As a caucasian I personally took no offense. I am not sure what other nations or constitutional rights that people hold dear, but as a supporter/fan of freedom of speach (Both spoken and written) I support your right to say whatever...If I don't like it personally, I will likely ignore it. I do believe that sometime people go over board (not necesarily in this case)....but in an annonymous forum it is highly likely that someone will step on someones toes at a variety of points and on a variety of levels.
One thing people forget is that the concept of professional athlete was pretty much non exsistent at the time. Dempsey bat up on farmhands, bartenders, and grave diggers because for the most part boxing was still barely legal and difficult to sustain a living at. You know most baseball players had jobs in the offseason, even the great ones like Ty Cobb and.Honus Wagner. Professional athletics was still in its infancy.
I have to strongly disagree. History shows that the fighters of Dempsey's era were as profesional in their preparatings for a fight if not moreso. If you think that the toip fighters of that era were bartenders, farmhands or gravediggers, then you fundamentaly don't know who or what they were.
Two can play at that game. I could unkindly point out that ther have been more out of shape fighters in the heavyweight top 10, over the past 10 years, than in any other period of the sports history. The Klitschko brothers might be nice physical specimines, but they are not representative. This is the ea of Sam Peter type heavyweights.
I guess I could post a picture of Frank Bruno`s physique and then post a picture of Tim Witherspoon cleavage and all. But then I might ask somebody who won when they fought.
I didn't question the professionalism of their training habits. I'm sure they were in fantastic shape. But to not acknowledge that professional athletics was at a different place back then, is in my opinion incorrect. Dempsey, even well into his career had to maintain odd jobs because it was difficult to support yourself solely as a fighter. Why did a lot of the early heavyweight champions put their titles on hold for so long? Because they could make more money not fighting, doing vaudeville, etc.
I have to strongly agree. As a student of economics and the Hegelian Historic Imperative, I know this to be true. Even American Football Champions up to the 1970's had jobs during off season to make their way. So even if a Jack Dempsey paid all his bills by fighting (which he didn't thank god for the forgotten film reels of his acting career) his opponents certainly did not. Frazier KO8 Dempsey. And, heads up, Jack didn't like mixing it up with coloreds for cash.
Can't believe I'm getting involved. The only thing amusing about it all is Burt's enthusiasm and nostalgia for the times where men were tougher and political correctness was not in overabundance. We briefly talked about Johnny Dundee when I asked about his nickname, Scotch Wop. But when Suzie calls Williard a white gooftrooper... all of a sudden its racist and vile self-loathing.
Your consistent weakness as a poster is your childlike lack of objectivity, endlessly spewing your opinions as if they are undisputed facts ... you have a semi-decent knowledge of the 40's and 50's heavyweights but obviously know next to nothing about earlier decades of the past century ... however, you remain fun based on your emotional responses, time and again ...
Not to get off topic and antagonize your mini lynch mob but neither did your idol and that never stops you from raving about him time and again ... just another example of your lack of objectivity ...
WE thank you for sharing your brilliance but perhaps you can draw a parallel of how one thing impacts another ? IF anything, it motivates opposes and filters out the lazy opposes to handicaps talent ..
Your facts and time line is wrong ... by the time Dempsey fought there were more boxing gyms across the country than at any other time , a period that would remain up through the dawn of television ... you are confusing this with the age of Sullivan but then again why bother with details since this is obvious a thread dominated by amateurs ...