Jack Dempsey in the Klitschko era

Dempsey at his best would have gone through the Klitschko era like a knife through butter..Dempsey loved the big slower boys as his record shows. His 190 pounds or so belies the fact that Dempsey was very very strong taut and muscular
and in close these mastodons of the Klitschko era would be catnip for a Jack Dempsey or Joe Louis. And you can take that to the bank...

 

However you slice it, Wlad is going to do better in the longevity stakes.

In Wlad's era Dempsey likely has a long amateur career, but then does he become the same fighter?

 

Haye, Chagaev, Byrd and Povetkin amongst others are not giant slow plodders

 

Well I think he'd be about 210 pounds. And I think he beats pretty much everyone Wlad faced early on.

His biggest issues would be Byrd and Haye imo. Obviously he doesn't have the longevity that Wlad did so maybe he drops off about the Haye fight and stops winning matches.

I'd say he goes 1-1 with Byrd, winning the second one, loses to Hayes and then doesn't continue after that.

 

That's actually an interesting and fair question.

I think a great deal of Dempsey's killer instinct comes from eating crusts of bread and sleeping rough. He knew what hunger was and I've seen a lot of the best and fiercest fighters come from similar backgrounds. One of my personal favourites, Igor Vovchanchyn, was (iirc) sleeping rough in a park before a tournament, because he couldn't afford a hotel. My God, did he rip through a bunch of giants ...

 

Oh, the irony. He didn't even go through his own paltry era in that fashion. Unless your knife goes through butter by fighting a bunch of hasbeens, ducking the best contenders and sitting on its *ss for years at a time... and as long as your butter is white.

This is starting to sound blue. And since when are Fury and Waldo slow? Waldo, in his prime, and Fury now are both exceptionally light on their feet and good movers.


I will say this. Dempsey would not fare as well over the long haul but he would surprise the naysayers and get at least one big time win. He tended to have a high risk/high reward approach to bigger heavies of the type we see today. At least once or twice, that's going to pay off. His problem would be that today's big boxers are better athletes and better boxers.

 

Those sort of conditions seem to produce highly aggressive offensive fighters on the one hand, and very economical defensive fighters on the other!

 

Dempsey learned his trade in the ring. Yes he was taught by his older brother if im not mistaken but without going through what he did and fighting some of the guys he fought then he wouldn't have been the same fighter. He learned tactics such as the bob and weave from other fighters. Dempsey said himself that by the time he fought Willard he believed he mastered all the tricks and tools of boxing that he used. Practically a self trained fighter.

 

Wasn't Dempsey's fault that he didn't fight the top contenders. Blame his manager. Judge him against who he fought not who he didn't.

 

^ More or less my assessment too. Dempsey could well flatten some or other big man that Wlad took a while to get out of there in a more impressive fashion. I can equally see him running into some iron chinned guy like Mercer or Puritty and running out of ideas, or getting caught by a fast big guy like Sanders.

It's a real pity that this is all hypothetical. I would cut a finger off to have seen these sorts of imaginary matchups in the flesh.

 

Lets not compare Wlado to Fury. Fury used superior multi dimensional movement to beat Wlado by UD , so how can they be equally exceptionally good movers?

Wlado has never maintained a a constant flow of fluid angular movement around the ring like Fury did in his life.

If he was better in the past , then how come he was deducted a point for excessively holding David Haye ? The period when he supposedly was at his best?

Lets be real. His legs were the same as they always were. He was on his toes and plenty agile and reactive enough to survive the distance , it just wasn't good enough to win.

 

jack would unify without trouble. He'd fell giant after giant, bigger they come, harder they'd fall.

 

There you go S, spouting the same racial ****. Makes you feel good. Oh are you so NOBLE...You fool, By and large we are all products of our time, EXCEPT you of course. BAH !
Cannot you discuss boxing without the subject of RACE ? And who
your holiness did Dempsey NOT beat when he was at his best ? WHO ?
Dempsey was as great a heavyweight as anyone in history H2H .
Have a good night, I think . adios...

 

DW, thank you for your thoughtful answer...It is so damn easy to condemn a fighter from an entirely different age. So damn easy...

 

OK. He fought guys who weren't as qualified or accomplished as the guys he avoided. That is who he fought.