How good could max baer have been?

[rightsideup]

He clowned around alot and was never as agressive as he had once been after the death for frankie campbell. Would have proved to be more dominate?

[Daddy T]

he would have been better but would still have been owned by Louis

[Sugarj]

He had a right hand's chance against anyone.....including Louis.

But Baer lacked decent technical skills to be honest. Even with more dedication, aggression and focus he was going to struggle against the likes of Louis.

But check out the Schmelling fight to see what he was capable of. At his best I'd rank him the second best 30s heavyweight after Joe.

[rightsideup]

sugarj
Are you saying that he would have beat braddock?

[Panamaniac]

He couldn't have been that much better than he actually turned out to be, because to matter what other triumph he might have had, Louis still would have been that inpenetrable force field.

[TheGreatA]

He just didn't have the technical skills and no willingness to truly learn the game. Baer got by his physical attributes and even then he didn't take much care of himself.

I think winning the title and beating Max Schmeling is as much as could have been expected of him. He could have beaten Braddock and perhaps worked his way to another title shot but nothing that would've raised his stock too much since Joe Louis was around.

[Capaedia]

Louis shut him down in the first round with his jab alone. That tells me it's unlikely he would ever have beaten Louis.

He could've been a much greater force though, in my opinion. Most definitely.

He's just not touching Louis' position

[Tiozzo]

here is a decent short documentary about Baer that I,ve watched a couple months ago...

[Sugarj]

sugarj
Are you saying that he would have beat braddock?

Yes, I'd put my house on a fully fit and focused Baer beating Braddock.

[TheGreatA]

Can't sell Braddock short, he was absurdly tough. The only person to knock him out was Louis and he only did it because he knocked him out cold. Otherwise Braddock would've kept getting back up.

The valiant effort that he put up against Louis shows that Braddock was never to be taken lightly despite his earlier reputation as a journeyman. Even a well-conditioned Baer may have had his problems due to the fact that Braddock was crafty enough and difficult to put away, which usually spells trouble for most punchers.

Still, I've never quite seen anybody toss their title away as Baer did against Braddock. A puzzling performance that was. Braddock was surely glad that Baer didn't even attempt to make a real fight of it.