How big was jack dempsey really

Power puncher you a dumb motha****a, sounds like you are a big weightlifter and think anyone below 200lbs is not strong. Dempsey was ridiculously strong

 

You know Dempsey had bigger forearms than Lennox Lewis?

I always thought his forearms looked swollen and out of proportion in all the pictures of him.

 

That's probably from doing a lot of manual labour from a young age.

 

Like all the riveting he did during the Great War.

Spats make lovely work apparel.

 

most fighters from Dempsey's era and even way later had skinny legs. If their legs were developed they would have weighed more.

 

I was thinking of all the farm work, logging and mining he did as a kid.

Sitting out the Great War was possibly a great career move.
On the other hand, if he had gone he might have ended up getting there when the fighting was over and indulging in boxing tournaments against Gene Tunney and Bob Martin.

Spats are lovely in any season.

 

Probably from riding the rails. I can't remember what they called it (the hobos did) when you rolled under the train and tied yourself to the piping. Their is some epic grip training - let go and you die.

They only did it when there were too many guards to hide on the boxcarts. There is a gruesome story in Stan Ketchel's bio when he's doing it with a pal and a train guard put a few meters of chain length between the carraiges so it flicks back and starts hitting and cutting them - his pal loses his grip and gets torn apart by the train while it's moving.

No wonder guys from that era are so damn tough.

 

Agree! I think Marciano was the first to have those massively thick legs. It was all that up hill running he did. He'd run like 30min uphill then go back down hill, running backwards to work the rear of his leg. Training ethic or what?

 

Yeah, that would definitely train the forearms.

I know. It was survival of the fittest.

 

I prefer to say 'professional ****** of virgins'.

 

Are those stories true? I thought it was all bollocks made up by Doc Kearns after they split?

 

Who knows. Dempsey's early days are surrounded in mystique and myth.

He was a bouncer in a brothel when he was about 21 years old, and his first wife was a prostitute who was in her mid-30s.
He certainly lived in that world.

 

He was not built like Paul Williams ... he was built extremely similar to Holyfield .. maybe an inch shorter but the same lanky , long armed build with natural strong upper body muscles ..

 

Really?

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Looks more similar in size to the 6'1, 75inch reach of Carl Froch

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