Would Joe Louis be too small to be successful at heavyweight today ?

[El Kabong]

If he had the healthcare, diet, etc of today's athlete then he'd probably be around Lennox/Evander size.

He wasn't a small man and his stamina and punching power would still see him effective.

Greatest heavyweight champion of all time!

Second only to Muhammad Ali.

25 successful consecutive title defenses and he missed years of his prime...so he's statistically the best by a mile.


What makes Ali so great? He wasn't the youngest champ, he wasn't the oldest champ, he wasn't the champ for the longest period of time. Was it his competition that made him great Then how would his competition handle other eras? Joe Frazier would give such hell to the division in any other era? Foreman maybe depending on where his mind was at the time....Shavers? Quarry? Norton? Ron Lyle? I mean they're ok but why do they look so impressive on Ali's resume and the guys Joe Louis beat don't look as impressive? They were the best fighters out there at the time and Louis won 25 title defenses in a row how many did Ali string together? Also know this Ali prompted his supporters to say "I'm the greatest of all time" and he talked and talked and talked and he was a cult of personality he had the media and counter culture behind him he was riding a wave of popularity...Joe Louis didn't have the luxury of having such an attitude but he always got the business done in the ring!

Also Marciano going 49-0-0 is pretty fucking impressive and I don't really care about "his era was weak!" it's 49 in a row and he didn't duck anyone did he?

Fighters can have shitty records and still be good fighters. Fighters can have a limited style but give the better fighter Hell for one reason or another. 25 in a row is a record,nobody has beaten it and nobody is going to beat it.


But say someone is the greatest and it's not Ali and it's a federal case