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EPISODE: Episode 1
Welcome to another episode of Ring Talk with Lou Eisen on Talkin Fight. This week, we delve into one of the fascinating myths of boxing history – The Bum-of-the-Month Club, a term popularized by New York Post writer Jack Miley for Joe Louis’ opponents.
Join us as Lou Eisen, with his unmatched boxing knowledge, uncovers the truth behind this legendary phrase and its impact on the legacy of the “Brown Bomber,” Joe Louis. Is there more to this so-called club than meets the eye? What did it mean for the fighters and the boxing industry as a whole?
Don’t miss this episode if you’re a boxing history buff or a fan of the extraordinary career of Joe Louis! Don’t forget to subscribe to Talkin Fight for more in-depth boxing conversations with Lou Eisen.
#JoeLouis #BumOfTheMonthClub #BoxingHistory #RingTalk #LouEisen #TalkinFight #Boxing #BoxingAnalysis #BoxingLegends #BoxingMyths
Transcribed
Foreign boxing writer historian, soon to be author and today we’re going to discuss um um.
What are we going to discuss to bomb in the Month Club Joe Lewis, uh we’re gon na debunk the bomb of the month club is what we’re going to do, and it was a myth, the phrase bomb the month club was originally started.
It was coined by Jack Miley of the New York Post and this will happen in the 40s, and so what happened was the timeline, for this was the fact that uh Joe Lewis, the reason I’m sort of pausing, as I’m speaking by the way, is I’m leaning Back in my chair, which is never a safe thing for someone like me, given the size and weight of my gargantuan head but Jack finally coined this phrase bum of the month and the reason he did this was Lewis won the title in 1938 in June.
In Chicago Kaminsky Park against James J, Braddock Braddock was a good fighter.
He was the world heavyweight champ.
He dropped Lewis in the first round and when he Lewis got up right away, and so, when Lewis came back to the corner Blackburn, who was one of the all-time great trainers? If you don’t know him, shame on you and Blackburn had turned Joe Lewis into Superman, and when Lewis got back to the corner, he said when you get knocked down, you don’t get up at the count of one you’re, giving the guy who knocked you down an Advantage stay down for nine use that time to gather your senses then get up, and what happened was Lewis got overconfident.
He thought I’m going to come right out at Braddock.
Who’S got an arthritic rib cage on the left and an arthritic arm and kill him and Braddock knew that was going to happen.
Stood back, took a step back and dropped him, and so Lewis, Lewis is fine.
After that, he comes out and Blackburn said: just do what I tell you to do, just listen, that’s all you got to do and Lewis went out methodically took um Braddock apart, knocked him out in eight rounds and everything you saw Joe Lewis do in the ring.
All these great things he didn’t, he wasn’t born with that.
He came out of the amateurs, basically an arm puncher, but he got by on his strength.
He was an incredibly strong fighter and it was Blackburn who said to him.
Listen.
The pro game is different.
So if you want to hurt a guy, you can’t just hit him with your arms and a lot of times aren’t punches Telegraph, they’re Telegraph they’re shot.
So what he said was to him.
You can use your balance and your leverage.
Those are the two key elements to boxing balance and leverage, and if you use them correctly, you can annihilate any man you face plus being a black man, you’re not going to get a decision, it just isn’t going to happen, and this goes back to Blackburn’s time.
Blackburn was one that is rated by most boxing historians um, one of the top three lightweights ever to have lived now.
Some of you who are younger than me will say: hey hey what what about uh uh this guy or you know Duran and Duran, I think – was the greatest likeweight of all time and and Benny Leonard and this person and then they’ll mention recent guys.
Tiafina Lopez lomachenko the problem with a lot of main problem with the internet.
I think, with regards to boxing is that people come up with these insipid top 10 list or who would have won if this guy would have fought this guy, and these are people that are so young that they only know boxing from 1985 till today.
So they’re ignoring the previous hundred years that produced a lot of phenomenal Fighters, one of whom was Jack Blackburn, but Blackburn fought and beat a lot of guys.
You know he beat Jim Barry who knocked down Sam Langford.
He fought gumbo Smith, who had a victory over Sam Langford.
He fought Joe Gans three times so he fought Dave, Hawley the brilliant African-American fighter and beat him.
He fought Harry Lewis, the the um uh, the Jewish fighter, who was welterweight, champ and and beat him.
So he beat a lot of great guys.
He was five ten and a half which was big for lightweight.
You know.
Blackburn was a big guy, but Blackburn did stuff that no other Fighters were doing back then and I’m surprised Fighters don’t do it today.
Some do you know if they would have had film around at that point.
Blackburn would have been watching it, but they didn’t.
You know they would tape some fights, but it wasn’t as accessible as it is today.
So Blackburn knew that I’m a lightweight and basically weight classes.
Weren’T.
It didn’t mean that much back, then these weight classes, because you would fight you, would fight anyone who would fight you, so he’d fight Langford.
He fought Langford six times the sand.
Langford is the greatest fighter ever to have lived to not win a world title and Langford.
He fought him six times he lost once and he had four draws against him and I think one no contest where they weren’t particularly trying hard.
So do I freezed off the fight, so he fought all of these great Fighters dominated most of them.
Uh Blackburn was uh a piece of work in that he had a very, very, very nasty temper and he had a scar on the left side of his face.
Thick scar, all the way down here across under his chin, all the way down to his shoulder that was given to him by his brother after they got into a drunken brawl in a bar um.
He was doing well Blackburn and boxing is making some money.
He got decisions against him because he was black and he killed.
Three people, including his wife in a bar fight in Philadelphia when he was drunk sentenced to 15 years, did four and a half, but when he came out of prison um at that point, he had the substantive experience for Speed because being in prison for four years.
He lost a lot, he fought to 1923 1900 to 1923 and then he gradually moved into training Fighters and when I say he used to Scout Fighters, what I mean is he’d go watch a guy that he knew he would fight.
He’D watch him four five.
Six times so, unlike even Fighters today, he would never enter the ring thinking.
Well, I got great skill.
This guy’s a good fighter.
Let’S see what happens, he didn’t want to leave it to chance.
He didn’t want to take that chance, so he would study Fighters.
He would make notes he’d see how they react in different situations, so he tailored his boxing strategy and every one of his fights.
According to the man, he was fighting, which was a very smart thing to do so when he got into a ring against the Dave.
Hawley or Sam Langford, or Harry Lewis, or or Jim Berry or Joe Gans he’d, already seen them fight 15.
20 30 times.
You know what they were going to do before.
They knew it themselves, and so he adjusted his strategy accordingly, which is why he was so successful black parentalism and all these things, I’m saying about Blackburn, he was able to impart to Lewis Blackburn was a master of distance known today, as a ring, geography always knew Where he was in the rain, Blackburn knew that you know Blackburn had long arms, but you know if he fought a bigger guy with longer arms that that guy needed room to punch so Blackburn would crowd him.
Never giving the guy room the punch you got into the room to get leverage on shots, Blackburn wouldn’t give it to him.
Blackburn also knew all sorts of tricks, for instance, would he be standing in the ring and Lewis would do this later on and a guy was a couple of feet from him and Blackbird had his hands up defending himself, but sometimes he raised him really high to Expose his stomach, and that meant his opponent would reach forward what they’d left jab to hit his stomach, at which point Blackburn would shift his stance.
He put his left foot back and immediately throw a left hook and catch his guy on the chin knock him out, and he learned this from the great Joe kowinski and the great author of Joe coinski, the book The koinsky Chronicles Chris leforce is going to be With us, in a couple of weeks on June 18th and um uh, look for June 25th.
Excuse me and look forward to that June 18th.
It’Ll be Hall of Fame promoter, Russell Peltz.
So getting back to that Blackburn knew he knew what to do in the ring and Blackburn also knew when he taught Lewis this.
If you’re getting hit with body shots, if a guy’s crowding you first thing you want to do is get into a Crouch.
Why do you want to get into a Crouch you’re, presenting less of a Target to your opponent, less area service? I read it to hit, then you bring your arms up and you catch the shots on your elbow on your arms, on your forearms and with your fists and Lewis became a master at that.
In fact, one exercise Blackburn had Lewis do was when they were at training camp in Pompton Lake, New Jersey, uh.
You know after they’d have lunch or after a workout they’d sit outside on a bench or in a couple of chairs, and they would just talk.
He made sure Lewis would grab mosquitoes or flies out of the air and capture them, and it took a lot of hand, speed in court and I hand coordination to do that and the reason he did.
That, of course, is because it developed that the quickness on Louis’s hands, so Lewis became an expert in the ring when it came to blocking or pairing punches or picking them off, and that was all because of Jack Black, so he gets Louis and he starts training.
Lewis – and he originally wasn’t going to train Joe Lewis, because Lewis was black and black Fighters, especially heavyweights, pretty well had no chance at a title shot.
Excuse me, after Jack Johnson, after the reign of Jack Johnson, the first effort African-American World Heavyweight Champion Johnson was with Joe Frazier or Carlos Cambogia.
He was very controversial.
He enjoyed uh flaunting things in people’s faces and it’s difficult in a way to explain.
He married white woman, nothing wrong with that at all, but in some places and states it was still outlawed at the time.
So he was considered a fugitive um, but Johnson had other troubles with the fact that he was Notorious for checking into hotels, not paying the bill.
You know getting a car not paying the bill.
He’D be paid for uh Vaudeville to her or chair in England.
He’D be paid ahead of time, nine for two months work and then, after the second or third show he just skip out and keep the money.
So he created a lot of ill will.
He slept with a lot of different women white and black and flaunted it in people’s faces.
His skill level was so much superior to the other Fighters.
He was fighting he’s watching the white fight it was and in the end, Lewis, Lewis’s skill was so much superior, but because of his management he told them never flaunt over a fighter, never smile or or show any Joy after beating the man in the ring, especially A white man never be seen with a white woman in public under any circumstances and, in fact, ever be seen with any woman in public.
Unless you have one of your handlers with you.
Of course, the exception was the most beautiful woman that ever lived Lena horn, where he, whom he was seen this a lot.
Anyways were getting off topic, so Lewis is learning as he’s fighting, so when he has his first couple of fights his first professional fight in Chicago the Chicago Arcadia Arena.
He fights a guy named Jack Kraken and not Simone.
In the first round, Lewis hits him with two body shots crushing body shots breaks to got two of the guy’s ribs.
He goes to do it again.
The guy pulls his arm down.
Lewis’S Lewis takes the punch up to the chin, hits him in the chin.
The guy’s eyes were all he’s out before he hits.
The canvas fell, face first broke his nose and he’s fighting different guys as he goes along.
He fights in a Syrian American fighter named art, Sykes Sykes is giving him a good fight and the fourth round Sykes hits him a good shot and breaks one of Lewis’s molars and when Lewis comes back to the corner, who’s expecting to get some sympathy.
Black prince said you deserve to have you know what happened to him milks in his mouth yeah.
He broke off one of your teeth.
You deserve that because you were stupid.
You know when a man pulls his hand back like this.
What you want to do is you either want to duck to punch, but the best thing is to get close to him step inside.
So there’s nothing to punch, he’ll punch around you, Lewis didn’t do that Lewis thought you know this guy can’t hit that hard I’ll.
Take the shot and hit him back, but it didn’t work out that way.
Lewis eventually knocked him up and Louis had guys back then were that were trying.
He fought one guy from Green Bay named Adolf right off.
We honor um w-i-a-t-e-r and whatever was physically big man.
He’D won, he hadn’t lost in 11, fights he had.
10 wins one draw you knocked out.
Most of the guys.
He’D beat physically a bigger man than Lewis and he gave Lewis a good fight and he was swarming Lewis and pushing him back and really trading punch for punch, and he heard him several times and after a seventh round it was about even but what happened.
Of course well and he dropped, we had her in the first round, but we oughta got up right away.
So what happens? Is Lewis used a technique that blackberman showed him when we oughta got him to the ropes and was holding him there with his shoulders? Uh, Blackburn and Todd Lewis take one step to your left hook, your right arm and his right arm, step off the ropes and spin them and he did and when you spin, the guy, the guy gets spun, he’s off balance.
His hands are down and that’s when you nail him and that’s what Lewis did and ended up winning the fight.
So he did that to a lot of guys that he was fighting on the way up.
Now Lewis wins the title and after that he fights he wins the title, I’m 38.
and he fights until he goes into the war from 42 to 46.
So from 38 to 42, 21 guys fights 21 guys, he knocks out cold 17.
Buddy bear fight was a fight where buddy bear was disqualified.
That’S the 18th win.
He stops Gus De razio uncuts, that’s the 19th win and the other, the other guys that he’s beating each are Fighters that were stopped because they were taking too much of a meeting.
So these were the guys that Jack Miley called bomb of the month and it wasn’t a racial thing, as people sometimes claimed it was.
They said it was a racial thing that he said that, because he was black uh, that’s not why he said it.
It was more the quantity rather than the quality of the opponents, Joe Lewis, the bum the month didn’t mean that the opponents were bombs.
Far from it, it meant that Lewis’s ring scales were so Superior.
He made even great Fighters and good Fighters looked like bombs.
One of the guys he beat was um was a fighter named Lou Nova, the inventor of the cosmic bunch, and it was Nova, not Billy Conn, who had originally said you.
You know I’m going to run and Lewis said you could he could run, but he can’t hide.
Um Nova was ranked number one.
He was not a bum and he was just no match for Lewis.
Lewis destroyed him and he did it with um tremendous ease.
Now we’re going to look at some of these fighters in the first offense of his title after he wins it it’s within two or three months.
You know today, Fighters heavyweight Champs fight what once a year, maybe twice Lewis fought 21 times from 38 to 42.
.
That’S incredible, and one of the reasons may have been racial in that there’s.
Certainly a lot of racism amongst the sports writers and the boxing promoters and many Americans.
So Lewis had to be a fighting champion and he had to fight as many people as possible and give them a fair shot.
That’S where the racism possibly came in so in the first offense of his title, a decision, the great Wells, Chevrolet, Tommy, Farr, who’s, the person.
You should really look up and look into fire could fight really well.
He beat James Braddock, but they gave product a decision.
Fire was an outstanding fighter and he took Lewis 15 rounds.
I mean, if our knew, what he was doing now.
Farr had already beaten Bobble in the former light heavyweight champ.
He beat Max bear former heavyweight champion, beating Charlie Belanger, the Canadian, and he also beat former light Behavior champ Tommy loughran who’s in not only in the Hall of Fame but considered far and wide, as the best defensive fighter ever to have lived so far gave Lewis An extremely tough fight, so there’s no way no way.
No, how can you consider Tommy Farr to be a bum? This was a high level top frame, uh Elite, heavyweight fighter and Lewis beat him Lewis had to box him and Lewis couldn’t knock him out, and this is another thing, Blackburn Todd Blackburn said: if you could hit a guy with one shot, you can hit him with Two, if you can hit him with two, you can hit him with three.
If you get him from three, he can hit him with four so on and so on and so on, but he also said to him: you have to at some point if you hit a guy Your Best Shot and he’s still there, you have to concede The Knockout and go for a win uh using your technical skills.
Lewis had the best technical ring skills of all time, and that’s because Blackburn gave those to him Blackburn trained him.
That way.
Blackburn came into the gym one day when Lewis was there and he had a brick in one hand and he threw a right hand and Lewis ducked under it, and then he smacked him with his other hand, and he said son.
That’S what I’m trying to teach you they’re looking for that right hand of yours, they’re, looking for it so fake the right hand, when he moves to there hit him with your left, and he was brilliant at that Lewis would throw that left jab that concussive left Jab double jab, double jab, double jab over two three four rounds, and you know third, fourth round you throw it, the guy would Flinch.
Think there’s another one coming right and he moved to his left right into the force of Lewis’s right hand and, of course, Lewis sped up the process because he would throw dozens of double F Jabs in the first round.
And then, when the guy would move to his left Lewis would catch him with the right.
So Lewis knew what he was doing.
None of it was by accident.
It was by Design.
You know exactly what it’s doing, because he learned from from Jack blackward.
The One Loss he had before he was Champion was Matt schmelling and that’s because he broke one of Blackburn’s rules.
Blackburn said, when you threw the jab, he pulled it right back to protect a counter shot.
He didn’t do that because he believed his own press.
It was Hubris that took him down that night and Schmeling knocked him out, and the problem, of course, was that out leading up, he wasn’t leading up to the fight.
He wasn’t training as well as he should have.
He wasn’t running eight to ten miles.
He was running one or two he’s playing golf.
He was eating too much ice cream so because of all of that, all of these things Louis wasn’t really prepared well, but, as he said after the fight or years later, excuse me, he said I never made that mistake again and he didn’t Lewis rarely made the Same mistake twice, there were two things about Lewis.
You couldn’t count on him to make the same mistake twice and you never fought him twice.
Anyone who fought him twice was beaten much worse than their second fight.
He was the wrong guy to fight twice so after Tommy far, he fought Nathan, Mann native man and Nathan.
Man had a record of 73 wins 12 losses for four draws and 44 Knockouts.
That’S not a bum, that’s a good fighter and man beat guys like Jack Roper, who fought Lewis Steve dudas, who was who was ranked Donald Redberry artero godari.
He was a top ranked guy from Chile.
Bob Pastor, who was ranked and ape Feldman Mann, was an excellent heavyweight.
He was highly regarded and Lewis dropped him three times in the third round.
Before the fight was stopped.
Man was a good guy.
He beat a lot of good guys.
Lewis just walked right through him.
No one was prepared for the power of Joe Lewis, and that’s because he was not an arm.
Puncher Lewis set his feet and threw that right hand got his full 200 plus pounds behind it and when it hit you, it felt like you’re being hit by a tire iron.
It just went down also a lot of guys jabbed, and they would Lean Forward putting themselves off balance.
Blackburn Todd Lewis hold your ground when you jab the power comes from twisting at the hips driving off your back foot and snapping.
Your shoulder and Lewis would do that and that’s why his jab felt like a you were being pollax Lewis knocked guy’s teeth out.
He broke noses with Jabs.
He knocked guys out with Jabs Lewis.
Could jab hard enough to take your head off and so people feared that uh man was a very good heavyweight and he had above average skills and there’s no way you could call him a bum uh.
Next guy, you thought was from Minnesota Harry Thomas and Thomas.
Had beaten the Canadian Charlie Belanger, he beat, you know Jorge, who was a good heavyweight and then he gave a fight to Lewis, but he was stopped in the fifth round.
His final record was a respectable 41-15 and two with 32 Knockouts.
So he was a good fighter, not a great fighter, but was he a bum was Harry Thomas, a bum? No way no way was Harry Thompson after that he his next defense came against schmelling.
This is the single greatest fight in the history of boxing.
As far as I’m concerned and the most important fight at this time, World War II was on the horizon and I should have mentioned earlier one of the reasons he fought so many times.
Lewis was they knew World War II was coming and because he knew World War II was coming that and he would volunteer, which is what he did he wasn’t drafted.
He knew World War II was coming.
He wanted to make as much money off the title as he can as he could before he had to enter the Army.
The other thing too, of course, sadly, was that Lewis spent money like water, so the more he fought, the more he made and the more he needed Mike Jacobs, the promoter told them to take half of every dollar.
You make put it in a separate bank account for the IRS Lewis just didn’t do that and which is why it caught up with them later, but we’re getting off topic.
So you can’t call that Schmeling a bomb.
He was a former Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.
He had a record of 41-15 and two with 32 knockouts and or excuse me.
I was dreaming about one uh.
He had a record of 56 10 and 4 with 39 Knockouts he’d, already beaten Lewis.
He knocked him out after dropping him.
Several times Lewis destroyed him in one round broke.
His cheekbone broke his orbital bone Airline fracture the Jaws ruptured.
His spleen with the right hand, broke two of his ribs was in the hospital for a month after, and this fight was interesting because you know you have World War starting shelling represented the Nazis, although trailing despised Hitler and the Nazis, and Lewis represented America and freedom.
Although blacks didn’t have their own Freedom, especially in the military service in the United States, back then Blackstone treated horrifically and in this fight like in all these fights Blackburn had a strategy.
He said, listen, schmelon’s got long.
Arms smelling needs room to punch, he needs distance.
He’S so what you have to do is get in there and crowd him and that’s what Lewis did fought from a Crouch get in there.
Fight from the Crouch crowd him throw short shots four to six inch, six inches in length and take them out that way, and that’s exactly what he did and when he trained Lewis.
When we originally started trending, it was what Blackburn did was.
He took a rope and he tied it from one ring post to Agnes Claus to Ring to the other, and he said to Louis when you’re backing out of a clinch.
You have to be under this rope.
You can’t back out straight up because that’s how guys get tagged and knocked out or knocked down.
You have to be under this when you’re backing up and when you’re moving forward throwing punches and when you watch Lewis he did.
That Lewis was technically the most perfect fighter that ever lived.
John Henry Lewis was his next opponent.
Now John Henry Lewis, his great grandson is LL Cool J John Henry Lewis was the Undisputed worldwide heavyweight champion.
I believe you went from Bob Olan a great Jewish light.
Heavyweight champion Lewis was blind in one eye and he wanted to retire, but he didn’t have much money saved up specifically because of the way the mafia ripped off African-American Fighters.
So he thought if I fight Lewis, I’m going to fight him and I’ll win a lot of money.
You know whether I win the fight or not and Blackburn said.
Listen! This guy can’t be he’s alive, heavyweight, don’t torture, him, don’t fight him for 15 rounds.
Just take him out and around and again he knocked him out in one round, but he sent him away with two three hundred thousand dollars, which was great for that time in the early 1940s.
And when you look at Lewis’s record, he beat a lot of great guys.
He beat Jim Braddock former World Heavyweight Champion.
He beat Al Gainer great Fighter, the Brit Len Harvey.
He beat worldwide heavyweight champion Bob Owen and also heavily um halatori, and he was stopped, as I said, at 229 of the first round.
But you know his final record was phenomenal.
He had 101 wins, 11th draws, five losses, 57 Knockouts, so John Henry Lewis is most definitely not a bum.
Now next up for Lewis was Jack.
Roper Roper was a very good fighter.
Roper boasted 66 wins with 34 of his victories coming by KO.
Unfortunately, he also had 34 losses, 43 losses actually, but he did beat top heavyweights like Patsy Peroni, Gunner, Borland, Eddie, Sims and and Jorge brezzia.
Again, Roper was not an elite fighter, but neither was he a bum.
He knew how to fight and uh Lewis was able to beat him and stop him now.
Next, in line for Lewis, was the the um colorful and deceptively skilled to Tanto ni Glendale, two tan Tony galento was built like a beer barrel, beer cake.
They didn’t call him two times because it was weight.
They called him not because he lifted these huge gigantic wooden uh kegs of beer over his over his um uh shoulder and he could bounce them and toss them up in the air.
These kegs were known as the two tons, and this is a guy who trained while smoking a cigar.
He was a tough guy and you know Lewis, he staggered Lewis in round one and he dropped him around three Louis got careless and then Lewis stopped going to win around.
Fourth after he got up from the knockdown.
Every punch Lewis land on on glental’s face opened up a cut.
He was really angry at Glendale.
He was out to kill him.
Glendale had called his training camp every day before before the fight.
Saying I’m going to do this to your wife and I’m going to do that to your wife and Louis was so angry.
He just thought I’m going to kill the man and he was too angry to be able to fight the way he should have fought.
But after the knockdown he was calmed down by Blackburn and then he went out and he stopped him.
He stopped collecting.
He just demolished him.
Now.
Glendo uh said that the punches he were he was hit with were incredible.
He also said that that um, a lot of reporters, said, excuse me that glento uh, the punches Lewis hit, were the hardest ones Lewis ever threw in his career.
I mean he put everything into them, Alistair nice, to have you back too many people.
Think of Tony as a Butterbean type of fighting Tony galante was killed.
Tony Glenda was very skilled and very powerful, and if you look at the guys he beat I mean he beat lunova Abe, Feldman, Jorge bracia Harry Thomas Nathan, Mann, Charlie macera and alatori, just to name a few.
These are all good top ranked heavyweights.
Glendale could punch with power and accuracy, and I’m going to tell you something uh.
If you would call him a bum to his face, he would not have lived long to brag about it, delanta loved to fight in and out of the rain.
He was a tough tough guy Nets.
Defense for Joe Lewis was Bob pastor and believe it or not.
The fight was scheduled for 20 or 20 rounds, um and Pastor last 11 rounds.
He lasted 11 rounds and Lewis stopped him at the 38th second Mark and that’s incredible.
He actually went 11 rounds.
He got knocked down four times, uh in the first round, uh and once four times in the first round once in the second round.
So he got dropped a lot, but he still got up.
He was a tough but game.
Guys career record was 53-7-5.
That’S a great career record.
He only had 17 Knockouts, but he wasn’t a big puncher.
He was a better boxer than pumpkin, but the speed and power of Lewis was just too much for him and if you look at the guys he beat, for instance, Lee ramage alatori art Sykes, Al McCoy.
He was a top ranked heavyweight and Al Delaney who’s from Canada.
His real name was Alex borcheck uh Pastor survived four knockdowns against a prime Joe Lewis, Lewis was in his prime then, and he still want to live around with him.
So after getting dropped four times and still going 11 rounds, you cannot call Bob Pastor or bum the next guy he fought was one of his closest fights.
Next to the Billy Conn fight, it was chilling and heavyweight Arturo Godoy Godoy was an awkward fighter.
He he thought of an exaggerated Crouch and he would just stick his hands up like this.
You know when he’s fighting you and it was just an awkward guy to fight and he beat him by split decision and Godoy fought a very good match.
Godoy’S final record by the way was 92 wins.
22 losses.
12 draws 52 Knockouts.
This was an elite level guy and he held wins over Harold Johnson Phil Moscato buddy Knox.
They saddled who later on fought him and Tony Musto another point of Joe Louis.
So these are all good Fighters, so in no way shape or form can Arturo godore ever be considered a bomb.
Now the one fight that it’s interesting to watch and I would strongly urge you to to go on uh, YouTube and watch.
This was to fight with Johnny Paycheck p-a-y-c-h-e-k uh.
It lasted one round and then – and it was his next defense paycheck – had a really good record 44 4-2 and he had wins over Charlie Belanger, alatori and Charlie macera.
And when you watched your fight, he was literally quaking in his in his boots.
Uh, which was not uncommon for guys to face Lewis, he was a good and respected heavyweight, but he was not a bum.
Now.
What made Lou was so terrifying in the ring was he was the best counter puncher that ever lived, so you would have situations in every one of his fights where guys were afraid to lead, because if you lead against Joe Lewis and you miss you’re, going to Get hammered you’re, gon na get knocked out, and then there was the other situation where Lewis would leave.
Louis is essentially a counter puncher, but Lewis would lead and guys were afraid to counter punch, because if they counter punched them and they missed they get hit.
But if even worse, if they hit Lewis and annoyed him, he’d hit him back even harder.
So a lot of guys were beaten before they went in the ring which brings us to another thing.
People talk about guys in the ring uh um, who fought like Jose.
Ribalda or Conor Nelson, the committee, who fought Mike Tyson, the look of sheer Terror on their face and that’s true, but you never saw Terror on a person’s face like you saw when Joe Lewis fought him and in fact I’m going to show you something here.
I have a picture.
This is from my sub stack blue eyes and at substack.
com called the problem of the month club, and I just wanted to show you the photo I have of um that’s Joe Lewis.
Now mine is the gloves.
Look at that face right, see the face that face.
No emotion, no, empathy, no sympathy, no human emotion and that’s the face that people looked at and we’re terrified of that’s what scared the hell out of people, because you didn’t know what he was thinking all he wanted to do was fight and he was going to Get in there and do the best he could so after he fought, you have paycheck and Arturo Godoy made the mistake of fighting him again, never fight Joe Louis twice that to fight General Lewis twice, he always fared much worse.
The second time he knocked him out in eight rounds.
He just destroyed him after that he fought a guy named Al McCoy.
There were several fighters in boxing history named Al McCoy.
This was a heavyweight McCoy had a great record.
70 wins 17 losses.
Five draws with 47 Knockouts and McCoy could fight, he could also bang and he beat such name Fighters as Nathan, Mann and Lewis thought Bob Olin, Donald Redberry, buddy, Knox, Emilio Bettina, former World light heavyweight champion Harry Thomas Tommy, loughran, former World light heavyweight champion Tony shuko And Charlie Belanger, the Canadian, so McCoy was an above average fighter.
He was a very, very good fighter.
He was only stopped three times in his entire career and he was very well respected, pugilists.
So his record and Loan shows that he wasn’t a bump and Lewis walked right through him.
So you know five rounds.
Lewis just took him apart.
This guy was a very good fighter, but Lewis’s skills were so Supreme.
He just made this really good fighter.
Looked like he was a bomb.
Next up was a guy named red Berman.
Now, like many of his other opponents, Vernon had Stellar career numbers right.
He had 78 wins 22 losses, three draws, he knocked out 33 guys and he beat Tony Musto.
He beat Tommy fire, Steve dudas, Charlie macera and Lewis knocked out Berman with the body shot, he’s him quite a few times in body in the fifth round, but he hit him one left hook to the liver and Burma was left hanging on the ropes and he Associated with press, this is a quote Associated Press said that three terrific blows to the body left red Berman draped over the bottom rope gasping for breath through contorted lips and helpless to move.
But before we went out last night the Baltimore battler put up a fight to Thrill the crowd and won a genuine compliment for Joe Lewis red Berman.
Like a lot, unlike a lot of other Fighters, Lewis thought he tried.
He went out after he.
He attacked Lewis from the opening belt.
Excuse me he looked to knock him out and Louis said.
After he’s, the only fighter beside client who tried to take my title away from me, he really came after me.
I I had to hit him the hardest.
I ever hit a man, and that’s very true, most guys were terrified when they fought loaths and for good reason.
Everyone was really really really Brave and tough and training, but once you got in the ring from him all that courage left and it wasn’t Tyson it was.
It was Joe Lewis who said when he was told Billy Conn had a plan to beat him and Lewis said everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face.
That was Lewis who said that um Lewis knocked him out of 249.
As I said the fifth round, but you got to give Berman credit because he did his best to go after Louis, he threw everything he had.
Red Berman was known as one tough ombre in the ring.
He was a tough guy and to get him back down from anyone, so you can’t saddle him with the sober Cave of Being a bum.
Now, the next guy he thought was was Gus derezio, the name Gus derazio or the razio sounds like the name of Obama.
You’D stop them at the 130 Mark of the second round of Philadelphia at the convention hall and with durazio Obama.
Let’S see he was the toughest Nails fighter with a good heavyweight record of 71-23 and one, but he only had 19 kale, so he’s more of a swarming fighter than an actual puncher, and you know if he beat guys, like Donna barlin Joe baxi.
He was a good heavyweight Al McCrory, Charlie macera, another good, heavyweight and and Bob Pastor, who was an exceptional everybody.
Now that’s a pretty decent punch now Lewis knocked him out cold in two short rounds and what happened was he didn’t? He took one step forward and led his lethal right hand fly and the punch didn’t travel more than six inches, but that was enough and it landed on durazio’s chin and everyone knew the fight was over because durazio fell on his face and when a fighter falls On his face, there’s no point in counting Lewis soccered him in Lewis did what Bachman, who taught him Lewis showed um flaws in his armor holes, weaknesses that weren’t there and durazio went for it and leaned forward make him putting himself off balance Lewis quickly shifted closed.
The holes and then hit him with a shot, and that was it I mean durazio saw the chance that oh he’s open I’ll hit him.
Oh he’s not open, I’m out and that’s what Lewis did to a lot of guys and after the fight he said that the referee Irving Kutcher should not have stopped the fight, but the fight it highlighted Lewis’s unrival ability to punch uh with tremendous accuracy and power.
Blackburn um impressed upon Louis that when you’re fighting someone a hundred punches that miss mean nothing one more one, accurate well-placed punch is good than 20 or 30 power punches.
That look good, but don’t do anything Lewis, never wasted punches only in the first second fight with Walcott, where you see him wasting a lot of punches because he’s sort of fighting in desperation.
But before that he didn’t waste.
A lot of punches Lewis often didn’t throw the most punches in his fight in his fights, but he threw the most accurate punches and the most telling punches, and that’s why quality always comes over quantity in a fight today, he’ll say this guy outlandered, the other guy By 50, shots well that’s negligible, because those shots may have been flicking Jabs, but when Lewis landed his punches, they counted and when he hit you, he broke something.
If you hit you in the arm like Marciano would later on, he broke blood vessels.
He broke.
Bones hurt your ribs break your ribs break your nose, knock your teeth up, open, big cuts on your face.
Lewis just did damage with every Punchy through and that’s because Blackburn taught him how to do that.
It was Blackbird who taught him to stand there.
Joe Lewis was Jack, Blackburn’s Revenge.
He was his Masterpiece.
He was like Michelangelo’s David.
This was his revenge on the world of boxing and Blackburn, as I said, did not like Jack Johnson and what happened was when Johnson was in jail in the early 1900s.
He has Blackburn development and Blackburn gave him like five grand Seven Grand, and that was all Blackburn had after, like eight ten years of fighting, he didn’t have any more money that was his whole bankroll and then two three years later, when he was in jail, he Asked Johnson to Battle Mountain Johnson said: screw you if you’re stupid enough to give me your money, that’s your fault and Blackburn, never forgot it and he never forgave it.
So years later, when Lewis is doing well, uh Johnson drives up to his training camp and I’ve told the story before and he’s talk, and now now Blackburn was like a father to Joe Lewis, they loved each other and he called them.
Chappy black Lewis never knew his real father and so Johnson’s saying to Lewis.
No, you got to do this.
You got ta.
Do that Blackburn’s a bum.
He was a bum into fighting, he was Obama says he doesn’t know what he’s doing and as he’s doing it saying this, you can hear, you know didn’t, do the sound well, but he could hear the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked the trigger being caught And it was Jack Blackburn and he said to him: move leave now or die and Johnson just put his hands up.
You know, and he left he knew he knew from experience, because Blackburn had killed three people, if not more, he wasn’t kidding Blackburn, would have shot him in the head and he just said.
I don’t want anything to do with that man.
All he brings is trouble.
All he cares about is himself, and so he left Lewis wouldn’t have gone with him anyways because he loved Blackburn, like a father, but this was the enmity between them, the hatred between them, so Blackburn wasn’t going to let his Masterpiece, Joe Lewis, be ruined by anyone.
Uh after gastrasio lost the fight, he thought he wanted to file formal complaint against the referee, because he’s a referee should know, stop it.
He was out like he.
You know he gets up.
He falls back into the ropes he’s out.
His eyes are gone.
He actually thought the referee stopped it he’d been hit so hard.
He didn’t realize that he was knocked out.
In fact, native man, Hulu was knocked out, hit the canvas his head hit so hard and he bounced back up.
He kissed the referee on the lips and asked him out for a drink, and I asked Angelo of Dundee.
If this was true, he said: ask my brother Chris, he was there Chris said yeah.
He did he but his eyes weren’t there like he was glassy-eyed.
He just he was out of it, which is when the referee stopped the fight uh.
The next guy, who fought Louis, was Abe.
Simon aim, Simon was an interesting Fighter, the Jewish fighter, from New York.
He was a behemoth.
He was six foot four 250 pounds.
He had that an algae of some sorry.
I can’t remember the I apologize.
I can’t remember the name of the Affliction, but he had an oversized head and Lewis came out and knocked him down with the first right hand, he threw and and Simon’s sitting there in his Corner laughing and he or smiling, and he gets up.
He gets knocked down three or four more times.
It was a 20 round fight and he he you know he just kept going.
It was 255 pounds and he he stopped.
He beaten Jersey, Joe Walcott, so you got to give him credit and the unfortunate thing about Simon courts was this.
His physical size didn’t match his boxing Talent uh.
He had a great jab and when the fight was over, he cut Lewis over his left eye and he closed the left eye and, as the reporter said, he gave Lewis a hell of a fight.
He lasted 13 Rounds if the immortal Joe Lewis – and it was enough that you know Lewis Lewis was a – I don’t say he was scared, but it put some worry or fear in his heart and all all Simon had was the heart of a whale and a Tremendous dazzling left Jab and he was supposed to be too big of a target for Lewis and the writer said.
His chancellors were one in a million and that’s giving him the benefit of the doubt of going just three rounds.
But he gave it a full fight for 12 rounds got knocked out in the 13th uh.
The brown bomber just got up to him and let his hands go in the 13th, and that was it and he was floored twice by heavy duty, right hand and hands and then, as he staggered into the ropes near his own corner, he couldn’t maintain his balance And the referee Sam Hannan see why so he stopped about.
There was a TKO for Lewis, one minute and 20 seconds into the 13th round and although Lewis floored to me four times in 13 Rounds, it was scheduled for 20 and you can’t call in any way um.
I am a bum, because Abe was hurt three times.
He didn’t go down to the 13th and for several reasons, uh several rounds before that job been stalking him holding his fire until he had an open shot.
In other words, Lewis didn’t want to take a shot and leave himself open.
Lewis was looking for the perfect shot to drop him, and in the 13th it came and Luke Simon goes down for nine gets back up and Lewis rushed in looking to kill him.
Three, more rights dropped him again and he took another nine count and, as he raced across the ring once more uh his manager and promoter Jimmy the boy Bandit Johnson, uh stopped.
The fight is yeah, it’s over, stop it and the referee moved in and stopped it and, as I said, any man that can go toe-to-toe with Joe Lewis for 13 Rounds is not in anyone’s list of box.
Simon, wasn’t the most skilled of Fighters and Buddy bear who was as big as him actually bigger than him beat him, but you can’t call Abe Simon a bum.
Tony Musto was an Italian fighter, good heavyweight Eli.
He had a record of 37 30 and three not a great record, but he went nine hard rounds of Louis Lewis Florida only once in the third round, but he got up and he was ahead on points when the fight was stopped because in the ninth round He had a severe cut over muscle’s right eye, they couldn’t stop it and blood was pouring into his eye.
He couldn’t see it so they had to stop.
The fight now was Musto a bum.
I would say no why? Because he beat the great Jimmy Bivins, any man who beat Jimmy Bivins cannot be called in any sense of the word above buddy bear brother of Max bear good fighter.
666 255 pounds just a bit of a notch below him, but buddy bear had a great record.
57-7 and all with three with 53 Knockouts, and he knocked out out Delaney H, Simon Tony galento, Nathan, Mann and a decisionally saddled and his first fight with Lewis was controversial.
Uh.
He knocked Lewis through the ropes and out of the ring in one round in round.
One with a giant left hook, Lewis gets back in but near the end of the six Lewis hit him a big shot and big right hand.
He threw up before the Bell ended, but it landed after the bells sounded and bear was disqualified.
Well, I was Bare disqualified because his manager Ansel Hoffman and his trainer Ray arcel, who I had the pleasure and privilege of knowing and speaking to said they wouldn’t leave the rink and he said they said to the referee, Arthur Donovan.
You got to disqualify him.
He hit him after the Bell and the referee said, and he was correct and it was within the rules.
Yes, he hit him after the belt, but he threw the punch five seconds before the bell and it landed just as the bell rang.
So it’s not an illegal Punch If the ball had rung and then he threw it.
That would be a disqualification and because our cell and Hoffman wouldn’t leave the ring.
Buddy bear was disqualified and he was a good heavyweight, not as good as his brother, but in no way can he be considered a bum.
This was a guy who could really fight now the greatest fight that he ever had as world champion.
It was his next offense against the phenomenal Billy gone Billy.
Con is the former Western former Undisputed light heavyweight champion in the world enormously talented movie.
Star good looks one of the greatest all-around technical boxers that ever set foot during and he was he was phenomenal and he was the mo.
He was the smartest and most gifted fighter that Joe Lewis ever faced in his life before he was a champion.
While he was champion and after eighth champion and for 12 rounds Khan was ahead, Khan was ahead of him.
Khan was out boxing him, you know, and after the 10th 11th round Khan said you got a big fight in your hands tonight, Joe and Joe said.
I know it Khan was too quick for Lewis Khan would hit him and when Khan would would um sorry about that and drop something when Khan would hit him.
Uh he’d get out of the way and he kept turning Lewis.
He kept moving and Lewis couldn’t find him, and now there was a time and a ninth or tenth round which was written about after when Khan was against the ropes and he slipped on the canvas and his right arm went through the ropes now with it would Have been within the rules for Lewis to hit him and Lewis could have taken his head off, but he didn’t.
He moved back and people said after the fight that shows you.
How much of a gentleman Lewis is Lewis was a gentleman, but that’s not why he moved back Lewis moved back because he didn’t want to win in that fashion.
Lewis knew he believed in his own skills and with Blackburn, had taught him so much that he knew that sooner or later Khan would make one mistake and he’d catch him, and that’s exactly what happened now, as as the fight went on uh coming up after the 12Th round people said well, Lewis had to knock him out to win.
That’S not true.
If you look at all three score, cards, Lewis could have swept 13, 14 and 15th allows to be round and come out the winner.
What happened in the 13th round was Khan made a mistake.
What Khan did was he tried to knock Louis out Khan, had forgotten uh in his haste, to win the title by knockout that even attired Joe Lewis could still punch harder and, more accurately than any man that ever lived, and that’s exactly what happened and he’d gotten There and he started to trade with Lewis and Lewis almost couldn’t believe his luck.
You know, Lewis said some with a left.
Jab double left jab right hand then hit some moves back.
Hits him with an uppercut and Khan’s knees buckle and at that point Lewis just takes a big breath finishes him off of four five six punches Khan goes down, gets up the referee waves it off at 10 and Khan Rises.
It was one of the greatest performances of all time and they joked after Khan, said to him Joe.
Why couldn’t you let me just win the title and then win it back in three rounds in three months and Joe Lewis would say: Billy he’d wanted to you.
Couldn’T hold it for 12 rounds? How are you gon na hold it for three months and of course, after for years after that, and they fought again after the war Lewis destroyed him in eight rounds, because Khan had nothing left after the war, Lewis lost a lot.
No more but not as much as gone, but they became extremely close friends and they always spoke highly of of each other.
So you can’t when you look at Han’s final stats.
You know 63 1101.
He only had 11 Knockouts, but he up.
He boxed the pants off everybody, it’s a who’s who of boxing and world champions that he beat.
You know, look who he beat.
Fritzy zibik world champion, Emilia patina world champion Bay, Briscoe great fighter, Vince Dundee Teddy yaraz Vince Dundee world champion young Corbett.
The third world champion Eric Seeley, solid Krieger, had a title.
Fred apostoli was the middleweight champ dust, erasio Lee Savile deselevich world champion Bob pastor and the great Tony Zell one of the all-time great middleweight champions of all time, and he was first ballot.
Unanimous uh inducting into the Hall of Fame was when’s Billy con.
So was Tony Zell and Billy Conn.
If any fighter you look at on Lewis’s list or an analyst is, as far as you can get from being considered, a bum next up was Lou Nova, the great Lou Nova, who had the cosmic punch, lunova beaten a lot of guys Max Baer knocked him out Twice: Tommy Farr we ranaged Pat Kaminsky and his final career stats are also good.
49, 9-5, 31 Knockouts, but Lewis caught him at 259 of the sixth round and and stopped him and you know Gail tablet.
Tabit Talbot.
Excuse me, the writer for the freelance star, Fredericksburg Virginia, it was reported.
He wrote Lewis fainted with his left throughout all of his 202 plus pounds behind his right is struck to power for Nova Flesh on the jaw and he dropped as though he had collided with a freight train.
That’S how hard Joe Lewis could hit – and you know, as everyone said after the fight Nova, gained his feet, but that one punch ruined him.
I don’t know it didn’t just ruin him in that fight it ruined his career.
He never recovered from it, and no fight at ranked as number one as Nova was Byron magazine can never be called a bum.
He buddy bear tempted fate again and, as we know, fate hates being tempted and he stopped there in one round.
He just went out and said: I’m not going to have any more of this garbage of debating whether where and when and what time I hit him.
He just destroyed him in one round and then last fight he had before entering into the army was um Abe.
Simon again, and he annihilated Dave Simon and one six one-sided rounds and, like you know, buddy bear before him and Arturo Godoy and Jersey, Joe well got after him.
He found out all too well that when you face Joe Lewis in a rematch, it’s like threatening a lion cub in front of its mother.
You just it’s not a thing you want to do.
These were all good men, they could all fight and I all had great victories in the rain.
They were not bombs by any means, but Lewis stood Supreme, atop the heavyweight Division, and so after the war, he defends his title four more times and it was his title and I have to remember that during his Reign there were only eight Champions: eight divisions, eight Champions during his Reign and each division only had one world champion.
The other thing you have to remember is you can only fight who’s around in your weight class at the time you can’t fault them for not fighting this guy or that guy people said he never fought Elmer Violet Ray I’m about to remember that Ray was a Good heavyweight but Lewis did fight him in an exhibition and annihilated him Ray lost, Elmer Violet Ray had lost in fights to Juicy Joe Walcott and that’s in Charles and that took him out of contention to fight Lewis for the title No fighter in any way class.
Ever defended entitled for for as many times and for his long, a duration as Joe Lewis, Joe Lewis, was the real deal, and so is every man that faced him in the ring and if you don’t believe me, go on YouTube and watch his fights, he was The perfect fighting machine – he was the greatest single heavyweight champion and fighter ever to have walked the face of God’s green earth.
We will see you next week.
My name is Louise, and this has been ring.
Talk enjoy the rest of your weekend, foreign
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