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Exposed! Why Joe Louis won all those rematches!

posted by Kathleen Holland on August 8, 2008, in Features

By Ted Luzzi

Boxing is very hard. You pull on the gloves and go at it with some other guy who wants it as much as you do. If a fighter has a rough time with an opponent he almost always has a rough time with him again if they are rematched. This is particularly true of heavyweights.

Let’s look at history and some rematches. Jim Corbett and Jim Jeffries hurt each other badly in their two fights. Jack Dempsey could not win a rematch with Gene Tunney. Ezzard Charles and Joe Walcott fought fifty two rounds and are usually rated even by historians as their fights were hairline close except for the third one. Floyd Patterson could not survive a single round against Sonny Liston and he did not do better in the rematch after a year of training. He did win a return with Johannson but the got dropped twice in the final third fight and darn near lost.

Ali vs. Frazier was three of the hardest fought most brutal fights in history. Muhammad won two of three but had to go through hell each time. He had the same experience with Kenny Norton. Larry Homes never could beat Spinks in a rematch despite being a great hard case fighter. Mike Tyson got clobbered by Holyfield and so frustrated in their rematch he bit him! Bowe vs. Holyfield were three hard give and take fights for both fighters with split results.

Well you get the idea if you have a hard time with a foe the first time, watch out it will be hard the second time too. That is unless you’re Joe Louis who always won the rematches by decisive knockouts! There was a distinct reason for this and one of his trainers once wrote an article about it.

Joe Louis had an "Eidetic memory which is similar to a photographic memory in that the person can recall in extraordinary and vivid detail visual images. Joe Louis had that so when he fought foes a second time he could "remember" many of their moves and anticipates them with great accuracy. One of his trainers revealed this after Louis career was over as the reason Louis was so extraordinary successful in rematches. "

Let’s look at the seven rematches in Joe Louis career. Louis of course is remembered as the great fighter who won more heavyweight title fights than any other man. He started his career with a series of spectacular wins. Then he ran into Lee Ramage, a slippery fighter in the Jimmy Young mold, who took him eight tough rounds. However in the rematch Louis "remembered" how Ramage moved and a single sudden savage left hook in round two and Joe Louis stood alone with Ramage quivering on the canvas. It was the first of the all knockout rematches from Louis. Louis then won twelve in a row including belting out two former heavyweight champions.

Then there was his famous fight with Max Schmeling. Louis was only twenty two years old and still learning and perfecting his craft. However as young fighters sometimes does he was believing his press clippings so trained on the golf course not in the gym? Max Schmeling was a fighter of true ability. Cagy and astute Schmeling took advantage of the situation and landed 72 of his powerful fierce rights over Louis low left jabs and left the ring a knockout winner in twelve rounds over the 10-1 favored Louis. Louis said he did not remember the fight after being socked and downed in the forth. However he remembered in the first three rounds Schmeling could do little on offense as long as Louis was aggressive. It was only when Louis paced himself and lay back in the forth that Schmeling began to land those rights. So Louis went all out from the opening bell in the rematch. He told reporters in his training camp” you want to make a little money? Then bet Ill tear his head off in one round!" The least loquacious champion of them all knew what he had to do to win.

Fight night The country was in a nationalistic frenzy against the so call "Nazi "Schmeling (who actually was a decent guy in a bad situation) and Louis practically leaped out of the corner determined to give Max no chance to start a offense. June 22, 1938 in an electric atmosphere, Louis fought a amazing fight using body punches to herd Schmeling to the ropes and then crush him with head shots in one all offense round. , Louis first crashed his fists into Max ribcage causing Max to scream in pain then he let loose head punches. First a jaw busting right dropped Max for the first knockdown. A Louis left hook sent him down for a two count and a final right to the point of the jaw finished the fight! Joe Louis had remembered that Max was his as long as he kept on the offense and he fought the most offense minded fight of his career.

In 1937 just before he won the title Louis had another tough fight. This one with Bob Pastor. Pastor was a top contender and an excellent fighter. Pastor had learned to live in tough training camps and survive with the best punchers. He was intelligent and well mannered and so picked on in training camps as a sissy, but those who sparred with him soon learned better. Pastor was very fast with both feet and hands and he boxed Louis from the outside and frustrated him. Louis got the decision but there were boos when Louis got the 10 round decisions. As champion Louis gave Pastor a rematch.

Because the first fight had gone the distance the second was scheduled for twenty rounds to lure in the fans. The fans got their moneys worth that night. In front of a big New York crowd Joe Louis "remembered” Pastor as he had so many others. The fighter he could not drop in ten rounds the first time crashed to the canvas fours times in the first two rounds from Louis belligerent blows Pastor made a resounding .thud ,thud, thud thud, on the canvas as he went down down then up again and again. Then Bob Pastor realized that Louis had him figured out from the first time and so switched it up and started slugging with the Brown bomber! The next rounds were exciting and Pastor proved durable until the eleventh when Pastor crumpled in a heap from one of the hardest right hand blows Louis ever landed. Another decisive KO in a rematch!

Of course the ultimate fighter that caused Louis trouble was Billy Conn. Conn was a great fighter who had left the light heavies as still champion specifically to try to beat enough heavyweights to challenge Louis. Handsome and Irish he was a terrific draw as a fighter. Handsome in looks and hooks as they say, he looked like a contender cast on a film set. He could fight also and proved it fight night by giving Louis his hardest night. Conn had learned his lessons, starting to fight at age fifteen in grubby rings for low rates, the rising to Madison Square Garden heights and championship fights. Conn in green trunks jabbed corrective lefts into Louis face, Conn attacked with left right left combinations that landed again and again. Louis fought hard and landed blows but they seemed to have little effect on Conn. In round twelve Conn almost dropped the champion with a lighting fast combination. Conn wanted the KO in round thirteen, however Louis always had something ready and in round thirteen Louis fought his heart out with ripping effective blows that slowed Conn down then he unloaded everything on Conn and the hearts of his fans sank to the canvas and he was counted out at 2:58 of the round. It had been a close call. The rematch was anything but close however. Louis "remembered" that he could with his longer reach out jab Billy from the outside. Joe Louis fought an entirely different fight out jabbing Conn all night. Louis had his jab thudding home on Conn and Conn was occupied and on the defense. In the eighth Louis with his hands still held in perfect position and jabbing straight and true applied his destructive technique. Conn was hammered to the canvas by a brilliant combination and that was it for Billy Conn. Louis had outfoxed the master boxer partly because he remembered how he could.

February ninth nineteen forty Louis took on Arturo Godoy. Godoy from Chilies was a young very powerful heavyweight. Stocky and strong Godoy had the things Louis liked least in an opponent. Iron jaw, a crowding style, and a bob and weave defense that was very low to the canvas. Louis did not like to be crowded and did not like to punch down. He had to do both with Godoy. Louis punches fell short and he was being wrestled around in the clinches then tagged by Godoy leaping punches. Accustomed to success Louis was frustrated and not at all at his best. On it went for the full fifteen rounds and some felt Godoy had pulled off the unset but Louis got the decision.

Four months later Louis fought Godoy again. That night Louis had poise .At all times he knew what he was doing in the brightly lighted ring in New York. He was alert and ready for Godoy. The champion attacked Godoy with astonishing vicious hard uppercuts then as Godoy’s head was up right crosses would slam into it. It was a demolition job. Godoy had never been knocked down but down he finally went in the seventh for the first time in his career. Louis dropped another bomb on Godoy in the eighth and Arturo collapsed and the ref stopped it and Godoy went berserk and tried to attack everyone in sight. He could not believe the difference in Louis. Godoy looked beaten with a mis-shaped face that was captioned by one paper with a photo and”The terrible effects of Joe Louis punches are shown on Arturo Godoys face."

Buddy Baer was six foot six and two hundred sixty pounds of fighter. He fought Louis too knocking Joe out of the ring in the first round then claiming the title on a foul in the sixth. The referee threw out his claim and it was Louis fight. Louis was a bit put out by Buddy’s claim of his being a dirty fighter. Eight months later Louis exploded in the first round and Buddy Baer folded up and hit the canvas hard and was down and out in one round!

Joe Louis’ final rematch foe was Joe Walcott. Louis was near the end of his career now and Walcott who was a smart mover and hard puncher nearly took him over fifteen rounds. The rematch found Walcott still good with a style to frustrate Louis. However Joe remembered that Walcott would sometimes fight back rather than retreat when stung by a punch. Walcott did this in round thirteen and quick-as-you-read-this Louis unleashed a combination that had Walcott rolling on the canvas unable to beat the count. A final rematch KO! Louis had decisive KOs in every rematch he ever fought. It was his photographic memory that was partly responsible. So now you know the rest of the story.

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