Dempsey's Challengers v Joe Louis?

Well, he was mostly blind by this point and was commenting on a guy who kicked his ass several times, so theres no accounting for bad taste... Or bad eyesight.

 

If you know boxing Wills looks like **** in there with Firpo. Lots of wrestling. As I had written Wills looks like a poor mans Jack Johnson. Dempsey was the FAR better technical fighter. Not close at all.

 

Miske could potentially give Louis the kind of valiant losing effort Tommy Farr did.

Tunney would certainly give it a good go with a fair chance of victory.

The Sharkey who fought Dempsey was decidedly better than the one who got crushed in three. He gives Louis plenty to think about and possibly floors the Bomber before some late round revenge.

 

Just as a side note, Langford said that Dempsey would beat Wills easily if they ever fought.

 

Langford also had this to say about Dempsey-Wills:

"What I do think, however, is that Jack Dempsey ought to give Harry Wills a chance at the title. By not doing so, I believe he shows he is somewhat afraid of Wills. It proves it to me by the fooling around he has done with Harry. First, he goes West and signs up with Floyd Fitzsimmons to box Wills and then comes back East and signs up with Rickard for a bout with Tunney. I guess he doesn't care for any of Harry's game, else he would give the man who has been chosen as the logical contender for his title a chance with him."

From Clay Moyle's "Sam Langford: Boxing's Greatest Uncrowned Champion", p. 362

 

Yeah Dempsey looked real skilled and technical getting dropped three times by firpo and coming within a whisker of losing while being called a cave man by the press. Real technically advanced. Lol.

 

I'd agree Tunney is the only threat. Regardless of everyone's opinion on who takes who in a prime vs prime matchup, we can confidently say that if Joe was in the twilight of his career, Gene has a little too much for him.

 

C'mon. He beat Dempsey and Gibbons in their final fights. Heeney doesn't register. He was nowhere near as good as Buddy Baer or even Abe Simon.

Louis' footwork is so incredibly underrated. During his prime... and mostly before and after his prime, he hunted down and cornered his prey pretty much every time. He was always on balance and in position to throw. I can't say the same for Dempsey on his best day.

There is simply no credence for Tunney- who like as a boxer a lot- to defeat a prime Louis.

 

Did you knew what you were looking at...and you don't....you see some of the best short punch combination in boxing history, thrown by Dempsey, in that fight. But a salesman pretending to be a boxing historian would not know much about BOXING now would he?

 

Tunney has an excellent chance at his best to beat any hwt champion. Tricky boxers such as Pastor, Conn and Walcott gave Louis fits. Tunney was the best pure boxer in hwt boxing history and his power was enough to keep Joe at bey. He could beat Louis although my money would be on Joe. I would not short change Tunney...the guy was very smart, great boxer,extremely well conditioned and durable.

 

I see a guy rushing in with no plan once he got in range, squaring up and getting nailed by the most amateurish right hands ever thrown in a championship ring. Dempsey primarily did his damage in the clinch, where he was unmerciful. But he looked poor at range against someone tailor made to his attributes.

 

Louis' record against the above was 6-0, 4 KOs. They may have given him fits but Louis was still able to hunt them down and knock them out.

 

And Louis was dull, a poor boxer, a slob and fragile?

I like Tunney a lot (as a boxer) but he couldn't hold a candle to Joe Louis as a heavyweight. His heavyweight resume consists of winning Gibbons last fight, beating old Jack in the rain and beating Jack in Jack's final fight. The Heeney fight was merely a good result against a mediocre opponent.

Don't forget that, in the end, Louis beat Pastor, Conn and Walcott when he was clearly not the same fight he was in his prime. They could run but they could not hide. If you fight enough fights, you find guys who give you trouble. That's just a simple fact. How you respond to that trouble is what separates the men from the boys.