THREE OF THE GREATEST BOXERS OF ALL TIME

JOE LOUIS

Record: Won 66, Lost 3, 52 KO’s (66-3)

“The Brown Bomber” as he was known, Joe Louis was an American Hero!  Joe Louis had lost only 1 legitimate fight against Germany’s Max Schmeling and later avenged in a historical 1^st round KO. Joe Louis unmasked the Nazi image of invincibility.

Joe Louis became an American hero and symbol of American and African-American pride. During World War II, Joe Louis was larger than boxing. Joe Louis was an international icon, a symbol of what was right with America, as well as what would later become wrong. He became everybody’s hero, white or black; he was America with boxing gloves.

In his only 3 losses the once proud symbol of America was railroaded with taxes and consequently severely in debt. Despite donating his status, money, morality, free exhibition matches and service in the United States military in earlier years, he was forced into poverty. Needless to say, he was forced to keep fighting passed his retirement, and even with difficulty managed to win because he was Joe Louis. He suffered a pair of losses, including a heroic 8^th round knock out by newcomer Rocky Marciano.

Joe Louis is buried in Arlington National Cemetary.

MUHAMMAD ALI

Record: 56wins, 37 KO’s, 5 losses (56-5)

He started out as Cassius Clay and finished as Muhammad Ali and in between he changed the consciousness of America, becoming an American Icon for all ages.

Not only was he a boxer, and strategist in the sport, he was a great promoter and entertainer, often doing his famous shuffle, he proclaimed he could “Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!” His poetic pronouncements led to predictions of success and he delivered.

If one man saved boxing, it was Muhammad Ali. Taking on the likes of Sonny Liston, Joe Frasier, George Foreman, Ken Norton, and Leon Spinks, he made history in his “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thriller in Manila”, giving the media what it needed to promote him and the sport.

But the fame and money were not the only things that Ali was known for: he was an American through and through. Converting to Islam, he refused to go into the army and fight what he felt was an unjust, and undeclared war. Why should he go to kill other people of color when his own country was not giving his own race a fair shake, where blacks were being denied rights, hosed down like animals and beaten down? As he said publicly: “No Vietcong ever called me N****r.”

He went to prison for his beliefs, came out and fought his way back to being the: “Greatest” of all time.

ROCKY MARCIANO

Won 49, Lost 0, 43 KO’s (UNDEFEATED)

Rocky Marciano ranks to some people as the greatest of all time based on his record of 49-0. However there is much controversy there. How can an undefeated boxer NOT be ranked as the greatest of all time? If you are to compare his opponents to those of other great boxers, there is a clear difference. Most of Marciano’s opponents were past their prime. Jersey Joe Walcott, Joe Louis, was all past their best days, and so the argument goes.

Rocky Marciano was not a boxer so much as a ferocious puncher, with a devastating punch that exploded on an opponent’s chin, sending him through the ropes or straight down to the canvas. Marciano was not a finesse boxer, although he knew the basics of boxing, just bludgeoned you to the canvas with his fists. 

That's all I wrote, folks!