Is Jack Dempsey the most overrated fighter of all time

And did those negro league players get the same benefits the MLB white players did? Did they get payed enough for it to be a full time job where all they did was focus on baseball? Did they get the same opportunities with top coaching staffs? Training facilities?

Did the black players get to reach there potential like the white players did?

 

Because he is the only ATG heavyweight champion who didn't beat the two overwhelming best contenders of his era, one of them who you can make a case deserves to rate higher than Dempsey.

 

Most white players of that era didn't get paid enough to play baseball full time.

 

By no means the only one, if it is even strictly the case.

 

Well there isn't one fighter Dempsey defended against from 1919-1923 whom deserved a title shot ahead of wills or greb. Not one. Not even close.

 

Suze I think one of the things that gets up your nose about Dempsey is the slacker charge against him in WW1 .I may be wrong, but I see you as a staunch patriot.:good

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I don't think that we can definitely say, that the fighter who the media had the most interest in seeing Dempsey fight, was always either Wills or Greb.

I agree that it is damaging to his legacy, that he never fought them, but it has got to the stage where a sense of proportion is required.

It is actually comparatively rare, for the lineal heavyweight champion to square off against his #1 contender. When Wlad fought Povetkin, it hadn't happened for over a decade.

Also, Dempsey is by no means the only all time great, who did not fight the top contender of his era. If you are hell bent on hanging him out to dry, then at least do it consistently.

 

Ruth's ranking all time in baseball is due to not just his hitting. He was an incredible pitcher as well. ATG pitcher and hitter. Hard to beat that combination.

 

Mc, thanks for the kudos. A case of champagne is on the way across the pond...By far Max Schmeling was the most impressed with Jack Dempsey along with Sam Langford, a great fighter in his own right...Schmeling in his autobiography I read published in Germany, transcribed in English, gave a list of the best fighters he had seen in his long life. At the end of the list he wrote :having named these best fighters I have seen, Jack Dempsey is in a "special category ". Max Schmeling when young sparred with Dempsey often when Dempsey toured Germany
before he retired to Hollywood in 1923...Der Mox, knew something about fighters I would think...
But Mc, whatever the great boxing figures who saw prime Dempsey fight said about his prowess in his career, means
nothing to some posters mainly on ESB. They are truly
obsessed with hatred for a man who became 'the idol of millions"
during his career and after and profess to know more about
Dempseys prowess today almost a century later than the
thousands who saw the Manassa Mauler in the flesh...BAH !
Cheers Mc...

 

Arguably he was overrated, years ago.
Not recently.

 

Thanks BB I'll add Schmeling.:good
ps I prefer Taittinger Champagne:hey

 

You pays your money-----

 

Naseem Hamed is the most overrated fighter ever. I read a post here not too long ago that had him beating a prime Vincente Saldivar amongst others lol.

 

I definitely don't mind and I think my old professor, who has been gone now for years, would be very happy that his point of view, even if given second hand by me, still finds a home.

"The main reason for historical revisionism is to sell books."

And a different point of view.