Joe Louis, greatest heavyweight of all time?

[Yogi]

Harry wills should have been awarded the belt while dempsey was busy getting laid.

While you're awarding Wills the belt you might as well continue with your logic and pass the title down to Godfrey or Tunney, who both repeatedly challenged Wills (and in Godfrey's case, on NUMEROUS different occasions...at least Dempsey made an effort & signed to face Wills on a couple of seperate occasions) during Dempsey's inactive stage, only to see Wills express absolutely no interest in fighting either of them them and saw him continuously turn down proposed matches against those two...

Hey, take it one step further and we can easily say that Tunney ducked Godfrey, and have sources to back that up, so by your logic, that makes Godfrey the champion, which, funnily enough, is what Godfrey & others close to him "claimed" him to be in 1925 during Dempsey's time off.

[brownpimp88]

Joe Louis doesnt deserve to be the #1 heavyweight of all times, i mean who the **** does Ali have to beat to convince morons that his resume blows joe's out of the window. There is a reason the term "bums" is associated with the guys louis defended his belt against, on top of that he gets knocked out by minny hitler for god's sakes.

Ali beat foreman, frazier, liston, patterson, norton, shavers, quarry and like 10 other guys. Joe louis got a gift over walcott and he beat schmeling, o wow!

[K-DOGG]

Joe Louis doesnt deserve to be the #1 heavyweight of all times, i mean who the **** does Ali have to beat to convince morons that his resume blows joe's out of the window. There is a reason the term "bums" is associated with the guys louis defended his belt against, on top of that he gets knocked out by minny hitler for god's sakes.

Ali beat foreman, frazier, liston, patterson, norton, shavers, quarry and like 10 other guys. Joe louis got a gift over walcott and he beat schmeling, o wow!

I'm going to leave most of the anti-arguement to others; but you're dissing Joe way too harshly.

Schmeling was a very, very good fighter with a good chin; and Joe destroyed him under the most intense pressure imagineable. Other wins of note against very good opposistion would be he wins over Baer, Carnera and Sharkey...from a dominance factor; they weren't "great"; but they were above average for the day. Then, there's Lou Nova, Arturo Godoy, King Levinski, Billy Conn. After serving four years in the Army and fighting only exhibitions, he stopped topped ranked Tami Mauriello, did get a gift over Walcott.....but stopped him in the rematch.

Reigning for damn near 12 years and successfully defending the belt 25 times without a loss is nothing to sneeze at.

[joelouisbarrow]

Joe Louis doesnt deserve to be the #1 heavyweight of all times, i mean who the **** does Ali have to beat to convince morons that his resume blows joe's out of the window. There is a reason the term "bums" is associated with the guys louis defended his belt against, on top of that he gets knocked out by minny hitler for god's sakes.

Ali beat foreman, frazier, liston, patterson, norton, shavers, quarry and like 10 other guys. Joe louis got a gift over walcott and he beat schmeling, o wow!

ali beat a bully who had previously averaged 3 rounds per fight, 2 fixed fights with the undergrounds favourite boy, a guy whos back was ****ed from round 2 onwards, lost 2 fights to norton ( bad judges in # 3 )...i`ll give him his due against frazier but i still dont rank shavers, quarry, bugner, a blown up bob foster etc

12 years the champ..nuff said

[brownpimp88]

I'm going to leave most of the anti-arguement to others; but you're dissing Joe way too harshly.

Schmeling was a very, very good fighter with a good chin; and Joe destroyed him under the most intense pressure imagineable. Other wins of note against very good opposistion would be he wins over Baer, Carnera and Sharkey...from a dominance factor; they weren't "great"; but they were above average for the day. Then, there's Lou Nova, Arturo Godoy, King Levinski, Billy Conn. After serving four years in the Army and fighting only exhibitions, he stopped topped ranked Tami Mauriello, did get a gift over Walcott.....but stopped him in the rematch.

Reigning for damn near 12 years and successfully defending the belt 25 times without a loss is nothing to sneeze at.

i dont belive the 12 year run hype, he didnt fight for 4 years cuz of WW2 and he never defended his belt in 1949 either, his run was as long as larry's. Ali beat superior oppostition, there is no other way to it.

[brownpimp88]

ali beat a bully who had previously averaged 3 rounds per fight, 2 fixed fights with the undergrounds favourite boy, a guy whos back was ****ed from round 2 onwards, lost 2 fights to norton ( bad judges in # 3 )...i`ll give him his due against frazier but i still dont rank shavers, quarry, bugner, a blown up bob foster etc

12 years the champ..nuff said

ali beat 3 guys that are debatable top 10s, louis beat none. I dont see shcmeling and walcott in anyone's top 10, unless they are ******ed.

[K-DOGG]

ali beat a bully who had previously averaged 3 rounds per fight, 2 fixed fights with the undergrounds favourite boy, a guy whos back was ****ed from round 2 onwards, lost 2 fights to norton ( bad judges in # 3 )...i`ll give him his due against frazier but i still dont rank shavers, quarry, bugner, a blown up bob foster etc

12 years the champ..nuff said

Now, you're over-simplifying.

1. Foreman was that damn deadly, if not crude....the wins over Frazier and Norton were awesome and impressive.
2. Neither Liston fight was "fixed."...that is a modern myth.
3. In my opinion, all Ali-Norton fights were scored correctly.
4. Shavers, Quarry, & Bugner were light-years better than Johnny Paycheck, Jack Roper and Tony Galento....and Foster would have killed the version of Lewis that Louis fought.

Be fair.

[Kid Achilles]

Both Schmeling and Walcott appeared in many top ten lists until recently when guys like Holyfield and Lewis made their way in. I consider Schmeling and Walcott top fifteen heavyweights but I wouldn't laugh if someone put Schmeling in at #10. After all, if Foreman gets so much credit for beating Frazier, why not give Schmeling a place in the top ten for beating the greatest (or 2nd greatest, depending on your opinion) heavyweight of all time.

Even having Walcott in the top ten is hardly "******ed". I don't agree with it, but it's not like they're putting someone like Cooney or Chuvalo in.

[joelouisbarrow]

your correct i am over simplifying it..i apologise BUT you have to admit that both liston fights were dubious...this was a guy who would make frazier, foreman etc quake with fear YET ali knocked him out with a 3 inch right after 90 seconds....this from a guy who was never a one punch killer ( he was always a combination finisher )against a fighter who had never gone down in his career

[brownpimp88]

I would rank bowe and tyson ahead of walcott, without a doubt. If that idiot actually fought after his fights with golota, he might have been top 10.

Either way i dont rank johnson and dempsey in my top 10, marciano is there no doubt. But sorry lennox and evander have better resume than those two and no one is changing my opinion on it.