To this day, the most flawless puncher of all time

Just rewatched Louis-Braddock.

Almost 100 years later, and Joe Louis remains the most flawless puncher the sport has ever had. The Brown Bomber's power punches were poetry in motion. PERFECT leverage and balance with every shot.

Today's trainers should be showing young power punchers like Berlanga film of Louis.

 

Louis was a lot quicker on his feet here than he's remembered for. The narrative on Louis is that he had great hand speed, but relatively slow feet, but his feet weren't slow as a young man.

He certainly never had Ali/Leonard type footspeed, but he wasn't lead footed like Chico Corrales either.

 

You can't possibly throw a right hand better than that.

 

The ONLY thing I would say today is that guys might not just stand so steady in front of him to nudge his way into position for that shot.

It is perfect in that the elbow NEVER rises a millimetre from it's resting position, which is the usual tell on a big right hand.

Instead, the punch originates where it should do, from the shoulder/upper arm, then the fist, and finally the elbow rises to extend the arm and the hand to the face.

By then it's too late.

 

Braddock definitely wasn't a hard target, but still, the offensive talent just jumps off the screen.

Louis and Arguello were the two most beautiful punchers the sport has ever had.

 

In fact, looking at it again, Louis turns his upper body to his right, so the arm is totally out of view.

This has two effects: number one, you LITERALLY don't see the right hand coming and Braddock is distracted by the left.

Secondly, Louis body is now cocked for the right hand but disguised in its intent.

 

Good observation.

I don't think a prime Louis would lose to anybody relative to his size. Meaning that, I would favor him over Frazier, Holy, and Liston.

I think Louis would knock out Holmes too. Larry was just too much a right hand sucker not to get nailed with that picture perfect cross eventually.

 

My first introduction to Louis was of all fights vs Tommy Farr where I was struck {as was Farr } by how Farrs head would snap back with these effortless salvos.

Here, Louis doubles the jab and hooks off it and Farr can be seen to visibly be lifted back by the blow.

This clip is a good example of Louis "Poker Face" as he moves in. He rarely changed that expression.

 

OK Giphy are being shits again I will try to re-gif that clip in the morning.

 

I wonder if there's a film study on Louis' guard manipulation. There was no one better at subtly moving around an opponents guard to land his wicked power shots.

 

Here's a good film study on his cross:

 

I think that every fighter that I have ever trained walked away a big fan of Joe Louis, if nothing else.

 

"Textbook" is the first thing that comes to mind about Joe.

The pro-wrestler Bret Hart was called the "excellence of execution". That would have been a more fitting term for Louis than the Brown Bomber. (or perhaps any fighter)

 

It'd be easier said than done training a guy to punch like Joe Louis i would imagine. It's just as much that he had once in a lifetime talent as it was his great technique.

 

Unquestionably. If it was that simple you wouldn't even need a trainer. Just download a video and practice it.

That said technique can be trained. (to varying degrees of course) Talent can't.

 

It is very teachable if you build the foundation from the start. From the very beginning you have to teach them that everything starts from the floor and moves up, and that the hips, not the shoulders, move the body.
Where things start to go wrong is when you tell someone to 'always' step with the jab. That leads to people stepping with the front foot but not moving the other foot; when your feet get too far apart it gets hard to shift your weight. The other thing that happens is that it leads to the belief that the front foot is the important foot, and it is not.

 

Does that come from different forms of martial arts instead of boxing? I guess it makes sense depending on what you're defending against, but not for leverage.

 

I followed Louis-Braddock up by rewatching Liston-Williams 1.

Louis-Liston would be an incredible matchup.

 

No, it is the way that it was taught, in some circles, going back to the teens and 20s of the last century.
It seems like you would be able to punch harder with your legs wide- and I have debated this with a friend that trains a very prominent and current world champion- but it is not so. Your balance and your ability to generate force comes from your ability to constantly shift your weight from place to place.
When you see a guy like Joe Louis throw a 5 punch combination and each punch is harder than the last, that is a result of chaining together those weight shifts.

 

I love how Louis would constantly turn his opponent once he got them in trouble to create different angles and different combos.

More often than not, punchers just follow-up in a straight line once they have a guy hurt. That was a flaw of Trinidad. Not that Trinidad wasn't a quality finisher, but he wasn't Louis.

 

I think Trinidad had similar text book technique as far as getting the type of power he did on his punches, but as X said, Louis had that extra dimension in that he could create those angles to get around the guard his opponents when they were hurt.

There’s not a punch that Louis didn’t have in his arsenal. He could throw them all with FIGHT ENDING power.

 

Louis has some gorgeous KOs.

Conn II is probably my favourite, but him lifting Galento off the canvas with a left hook is pretty awesome too.

 

Trinidad was mainly murder at midrange.

He wasn't as good at generating power with extremely short shots the way a Louis/Arguello could.

I would compare Tito more to Zarate than Joe Louis.

Trinidad and Zarate were very similar.

 

Just following up on this - that turning an opponent once you have them hurt is something Jofre did masterfully near the end of the Medel fight.

Jofre had a lot of Louis in him.

 

The Louis that beat Braddock would certainly not have lost to Marciano. I think very highly of Marciano, but that version of Louis would destroy him.

 

He nudges subtly, like little tiny baby footsteps which make him look unsure of himself as he moves into position.

Apex predator.

 

Louis was always better.

The only thing for me is that Marciano could catch him and Marciano was far far better at finishing than Conn or Galento.

IF Marciano got him going.....then who knows. Could be curtains.

But you look at Marciano, even as LATE as the Moore fight, getting dropped and hurt by sneaky rights and you have to think he's going to eat too many of them vs Louis.

BUT......I do think Walcott and Moore were slightly rangier more obtuse opponents than Louis.

 

Louis has to be one of the first fighters to really lay guys out with the check hook.

Later on you see guys like Robinson and Ike Williams with terrific, devastating check hooks, but Louis was kind of the pioneer of the check hook as a knock out punch.

 

The gif I tried to make involves him doing something else, hooking off a double jab and moving Farr back with the hook........I can't remember anyone double-jabbing and hooking off it back in '34