Dempsey vs. Lutrell (1940)

How can anyone blame a 45 year old Dempsey for fighting a much younger heavier wrestler who willingly and not coerced, was anxious to make a name for himself and get well paid at the same time ???. Jack Dempsey it seems to me on ESB has become the Rodney Dangerfield of Boxing. He gets no respect...

 

Dempsey knew how to get it done that's for sure.

 

Next I want to the footage of 70+ Dempsey knocking out 2 wannabe muggers outside of his restaurant.

 

Well, Dempsey was a great fighter in his prime.
I'm not too amazed by how a formerly great fighter still in shape looks like against an ordinary tough guy.
Never underestimate what even a modestly accomplished professional boxer can do. Nevermind a ATG still in his 40s. Blessed with good health, most these guys would be real terrors well into their 70s or older ! Unfortunately, a lot of the ex-ATGs suffer bad health and deteriorate sometime before they get old. Dempsey was one of the exceptions.

 

This is what a homeless 50-something with a lifetime history of drug use, who just happens to be a former 130-pound WBA champion, does to a younger drunk on a corner ....

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VFAtkIhjcs[/url]

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In the ring against a current professional of any level that one-two would be pathetic, but in the street against an ordinary man it's still devastating.

 

I do love the Dempsey-Luttrell "fight" though. :good

 

Luttrell's toughness and willingness should be credited.
Most third-rate boxers, or wrestlers, and other non-boxers would have probably gone down after the first hard blows and stayed down.

 

Dempsey, in his prime was unlike any heavyweight before him. You still see the old man display the power. He was vicious in his prime and still showed that cold bloodness all those years later. In his prime, attacking you with a kill or be killed ferociousness must have been frightning. Imagine a prime Jack Dempsey, face to face staring at you unshaven and scowling with dead coal black eyes. It is not something, I would want to experience. One of my favorites.

 

Yeah, Dempsey was the exemplar of a "killer" in the ring.

 

Granted Luttrell had no business in the ring with even an old wash up Jack, but, I do give him credit for gameness. I am sure he remembered (or wanted to forget) that beating till the day he died. I mean, that's gotta hurt.

 

Luttrell had a lot business being there. It was his promotion, he was selling the product and that meant going into the ring and taking the beating so the fans went home happy.

I do wonder though that finale was just so 'perfect' for the 'wrestler vs boxer fight', that maybe it was some kind of 'work'. Maybe Dempsey agreed even at that age to fight at half pace...

 

Yes, I assume everyone agrees. Right?

 

Does anyone think that it was a "work" and not a "shoot"?

 

Then you're a bit easily impressed.