares with Louis's. Clearly Louis's reign was vastly superior to Sonny's. It never fails to amaze me when someone lays out the sheer numbers of ranked contenders that Ali & Louis beat. 37 or 38 wins over contenders ranked in the top 10 at the time of the win is absurd, really. I've no problem with which way round they're ranked (I'm in the minority that has Louis #1, but could see easily see it the other way around), but they're as clear a divisional top 2 as exists, imo.
Louis may not have dominated the strongest era, but he still dominated an era in an incomparable way. Perhaps Sullivan is the only comparable champion that had this level of dominance War Louis!
Fantastic post though I want to chime in on your point regarding Billy Conn and Walcott. Billy didnt make a mistake. He fought the fight of his life and gave it his all. Which was also his mistake. He gave so much that he came into the 13th round already exhausted and slow of foot. He became target practice. Billy had no hope of surviving the 13th, and even if by some miracle he did, the 14th and 15th rounds would be even worse. He tried a more conservative approach the second time around to avoid being blown out in the late rounds but Joe just sniped him with jabs and right hands easily now that he didn't have the infighting to worry about. The first fight with Walcott was a close one. We know this because the one judge (referee) who had him winning, had it so by a 1 round lead for Walcott (6-7-2). Hardly a robbery. Don Dunphy who was calling the fight for the radio said that the fight was close going into the 15th round. Walcott coasted the last 3 rounds and allowed Louis to build up enough of a lead to win.
Yeah, I'll probably do him eventually, although it is not entirely sure. I've made some Napoles, Duran, Pep and Armstrong attempts prior to the Moore one, and they just fell kind of flat, and I didn't end up posting them. For some reason I couldn't really make them all that engaging. Napoles's greatness is really just his last 25 fights, with 3 or 4 rated opponents prior to that. Maybe I'll find a way to do them later on. But I think Charles's career has enough meat in it to make it sound as good as the rest, so you can look forward to it.
There are arguably two paths to greatness: you either beat a select relative few complete studs or you dominate over fewer true challenges over a very protracted period. Louis's competition is arguably underrated, but even if it isn't it's extremely difficult to dominate over THAT many years and not trip up at some point. Louis managed to do it, and that commands respect. It also earns him the title of "great."
