Joe Louis’ missing bouts

[dawudboxer]

On Joe’s bio on boxrec it says the following.

Prior to his June 25, 1935, fight with Primo Carnera, Louis engaged in a series of six-round exhibitions, the results of which were:

1935-04-22 Louis (198) KO 1 Biff Bennett (200), Memorial Hall, Dayton, Ohio, United States
1935-04-25 Louis (200) KO 6 Roscoe Toles (193), IMA Auditorium, Flint, Michigan, United States
1935-05-03 Louis (199) KO 2 Willie Davies (193), Majestic Theatre, Peoria, Illinois, United States
1935-05-07 Louis (202) KO 3 Gene Stanton (215), Armory, Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States.

I’m currently reading Joe’s autobiography and he says that these fights were actual bouts.

I can’t find how to attach a picture. Joe said that Mike Jacobs told his managers to “set up a string of fights” to keep him in the public eye while he made arrangements for the Primo Carnera fight. The first was Roy Lazer and they didn’t expect so many ppl to show up so his managers regretted not asking for a percentage of the gate which they corrected for the next fights, the 4 mentioned above. So Joe got paid for those bouts and received a percentage of the gate. That doesn’t happen for exhibitions.

Also at the back of his book he included these fights in his record and has himself as 68-3. The fight vs Johnny Davis he doesn’t have on his record. But if you guys think that one should count too then he should be 69-3.

[margaret thatcher]

getting paid isnt the determinate of whether a fight is an exhiibition or not, floyd mayweather just made 100m for an exhibition

[dawudboxer]

True, but he clearly went into those fights believing they were real bouts and dealt with the opponents accordingly, knocking them all out.

Also, getting paid for an exhibition is a new thing. Back then and even back in the 80s when Tyson boxed James Tillis in an exhibition, nobody got paid, it was basically like a public sparring session. Nowadays they try and make money any way they can. Back then people wouldn’t be willing to pay to see something that wasn’t classed as a real fight.

[John]

Back then people would pay to watch him train.

[dawudboxer]

Maybe a small entrance fee but not tickets

[HomicideHenry]

Boy oh boy I'm having flashbacks to the Johnny Davis affair.... Was supposed to be an exhibition match, but at the last minute the NYSAC said it would be a genuine contest. That ruling pissed the Brown Bomber off so bad he knocked him out in 53 seconds, instead of taking it easy like he normally would have done with the 3-3-0 Davis in an exhibition. I guess according to the state of NY the lineal title was always on the line no matter what.

[dawudboxer]

Yeah, he was told a decision would be rendered at the end of the 4 rds so if he didn’t want to risk losing he would have to knock the guy out which he did.

These fights though were always bouts and not exhibitions according to Mike Jacobs and Joe Louis. I don’t know who said they were exhibitions. Cyber boxing zone count them as wins as did Joe Louis on his record published in his book.

As far as I’m concerned all of these bouts were real fights and he should be 69-3.

[dawudboxer]

I know the fights were close together which is normally the case with exhibition tours, but if they were seen as tune ups before the Carnera fight, that is also possible.