Interesting that only two non-heavyweights got votes for greatest fighter ever. Obviously it's an Americans only poll too.
I have Dempsey somewhere just outside of the top 10. He did alot for boxing. Dempsey brought alot of excitement and attention to boxing. The milllion dollar gate. Jack Dempsey was a spectacular performer but his reign doest justify top 5 status in heavyweight history. All nostalgia aside.
-He didn't have wins over great heavyweights. -Didn't fight the best of his era (Wills, Greb) -Early embarrasing loses -His longevity is put into question due to inactivity Sorry, for me Jack Dempsey is barely in the Top20. He did a lot for boxing and was a popular figure, but that doesn't add into his ranking as a great "fighter".
Time changes everything, as Bob Wills put it. For you American fans, I notice the top football players (discounting all-around athlete Thorpe) were Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, and Glenn Davis. In the end of the century poll done by ESPN, the top football players from the pre-1950 era were Red Grange, Sammy Baugh, and Don Hutson. It occurs to me that the 1950 group picked three running backs. Baugh was the greatest passer of the first half of the century. Hutson the top reciever. The end of the century voters were more inclined to view the passing game as central. *Jesse Owens went from 8th at half century to 6th at the end of the century. His accomplishments didn't change. Perspective on the Berlin Olympics and Hitler's snub did, but one might argue that both are irrelevant to athletic greatness.
yeah you'd have to deluded or living in the 30s to rank Dempsey at No.3. few defences, years of nothing at all, getting pounded by a LH Carpentier, letting himself go out of shape Tyson style before he was 30, defending only a minor heavyweight title (ie the 'white' half it, not the whole world belt) and getting his ass handed to him by the first decent boxer he fought at that point. Jack doesnt really make the top ten anymore because at least a dozen champs eclipse his acheivements these days. Sadly, nearly all of them are black, so racist buggers want to rate Dempsey ahead of them. STOP BEING SO RACIST, YOU MORONS! That 1950s poll is a sad indictment of rife racism back then, to rate Dempsey with SIX defences ahead of Louis with TWENTY-SIX. Sad American roots.
Nah, I rate Dempsey high because I like his style. I would guess that was always the case with many of these ratings. People liked Dempsey's style and power. Dempsey was even more vicious and explosive than Joe Louis. He was like Tyson. People like that style. I think it's wrong to think all these guys were stupid white racists who based their rankings on some stupid tribal prejudice. They had no problem recognizing Jim Thorpe as the greatest American athlete, and Thorpe was native American.
if the poll was for the most exciting champ to watch, then you should have clearly marked it as so. If you mean the best then theres something wrong with you if you think a flashy, pumping David Tua is better than the lumbering but far more successful (and much better) Lennox Lewis. Same difference with Dempsey 6 defences and Louis TWENTYSIX. Its not even a little difference. Its a massive difference. I am not at all assuming that all voters were stupid racists, but the majority have proven historically to be just that.
for me, the difference lies also in the quality and not just quantity of fighters in those defenses. walcott, conn, schmeling are frankly just better than any of dempsey's competition
Depends on individual criteria. "Greatest" means different things to different people. Excitement produced and the star quality ability to draw a crowd are obviously criteria for some people in attributing greatness. Tommy Burns made 11 successful defenses of the title. Sonny Liston made 1. I don't see anyone rating Burns above Liston. Must be racism, eh ?
Yes, personally I rate Burns as a better acheived champ than Liston of course. No one would disagree. H2H is another matter, Burns was a MW in a HWs world and would have been crushed by Liston, probably. I am pretty sure hardly anyone would call Liston an ATG though, or rate him in the top boxers ever, say, if a poll was made in 1965.
Sharkeys better than Conn and on par with Walcott and Max. Personally I don't have Dempsey in the top ten but he's a difficult guy to rank. Head to Head he's awesome.