I'm countering Klompy's post. Dempsey's riposte to Greb's question was "who'd pay to see that?" I'm not sufficiently engaged to respond further on questions that have been asked interminably on this forum. To tell the truth I had left for other pastures until I saw Mongoose's posts on Kovalev v Foster, they intruiged me a bit, but this is Ground Hog Day with a vengeance, no offence intended. Hope you all enjoy the thread.
Only fair to note, that a minority of papers gave Levinsky the decision over Greb, while Dempsey simply wasted him.
This is true but not the full story. It should be pointed out that Dempsey also beat a few big heavyweights who Greb never fought and probably wouldn't have wanted to.
Actually it wasn't - Greb's wife died and he took a couple of months off. But it is a fact that Greb was chasing a match with Dempsey from before Dempsey was champion, until he died. Longer, even, than Wills. Astonishing, really, that the fight never came off. Maybe utterly unparalleled for a qualified white fighter pre-Louis.
Greb is on record as saying that he didn't care to face Fulton. Dempsey's critics are fond of pointing out that Greb beat a lot of his opponents, but they only tell half the story. Greb made a pretty clean sweep of Dempseys cuties, but didn't meet any of his dreadnoughts.
Well Jesus, I would hope so...if Dempsey didn't beat a couple of guys that Greb didn't thrash, that would be literally insane. That would be crazy. As for Greb, he did more than enough to make his case - Dempsey not taking him on is an embarrassment - but you are right in that the duck might have become impossible to support if Greb had taken on and beaten one of those bigger guys. He probably never did neutralise his lack of size as a factor that allowed Dempsey to duck.
A million dollars worth of people paid to see Dempsey against a bandy legged Frog who was protected at lightheavyweight... Why would anyone living today have a "personal" stake in athletes from 100 years ago? Dempsey was my first or second interest in the sport. I wouldn't even know who to have personal feelings regarding him. However, a fraud is a fraud.
The Dempsey-Carpentier match was made on the fact of Carpentier's war record, and Dempsey's lack of one. "bandy legged Frog" is a little bit racist. Just sayin' In what way was he protected ? Do you believe the Carp-Levinsky fight was fixed too ?
I agree with this. I am not saying that Greb blew his chances at a title shot, by not meeting this fighter, or that fighter. Some of these guys ducked him. My point is that he only stomped all over one one side of Dempsey's resume.
Interesting that Dempsey is said to have ducked his #1 and #2 for years, and yet there doesn't seem to be much discussion about why Wills and Greb never fought it out. How often was that fight even mooted ?
I said a week or two prior to Greb-Gibbons, not Dempsey Gibbons. Greb fought Gibbons and Wills fought Norfolk over a year before Dempsey signed to fight Gibbons.