The ‘Brown Bomber’ defended his title for 25 successive bouts in a record reign that started in 1937 and ended in 1949
London — Boxing fans and historians will always argue over the greatest heavyweight of them all, but even Muhammad Ali was willing to admit he might have met his match in Joseph Louis Barrow, known professionally as Joe Louis.
“I don’t know if I could have beat him, he really don’t know if he could have beat me,” Ali told wrestling writer Bill Apter in 1976. “But it’s a great possibility because Joe Louis was my idol and he was for me the greatest fighter of all time.”
By Alan Baldwin, Business Day
Featured Image, The boxing gloves that heavyweight champion Joe Louis used in his first fight against Germany’s Max Schmeling in 1936 are shown at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington. Picture: REUTERS/JASON REED/FILE PHOTO
Full article @ Business Day