1. Joe Louis:"The Brown Bomber" Joe Louis is the natural choice to head a list of 1930s heavyweights. Louis was not just the dominant champ of the 1930s - if you consider how infrequently past champs fought, he was the first truly dominant and busy heavyweight champion period. He consistently comes in as either the #1 or #2 heavyweight of all time.
2. Max Baer:Baer stands as the great underachieving clown prince of heavyweight boxing. He possessed brilliant talent - Jack Dempsey himself thought so - and we saw a glimpse of what Baer could have after he pulled himself back together from the Frankie Campbell tragedy. Under the tutelage of Dempsey, he beat Paulino Uzcudun and Tuffy Griffiths, and stopped both Max Schmeling and Primo Carnera
3. Max Schmeling: It is interesting to think about would have happened if Schmeling had not been fleeced in the stinky, rigged decision in his rematch with Jack Sharkey. That was the bout that prompted Schmeling's manager to famously declare "we wuz robbed!" Despite what the record books say, Max "The Black Uhlan" Schmeling beat Sharkey twice, and it is likely he could have beaten off a challenge from Primo Carnera too.
4. Primo Carnera: Primo Carnera is best known for his connection to the mafia, and it is frequently alleged that he owes all his wins to criminal machinations. While some of his fights were perhaps rightly tainted by allegations of corruption, obviously not all of them were. To even claim the world title in the first place, he had to knock out Jack Sharkey.
5. Jim Braddock: The number 5 slot was comes down to a contest between "The Bulldog of Bergen" Braddock and Jack Sharkey. That Braddock is here actually says more about Sharkey's lack of top qualifications than it does about Braddock's own accomplishments. Contrary to what the film The Cinderella Man would have the world believe, the only true contender he met on his way to challenge Max Baer was John Henry Lewis.
Cited Work
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1060843/the_top_5_heavyweights_of_the_1930s.html?cat=37. 5/31/2011
I'd like to see the brown bomber take on Manny Pacquaio. That would certainly be a fight for the ages. Boxing also seems to have lost the draw that it once commanded, why did MMA take the center stage?
ReplyDeleteI always thought Rocky Balboa (real name Marciano, but it's Balboa in the movies unless it's the other way around) was a boxer in the 1930s. Whoops.
ReplyDeleteAt first I was affronted that he didn't make your list but then I realized he was from the 1970s.
The brown bomber vs Pacman? That would be so unfair! But the way Pacman is fighting nowadays, it seems like no one can stop him. Like you said Dan, boxing has been slowly been replaced with MMA. It might be due to the content of MMA. It's much more physical and people love to be entertained. Hopefully we'll see a rise in boxing again and perhaps find it back in sports headlines.
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