One thing remains certain, however, Joe’s idiosyncrasies in and out of the ring have often been the downfall of his opponents when facing him in the square jungle, giving him a place among Guyana’s fistic greats.
I promise to use neither a magician’s wand as a brush nor mythical paint to colour the details of Joe’s punch-packed career. Louis did everything bad out of the ring – you name it, he did it. At one time in 1939 he was convicted of unlawful possession of three bicycle light bulbs and sockets. It was reported that on October 14, 1939, one Ms Louisa Lee rode her bicycle to the Bourda Market, the bicycle had an electric light and it was in good working order. While in the market, so the story goes, Joe told her that it was a good thing she did not bring with her the socket for her bicycle headlamp because people were in the habit of stealing bulbs and sockets around the market. Miss Lee, so it is said, paid no attention to him, but when she returned to her cycle Joe repeated his remarks. Ms Lee then looked and discovered that her bulb and socket were missing. She called the police who searched Mr Louis and found not one, but three bulbs and sockets were on his person. In reply to the magistrate Joe said he was seventeen years old and consented to being whipped. The magistrate ordered him to receive six strokes and pay 60 cents costs. Joe thanked the magistrate and promised not to do it again.
He began matching gloves and wits while still in short pants when inter-school boxing was in vogue. His early victories as an amateur included opponents such as Kid Chuckerout and Cliff Anderson, but perhaps no one had realized that they were seeing two great Guyanese boxers in embryo. Cliff Anderson went on to fight the Aldgate Tiger “Al Phillips” for the British Empire featherweight championship, though Cliff dropped a controversial decision with the Tiger on the canvas it was nonetheless an achievement for both himself and Guyana. After much encouragement and persuasion Joe turned professional and had his first preliminary against Wilfred Parris on March 31, 1931; losing on points he went on to defeat Harry Payne and drew with young Langford Joe who had two back-to-back fights with Cliff Anderson, winning one of them with Cliff winning the other.
He then had a string of victories, defeating Harry Payne, young Joe Ralph, Freddie Jacobs, Joe Blondell and drawing in the third encounter with Cliff Anderson. He lost to young Kid Tanner, Fritzy Zivik.
Len Houston in quest of greater laurels flew to Barbados where he spent an extremely active year winning six out of eight fights. His first was on March 24, 1946 defeating Gonner Braithwaite. He also gained victories over Kid Sharkey (KO6), Joe Nelson (KO5) Speedy Kid (points) Tiger Floors (Ko4), drew with Kid Ralph and then lost in a return. He then rounded off the year on December 15th knocking out Kid German in three rounds and returned home during 1947. He defeated Sudro Assam and Sixto Gonsalves before travelling to Aruba where he met the champion of Aruba, Louis Monagas. He defeated him over ten rounds and back home he knocked out his countryman Fritz Zivic in seven rounds and defeated Franciso Gonsalvez on points. Joe went over to Panama where he had two bouts knocking out Juan Ortez in four rounds and defeating Panama Kid over ten rounds. It was in this fight that Joe showed the unorthodox style – a strange mixture of clown and kangaroo with the cunning of a fox.
Young Joe Louis was also a combination of former world champion Jersey Joe Walcott and five times middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson. Moreover, Joe’s footwork bore all the swiftness necessary for dancing the once very popular jive and jitterbug for which he won championships several times. After the Panama Kid bout, young Joe Louis had a four-bout rest before entering the ring again. Then on December 26, 1947, in one of his best remembered fights he pounded out a points win over the highly touted Cuban lightweight, Kid Bururu over ten rounds. In the Sonny Tanner fight against the Cuban on January 27, 1946 a particular incident angered Louis and he swore vengeance to the Cuban. In the incident Bururu having dropped Tanner went quite paternally and picked him up. It was a grand gesture, but like most such gestures it was absurd. Bururu should have been in the farthest neutral corner, Joe was disgusted and felt that the Cuban had not only humiliated the Guyanese fighter but had insulted Guyana. After the fight Joe got up and went to Mr Albert Parris, then Secretary of the British Boxing Board and said “I could beat him.” He then called Mr Cyril Shaw, well-known boxing promoter and repeated the boast. Shaw smiled encouragingly but the fight was on. The bout took place on Boxing Day 1947 at the GFC ground. From the first bell it was obvious that the Kid was worried by Joe’s heavy bombardment, which had the desired effect when the Cuban was sent to the canvas from a hard right to the jaw for a no count. Immediately on rising he was met with a hard left to the body followed by an explosive right to the chin sending him back to the canvas for a count of eight in the fourth round. Joe went on to round out a points decision over the Cuban. After beating Bururu Joe Louis did not fight until April 15th, 1948, when he defeated young Gibbs over 12 rounds for the welterweight title of British Guiana. Louis had two more fights before retiring. He knocked out Len Houston in one round in what should have been a title defence but Louis was overweight by 1 ½ lb, thus losing his title on the scale.
”The dancing master” had his last bout on May 3, 1949, when he defeated Joe Baksi over ten rounds. Joe returned in 1951 and lived like most good fighters after quitting the ring. Joe put his experience at the disposal of others and started training young boys in school in the art of boxing and was frequently seen doing glove work at various gyms with up and coming fighters like Gilberto Campas and Vernon Lewis. Young Joe Louis passed away quietly in 1970 penniless and alone. But he will always be remembered by the hundreds who were fortunate to have seen him display his skill in the “square circle”.
