Did these black HW's have a chance against Dempsey Circa 1927?

A left hook on the chin

Dempsey ko 7.
Dempsey was pounding the body as Sharkey was thought to be susceptible to a body attack and, Dempsey's corner believed Sharkey was weakening after the first 5 rounds.


Sharkey was the beneficiary of a couple of foul outs ,when Maloney had him down 5 times in the 8th and once in the 9th before fouling out. Another was when he hit Scott low and the referee refused to give Scott the dsq.
The Sharkey /Schmeling first fight saw the shoe on the other foot and brought in the ,"no foul rule".

As Sharkey himself said "it's all in the game"


"protect yourself at all times"

 

:rofl

 

Sure made a mess of him. :!:

 

On the matter of exhibitions, Dempsey boxed several two-round exhibitions with George Godfrey in June, 1923, and a four-round exhibition with Bearcat Wright on Nov. 11, 1931.

 

Well Jack Dempsey's victory over Bearcat Wright certainly seems to have made a big impression on Bearcat, who rates Dempsey as the Greatest of all time, even ahead of Joe Louis. Obviously ESB makes more of the colour line than the old time fighters did. This is hard to read, but i enjoyed it. From page 5 of the Galveston Daily News in 1954

SAYS ONE-TIME FOE Dempsey Was The Greatest BY HOLT Sports Writer Jack Dempsey and Edward Bearcat Wright will the same ling again here Tuesday night But they won't be in the ring at the same time and they be there as con- was the case in Omaha Neb in 1931 We fought a exhibition with the burly Bearcat remembers And then chuckling he adds Dempsey nearly pounded me through the Dempsey's career was on the wane at the time but he still packed enough punch to convince Wright that he was greatest boxer who ever lived That may sound funny for a colored man to Wright ad- mitted but we old fighters judge a man by his ability and not by lis color and I think Dempsey was he best better than Joe Louis Wright well remembered for some of his bouts here n the is now 56 years old and weighs 266 pounds In his prime he carried 210 rippling ounds on a lithe 6 foot 2 frame Vright whose home is In Omaha las been on vacation from his lacking house job for the last couple of weeks His original home own was Brazoria where was on Dec 18 1897 Wright left home at the age of 16 and pursued various forms of manual labor In order to sustain himself It was as a cattleman however that he really became a man I believe my life as a man made it possible for me to develop the build of a he recalls He was in service in the first world war and it was at a camp In Arizona in 1919 where as an amateur boxer he first earned the nickname of Bearcat The ring announcer said I was a man who walked like a bear and was agile as a cat So from then on people started calling me He started fighting ally in 1920 and from 1620 through 1936 he faced some 220 opponents Wright estimates that be defeated about 90 per cent of them Besides Dempsey Wright fought four other men in exhibitions who were champions at one time or an- other They were Jack Johnson Primo Camera Max Baer and middleweight Mickey Walker He knocked Johnson out in the fifth round but Wright today says I don't take any credit for that be- cause Johnson was about 50 years old at the time Wright laid claim to the negro heavyweight championship for eral years One of the most ferocious negro fighters of all time Sam ford the Boston Tar Baby de- Wright in four of five en- Wright finally de- him in the fifth fight staged in Mexico Wright fought about 10 nents in Galveston

memorable of his local fights by far was the short but furious sle with Willie Henry in the City Auditorium in 1928 was supposed to beat Wright and it looked for the first half of the initial round as if he were going to do it But with a jam packed crowd looking on Wright made one of the most comebacks in Galveston ring history to flatten in less than 30 seconds of the third round Henry's first punch put me on the Wright revealed the second one had the same re- sponse Then the tide began to turn Wright shook off big and tore into his foe and the bewildered Henry was floored twice before the bell ended the first round Wright actually lied to win the ronad after being floored twice The second round was spent with Henry trying to evade Wright said In the third however Henry didn't run fast enough I hit him with a left jab a left hook and then a right Wright said Henry slumped to the canvas An examination revealed that he had a broken jaw Even now Galveston whenever old friends or fans see Wright they often him on the back and declare boy I'll never forget that fight yon had with Willie Henry Wright's tory over Henry was sensational but he was involved in an en- counter in San Diego soon after which was even more astounding Wright tells it like this with T was shoved on short notice into a main event fight with a Irishman named Jack Beasley All the preliminary fights on the program for some reason or other ended in the first or second round The promoter was getting pretty worried he began to think he wasn't giving the their worth so he comes up to me and says Say all these bouts are running short how about you carrying this guy for awhile so the fans won't be Bat I told him I'm a fighter I'm not a boxer I can't do that But he kept on begging me figured I'd what I conld do about carrying the gay awhile So I got in the ring and shook hands with Beasley and tried to draw into my shell But this guy busts me up aside the head and I hit the canvas I get up and he pastes me again Five times in that first round this guy floors me We come out for the second round and he knocks me down again I took a seven count and shook my head trying to clear it and I get up in a kind of a crouch Someway I see hU back to me and I punch him hard with my right hand near his right kidney The blow sends him ning around like a top and then he falls and is counted out O After the fight the promoter comes up to me and says you like to fight that guy again I'll give you I him I wouldn't fight him again for Wright chuckled Wright has a son who is a wrestler He also calls himself Bearcat Wright and there is a possibility that he may be brought here by Promoter man Clark sometime In the ture Right now young Wright is wrestling in New Zealand Wright Jr is a 6 foot inch giant who weighs 275 pounds The elder Wright is for- ward to seeing Dempsey whom he las met on many occasions out- side of the ring and considers a personal friend Dempsey is not only a great but he's got heart that's this Wright said while de- scribing the circumference of a basketball with his big hands That's why he's stayed so lar with Wright's friend Buster Landrum remarked

 

The string of knockouts being com piled by Jack Dempsey Americas greatest fistic idol in the last de cade floundered here last night on the head of Bearcat Wright giant Omaha negro heavyweight True Dempsey smacked his way to a referees decision but the Bearcat a champion at the art of defensive fighting gave
And here is a report of one of their actual fights. Note that while Dempsey was criticised for not getting the KO, he did actually get the official decision, so this was clearly more than just an exhibition. This is on Page 7 of Jefferson city post, 12 November 1931.

Jack noth ing to shoot nt but a shining bale head and that head absorbed every thing that came its way without a quiver There was much clinching throughout the bout but Jack was never able to straighten Bearcat up out of his crablike de fensive stance Now and then Wright made a brief offensive flur ry but at no time was either fight er In danger of a count short or long Dempsey drew boos from a part of the crowd of 8000 while Wright drew cheers when they left the ring

Sorry, i forgot the citation, but there are quite a lot of similar stories in different papers.

 

Ive heard from other people that Dempsey dodged alot of black fighters...One of the most dangerous fighter he dodged was Langford..This guy was a beast

 

Anyway, so in summary, Dempsey outclassed JL Johnson in a rematch, He beat bearcat Wright, he dominated Tate in exhbitions (who was at one stage considered coloured champion over Harry Wills, He bettered George Godfrey (who was considered the coloured champ for a long while). I think that Dempsey is unfairly criticised on this issue.

 

The second worst Rocky film. Beaten only by number V.

 

Langford was ideed a terific fighter, but realisticaly he was prety far gone when Dempsey held the title.

I am glad that this fight did not take place, at that stage of their respective careers.

 

godfrey and gains would stand a good chance, probably 50-50. In his prime dempsey beats both.

 

Very interesting , thanks for posting it B.:good

 

Very interesting piece you discovered B..Dempsey because of his speed afoot and with hands, unfortuanately took a 3 year Hollywood spree sowing his wild oats, and coming back in 1926, rusty, oldish, and without his
guru manager Jack Kearns, was but a shell of himself, fighting Tunney without ONE tune-up bout,then tackling a prime young Jack Sharkey took away MUCH of his vaunted reputation on ESB...Just like going to a restaurant ,having a wonderful meal, but the coffee was lousy, so we usually rail against the last thing we consumed ,the cup of coffee. But the prime Dempsey was held in such high regard, by the likes of Gene Tunney, Mickey Walker, Jack Sharkey, Max Schmeling, Sam Langford [ whose opinion is more valuable ?],and now Bearcat Wright, should give today's ESB fans
a glimpse of the PRIME Manassa Mauler who today is so sadly underated by
some foolish agenda that goes beyond the pale...Thanks for the article B :good

 

Good stuff, Boilermaker. :good



But of course some people here will say those black peers of Dempsey's who respected him as the 'greatest fighter ever' were all just part of some "KKK era" conspiracy to build up a myth around a fraudulent white champion who was protected by institutional racism.