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Was JOE LOUIS 16 Was JOE LOUIS F YOU want to break up a pool game around There is so much guesswork involved in analyz­ Jacobs' Beach, that blood-spattered muscle ing fighters, so many intangible factors, that a final J market in the area near Madison Square decision would never find universal acceptance, Garden, New York City, just ask: "Who was the even among experts. But, as an ex-heavyweight By GENE TUNNEY greatest heavyweight of all time?" All hands champion, the writer is perhaps more entitled than promptly stop shooting and start yelling. most to stick his neck out, and let the rabbit blows "Dempsey was tops for my dough!" someone fall where they may. Through more than a century shouts. So far as I'm concerned the question of who of heavyweight boxing history "You're tetched," another snorts. "I've got a was the greatest heavyweight of all time boils loose fin that says old Jawn L. was the best." down to: "Who was greater—Jack Dempsey or Joe the sport claims two champions Then others join the chorus, and you hear Louis?" Dempsey and Louis are literally the alpha "Jeflrics—Jack Johnson—Baer—Louis." and omega of modern boxing. Dempsey began who tower above all the others: "Gwan, Baer was a bum!" an old-timer bellows. the most exciting period in pugilism on July 4, "Corbett gets my dough." 1919, when he wrested the title from Jess Willard. Dempsey and Louis. Here, in Even Sharkey and Schmeling, not to mention the And Louis seems to have drawn the curtain down author, have their adherents. So, before you know on that greatest era of a sport that is now definitely a fight-by-fight review of the it, the argument becomes a fight. If someone calls on the downgrade. outstanding bouts through the the cops, when they hear what the argument is I believe that the majority of fight fans and au­ they're likely to join in, too. thorities narrow the choice down to these two years, a great titlist, one of the This is the kind of argument that no one ever superb sportsmen, so I'm on safe ground anyway. wins. Like arguing about religion, politics or But to prove the point that 1 am going to make, I few to retire undefeated from which was the greatest baseball team of all time, have to review briefly the whole boxing picture in there's just no changing of minds. It's almost like America. the heavyweight throne, offers asking who was the greatest playwright. Naturally, Although boxing in the United States has been I'm prejudiced in favor of Shakespeare, but a lot of known as a sport since 1816, heavyweight history an expert opinion of the relative people could give pretty good arguments for Shaw, begins officially on September 9, 1841, when the abilities of the two men who, O'Neill, Barrie, Wilde, et al. first definite contest for the American champion- at their peaks, were unques­ tionably champions' champions Louis ducks a wicked Braddock right. Joe went on to take the title in an eighth-round knockout INTEBNATIONAL ship was fought. That bare-fisted bone-breaking match, between Tom Hyer and Country McClosky at Caldwell's Landing on the Hudson River, went 101 rounds and lasted a breath-taking two hours and 55 minutes. But so far as this scrivener is concerned, you can eliminate every slugger from that sanguinary mara­ thon right up to John L. Sullivan, since they fought under the ancient London Prize Ring Rules. John L. became champion and an American idol by de­ feating all other claimants to the title (including Paddy Ryan, claimant from 1878 until his defeat by John L. Sullivan on February 7, 1882). The last bare-knuckle fight in America was the 75-round brain-buster on July 8, 1889, at Richburg, Missis­ sippi, between John L. and Jake Kilrain. It marked the end of the Dark Ages of Boxing. This leaves exactly six decades of boxing under the revised Marquis of Queensberry rules in which to find a man who might have been greater than Joe Louis. Or, putting it another way, a man who in his prime could have licked Joe Louis in liis prime. Under pain of bringing down the wrath of sham­ rock-wearers on my head, I am also forced to eliminate those turn-of-the-century and pre-World War I rosin favorites—John L. Sullivan, Jim Cor­ bett, Jim Jeffries and Tommy Burns. And by scratching out "Black Jack" Johnson, too, I'll prob-' ably earn the lifelong scorn of a small but vocal coterie which still insists that Johnson was the lad who could have leveled Joe Louis. A more or less accurate line on Johnson's real ability can be gleaned from a record book. In three of his outstanding contests, he did not register the effectiveness required of a great champion. When he won the first leg of the title in a contest in Australia with the heavyweight title claimant. Tommy Burns, the battle went for 14 rounds and was stopped by the police "to save Burns from further punishment." Burns was a small, squat figure of an athlete, about five foot 7 inches tall and weighing 175 pounds at his best fighting edge. Johnson, who is supposed to have been a master boxer, failed to knock him down once in the con­ test. Many ringsiders thought that Burns was getting better as the fight proceeded and that it should not have been stopped when it was, nor for the reason given. Collier's for January 14, 1950 PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 17 the GREATEST ? had a genuine touch of greatness in him, looks far Apparently I've already answered the question I front impressive in his best bouts when compared set out to answer. Actually I haven't yet, since up with the finely developed ring technique and clever to Jack Johnson I have been dealing only in sup­ footwork of Dempsey, Louis and others. positions and theories. This discussion, to make Despite their ludicrous technique, these pre- sense, has to be narrowed down to the second half Dempsey stalwarts were all tough adversaries. I of the 60 years of boxing with gloves—the color­ think, under certain circumstances, most of them ful period dating from that boiling Independence could have licked Joe Louis if he were fighting Day in 1919, at Toledo, Ohio, when one of the then. Jim Corbett, for instance, who broke Ameri­ greatest ring battles of all time was fought between ca's heart by uncrowning John L. Sullivan, was Jack Dempsey and the giant cowboy, Jess Willard. fleet-footed, brainy and quick in his reflexes—an The gigantic Willard towered over Dempsey by all-round dangerous opponent. He introduced almost a foot and outweighed him by an unbeliev­ class to fhe prize ring. I sincerely believe that he able margin of 58 pounds. The only heavyweight might have defeated Joe Louis in a 15-round bout champion before or since Willard who topped his if they could have met at their peaks. 245 pounds was Primo Camera. And in only one Even that tough, spindle-legged, freckle-faced, championship fight since the Dempsey-Willard bald-headed light heavyweight, "Ruby Robert" match has the disparity of weight been greater be­ Fitzsimmons, might have been able to lick Joe tween champion and challenger, with the latter on Louis. A fiery bean pole, he weighed only 165 the high end of the seesaw. This was when Car- pounds when he went after the heavyweight cham­ nera, at an unwieldy 270 pounds ham-handed Gen­ pionship and blasted Gentleman Jim Corbett off tleman Tommy Loughran, 186 pounds, for 15 the throne. rounds at Miami Beach on March 1, 1934. Fitz could unleash terrific blows for his size, and But the outcome had been reversed at Toledo. it is conceivable that he could have taken Louis, but David slew Goliath, so to speak; Dempsey's rock it would have had to be in an early round. Fitz was was his supercharged fist, which battered the lum­ easy to hit, and he probably couldn't have withstood bering Willard into a gory sack of flesh and bones. a Louis barrage beyond the fourth or fifth round. Seven times in the first {Continued on page 53j In one of the most exciting bouts on record, Dempsey comers Willard at Toledo, July 4, 1919 HANS KNOPP Johnson's contest with Stanley Ketchel, a mid­ dleweight whom he took 12 rounds to defeat, was another indication of his lack of eflfectiveness. And certainly his showing against Jim Jeffries, when he won final claim to the heavyweight championship of the world, on July 4, 1910, at Reno, Nevada, was not of championship quality. His pretense that he prolonged the fight for the benefit of the motion picture cameramen, or some such reason, can be dismissed. Nor can I imagine the Jim Jeffries of that occa­ sion going more than three rounds with Joe Louis. As a matter of fact, such a contest could not be staged under present regulations. No boxing com­ mission today would permit a retired champion— like Jeffries—to come out of six years' retirement in order to defend his title, unless he could prove through a couple of warmup matches that he was sufficiently in condition to justify a contest for the world championship. J cannot conceive of Jim Jeffries, even in his prime, finishing a 15-round fight with either Louis or Dempsey.
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