Holmes by wide decision, possibly a late stoppage. Louis can't find an answer to Holmes' reach, jab and movement and Holmes' chin can take the few bombs he gets through
I'd have to make Holmes a pretty firm favourite. Bad style match up for Joe. Ring size plays a part, the smaller, the more competitive the match up is.
Unfortunately yeah, pretty sure Holmes would win. I think his size, patience, range, jab, would all do very well in controlling Louis, and winning a fairly dominant decision.
I see Holmes having to climb off the deck once and probably getting staggered here and there, but he also scores a flash KD of his own and uses his excellent movement and that wonderful jab to frustrate Louis' attack for the majority of the fight en route to a clear cut decision
Loved both guys as champions, but Louis would walk Larry down and stop him in a classic. It was not easy to jab Louis as he had a pick up jab style and he would have caught the majority of Larry's jabs and then put his own double jab in setting up the right hand. After Larry got tired of all the bouncing around and stood flat-footed as was his wont, Joe would have taken over and really broke him up tot he body and head. Louis TKO 13.
Even though IMO Larry over time has been underrated.. He was an EXCELLENT boxer... That said I think Louis was extremely good and would lay Larry out
Holmes was pretty close to the perfect heavyweight...Louis not so much. Below average defense and slow feet, mediocre reflexes. I also can't seem to think of any fighter who Louis fought who has anything resembling the style of Holmes. He probably TKOs him just because Louis is a decent bit smaller and wasn't too difficult to hurt. Combined with the huge gap in speed.
I just don't think anybody Louis ever faced could compare to Holmes in terms of the combination of size, speed, skill, intelligence, toughness, and stamina that Larry had. Louis isn't outboxing Holmes, and it's unlikely he's putting him away. Louis doesn't have the firepower of Tyson, and even that was a faded Holmes. I think Holmes would take Louis apart, and stop him in about 10-11.
The Tyson fight is meaningless... I assume we are talking primes here what Holmes opponent had an arsenal even approaching Louis's? When did Larry not have trouble with guys with great jabs of their own? Louis had an all-time jab... there's no way this is easy for Holmes in a million years... I think he gets the decision but the idea of him just carving Louis up is crazy to me
I think Holmes would probably win by decision, but the idea of Louis getting him out of there isn't all that farfetched to me. I think sometimes, because of his being in the shadow of Ali, etc...his title reign gets a bit romanticized. He looked dominant against the Tex Cobb, Leon Spinks, Scott LeDoux, Leroy Jones type fighters, but he also had difficulty and/or was seriously hurt against Shavers, Snipes, Weaver, Norton while still in his prime. If Louis gets Holmes in the kind of trouble that Snipes or Shavers had him, I can see Louis doing a better job of finishing what he started than either of those two. Again, I do think Holmes would probably win, but I don't see it as a one-sided fight.
I wish we could see joe Louis in his prime.. Come in right now I feel like he might knock everyone out!
No chance. The reason Louis looked so dreadful against guys like Jersey Joe and Billy Conn is because they simply beat him to the punch every single time. He had oddly bad reflexes for a heavyweight champion so highly regarded and was floored from combinations of flailing haymakers multiple times by Walcott.
The reason he had trouble with Conn is that Conn was fast of FOOT and as a light heavy, he was faster of hand (faster than Holmes as well) ... not exactly a damning bit of evidence for a heavyweigth to be slower of hand and foot than a Light heavyweight who specialized in being fast of both The reason he was beaten to the punch so much by Walcott had more to do with being ages past his prime ... It'd be like using Mike Spinks as a model for beating Holmes... it only works because Holmes was an old man by that point
Yup. I dunno, if Earnie Shavers could catch Holmes, why couldn't Joe Louis, who is a billion times better, sharper, and more accurate? Shavers couldn't finish Holmes, Louis would. I feel like Louis gets severely underrated at times because of the era he fought in.
Louis clearly has fast hands, and great accuracy, beautiful crisp punching. He was slow of foot, not hand.
agree... Yeah, he was slow footed and some of his opponents were bums, but they weren't all bums and 70 years on, he's still about as picture perfect a puncher as you could possibly ask for... that's a heck of a legacy
hah hah ahha ok biyyyach luis to solw grate prower grate hart loose to homes still total looser botomline ok fag
