Description
Joe Louis
Birth name: Joseph Louis Barrow
Alias: The Brown Bomber
Record: 66-3-0
52 KOs 2 KOs
Division: Heavy
Bouts: 69
Career: 1934-1951
Debut: 1934-07-04
Nationality: USA
Residence: Detroit, Michigan, USA
Birth place LaFayette, Alabama, USA
Born: 1914-05-13
Died: 1981-04-12 (Age 66)
Twenty-five consecutive title defenses. A world record. Twelve consecutive years as World Heavyweight Champion. Another world record. Three consecutive first-round knockouts in title defenses. Ten victories over world champions. Only one loss in his first sixty-two fights. Any way one looks at it, Joe Louis is an all-time great in the sport of boxing and a deserving Hall of Fame inductee. But the legacy and importance of Louis exists beyond the realm of statistics. In an era when blacks were shut out of most opportunities for social equality or upward mobility, Louis succeeded in gaining the richest prize in sports, opening doors and minds like no other athlete before him. His overwhelming abilities and skills inside the ropes got him to the championship, but his sportsmanship and soft-spoken dignity made him an idol to millions. Louis was far from a role model in his private life, but to the public, he was a symbol of values larger than himself. Americans of all colors, sexes, and creeds saw in him the ideals of freedom, competition, and patriotism that made him the perfect symbol of national pride during the troubled years of the Great Depression and then World War II. He may have been the greatest heavyweight in history, but much more importantly, he was a hero to an entire generation.
Categories: African American Boxers | Native American Boxers | Chicago Golden Gloves Champions | United States Amateur Champions | World Heavyweight Champions |American World Champions |World War II Veterans |Promoters | Actors | IBHOF Members | World Boxing Hall of Fame Members |The Ring Magazine Champions
