In praise of The Greatest

Javaman · Mar 6, 2002

Good on you for those two great posts Warlock. Monte Cox the webmaster of that site is a very well respected boxing historian and superb boxing journalist who has written for many fine boxing publications, as well as other magazines which cover not only boxing but sports in general. I think it's quite obvious that he is a huge fan of Joe Louis, but please take into consideration that to the best of my knowledge, he had no direct affiliation with Louis or his camp. He's well known in the boxing community for being a very high quality writer as well as calling it like it is. He also has great taste in heavyweight champions. He has said many of what I also agree with, but it's not going to stop me from voicing my views on the great champion. I'm just struggling for time to forward my opinion, but I will get to it eventually. Not so much in the hope of changing anyones mind here on the greatest heavyweight ever, but more so why I believe Joe Louis righfully deserves that tag.
Monte's accounts of Louis versus the other great heavyweights is as close to non biase and accurate as you can get. He doesn't bag the fighters he puts up against Louis (like many Louis fans will almost always do), but rather compares each fighters abilities in strengths and weeknesses in comparison to Louis. Very well done.
Javaman looking forward to posting soon.

CanadianSteve · Mar 6, 2002

Re post #72: Attila clearly has a sharp mind and a fine sense of humour.
Re: Joe Louis - I'm pasting something I posted on the Ratings Game thread:

"A great book for some of you boxing fans would be "The Greatest: My Own Story" by Ali and writer Richard Durham. Written in 1975, I'm not sure if it's available now. It goes up to the time of his Foreman fight and the 3rd Frazier fight. One of the best parts in the book is a transcript of a conversation between Ali and Joe Frazier around 1970-71, when Joe was the new champ and Ali was the champ in exile. They recorded their conversation in a long car ride, just the 2 of them. Here is part of that conversation:
"FRAZIER:... You so fast, why you let them have Marciano whip you?
ALI: You mean in that phony computer fight? You know that was fake. Whites want to see Marciano go down as the greatest heavyweight of all time. When he wasn't. Leaving off myself and you, who you think would be the best two to fight the all-time title?
FRAZIER: Oh, like Joe Louis and Jack Johnson.
ALI: That's who I think.
FRAZIER: Well, I mean, really, guys like Dempsey, Marciano, Tunney can fight, but they no comparison to the black man. In ring power, I mean. You got one or two white guys that may really fight. Nobody's overlooking any good fighter. But they really no comparison to the best black fighter. He got more.
ALI: Right"

In considering the long Louis posts above I'd have to say that Louis and Ali were the 2 best ever, and a match between them would have been a great fight

imported_Outlaw · Mar 6, 2002

Another great add on Warlock. Beauty!
This took a while, but it was certainly worth the time to read. I think I'll also wait for Javamans post on Joe Louis before I start swinging from side to side about the greatest heavyweight of all time. I don't know how much more he could add about Louis after those two posts that Warlock posted, but I'll wait never the same.

Mar 8, 2002