Tweet
The heavyweight division is in sad shape nowadays, especially when compared to other eras, or so we have been told repeatedly ever since Lennox Lewis retired a few years back. But every decade or so, fight fans have heard the same thing, more or less.
In 1940, Nat Fleischer, writing in the June issue of the Ring magazine, said of the heavyweight division, “That the field of championship contenders is the weakest in the last fifty years.” But Nat was wrong. Joe Louis, one of the all-time greats, reigned supreme as heavyweight king. Louis had several solid contenders listed in the June edition of Ring magazine: Lou Nova, Bob Pastor, Tony Galento, Arturo Godoy, Nathan Mann, Red Burman, Roscoe Toles and Buddy Walker. Max Baer, Billy Conn, Buddy Baer, Abe Simon and several other solid fighters hovered just outside the top ten, and soon some of them dropped into the party.
Decades later, Fleischer called Max Baer’s right hand one of the best of all time, and he wrote the same of Galento’s left hook. Hmmm, this was a weak crop of heavyweights? The problem was that Louis had already flattened several of them, making them look somewhat soft, mushy and over-ripe in the process. [details]
In 1940, Nat Fleischer, writing in the June issue of the Ring magazine, said of the heavyweight division, “That the field of championship contenders is the weakest in the last fifty years.” But Nat was wrong. Joe Louis, one of the all-time greats, reigned supreme as heavyweight king. Louis had several solid contenders listed in the June edition of Ring magazine: Lou Nova, Bob Pastor, Tony Galento, Arturo Godoy, Nathan Mann, Red Burman, Roscoe Toles and Buddy Walker. Max Baer, Billy Conn, Buddy Baer, Abe Simon and several other solid fighters hovered just outside the top ten, and soon some of them dropped into the party.
Decades later, Fleischer called Max Baer’s right hand one of the best of all time, and he wrote the same of Galento’s left hook. Hmmm, this was a weak crop of heavyweights? The problem was that Louis had already flattened several of them, making them look somewhat soft, mushy and over-ripe in the process. [details]