BoxRec

... how well would he have done?

Very, very, very well.

Joe Louis would have knocked out Frazier and Ali I think.

Big George may have been too much for him... Would have been great though.

louis to slow for ali. he beats the rest*

Frazier vs Louis, what I fight that would have been. Would Louis have the power to KO Frazier? Would Louis have the speed to avoid Fraziers' fast bombs?

..frazier's fast hooks????Louis had the fastest hands of any HEAVY PUNCHER in heavyweight history. he would have thrown so many combinations at the charging frazier that it would have been a kayo within three or four rounds. his short right hand counters to frazier's wide left hooks would have got there first and those right hands were bombs.. and yes...i do call them COUNTERS....look at some old louis footage and you'll see how often the opponent would start his punch...louis start his counter a millisecond later and get there first.

as for louis' own left hook....one of the most underated hookers ever. short, fast, accurate and devastating.

Louis the greatest heavyweight of all times would have beaten them all Frazier ,Norton Lyle, Shavers and Bonevena would have been cut down as if their names were Baer, Nova Galento. George Forman would have preaented an imposing challenge But he would have been Knocked
out
Ali would have extend Louis to a close 15 round decision But I think Joe would pull it out due to his slightly superior boxing skills and tremendous edge in punching power.

smaller men like walcott, marciano, schmeling and braddock were able to drop louis, as were the bigger ones like baer and galento. so i wouldn't be so quick to dispell the chances of hard punchers like shavers, lyle, foreman and frazier. louis may surely win, but he might find himself getting off the deck to do so.

The heavys of the seventies were no chumps. Louis would have had a tough time climbing to the top. They didn't call his opponents "Bum of the Month" for nothing. I pick Ali for sure over Louis. Against Shavers, Norton, Lyle, Foreman I take Louis. Louis against Frazier hard to pick. If Frazier is at his best, I pick him. And, I give Jimmy Young a good shot against Louis. Remember the trouble 168 lb. Conn gave Joe. A 210 boxer might be able to upset him, the way he upset Foreman.

I think Louis would have outboxed any of them, including Ali. Foreman might have stopped him though. Ali beat Foreman by back peddling for most of the fight. Louis' style was such that he always came forward, so he may have had trouble with a monsterous puncher like George.

.....once again re: the bums of the month. Louis did not fight them instead of the good contenders...he fought them in addition to the good contenders. plus...he beat all of the top heavyweights on his way to the title.

Louis would be the man of the division and hold the title for the majority of the decade. I think a mid-late 1960's Ali would beat Louis slightly more often than not with his mobility, but as of the '70s, Ali had lost that important asset and instead had to rely on his durability, heart, and ring intelligence to win him fights. That wouldn't cut it against Louis.

Louis would probably pick up a couple losses and lose and regain the title once or twice, but he would be clearly on top of the pile. With devastating hitters like Shavers, Foreman, and Lyle active, an upset stoppage loss wouldn't be out of the question, and Ali, Foreman, or Frazier might manage to beat him once in a series. Louis wouldn't be as dominant as he was in his own times, but we would still be remembering him as one of the three greatest heavyweights of all time.

I don't disagree for one second that JL would be seen as an all time great in whichever era he fought

I do however think that at any stage of his career ( apart from the very end ) Ali would have beaten him

One hell of a match-up, but I think Ali's ability to adapt to the changes he faced in opponents and his own body makes him better that JL.

I think JL takes out 90% of the HW in any era although, bizarrely enough, I always thought that Foreman ( pre-Ali) would have had his number

Slapsie