Bill was obviously small, but outboxing the great Louis for 12 rounds is an impressive accomplishment and he certainly had speed and skills. Would you think Conn could beat top hw of today or recent years? It's not like AJ or Fury or Wilder or the Klits are Joe Louis is it?
Do you think the Louis first fight was one off thing, or could you see him having a top HW career in other eras if he campaigned there for longer
Bill Conn at HW
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Wee Tommy
- Heavyweight
Re: Bill Conn at HW
He got KOd eventually tho. Hed not be much more than a super middleweight just now and although he seemed to hurt Louis he didn’t have big power like say Rocky. He’d be a great fighter today of course but how he’d do at heavyweight I don’t know. Joe Louis was a bigger party animal than Mike Tyson so he could have been impaired easily enough.margaret thatcher wrote: ↑25 Apr 2020, 17:44 Bill was obviously small, but outboxing the great Louis for 12 rounds is an impressive accomplishment and he certainly had speed and skills. Would you think Conn could beat top hw of today or recent years? It's not like AJ or Fury or Wilder or the Klits are Joe Louis is it?
Do you think the Louis first fight was one off thing, or could you see him having a top HW career in other eras if he campaigned there for longer
Last edited by Wee Tommy on 26 Apr 2020, 20:17, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Bill Conn at HW
Conn was a great light heavyweight and probably even better at middleweight. He would've been a remarkable cruiserweight. Leading up to the first Louis fight, Conn handled some solid heavyweights: Al McCoy, Bob Pastor, Lee Savold, Buddy Knox.
However, the first Louis match is deceptive for an oft-forgotten reason. Joe had engaged in six world title fights in just over six months. He wasn't burned out; he was fried. You can't take anything away from Conn's effort, but the champion wasn't at the top of his game.
I think it's now common knowledge that Conn was slightly under 170 for the fight. They gave him an extra five pounds or so to make it sound better. Knowing that he was just over the modern super middleweight limit actually makes the performance in Louis I look even better, but it's also kind of enlightening in this discussion.
Conn would've been formidable in any era, but as Louis himself said of Pastor, "You can run but you can't hide." He's probably too small for the heavyweights in the modern era (really, in the post-1970 age) and his lack of a knockout punch seals it for me.
However, the first Louis match is deceptive for an oft-forgotten reason. Joe had engaged in six world title fights in just over six months. He wasn't burned out; he was fried. You can't take anything away from Conn's effort, but the champion wasn't at the top of his game.
I think it's now common knowledge that Conn was slightly under 170 for the fight. They gave him an extra five pounds or so to make it sound better. Knowing that he was just over the modern super middleweight limit actually makes the performance in Louis I look even better, but it's also kind of enlightening in this discussion.
Conn would've been formidable in any era, but as Louis himself said of Pastor, "You can run but you can't hide." He's probably too small for the heavyweights in the modern era (really, in the post-1970 age) and his lack of a knockout punch seals it for me.