It wasn't his fault for avoiding them is what I'm saying. His manager was after big money fights and unfortunately the top contenders didn't offer that because they were black. It was a very racist time period in America.
Yet when Dempsey wasn't happy with his manager, he fired him, and when he thought he could get a better deal than with his promoter, he fought for other promoters.
So, he paid the press to invent viable challengers from whole cloth. It's certainly easier that way and ensures that the financial goose laying the golden egg, the heavyweight belt, is retained for future returns.
Not to repeat ad nauseam, but WHO did the man you despise Dempsey not meet when champion who was a serious heavyweight contender of that time other than Harry Wills ? You know darn well that though it might pain you Dempsey and Wills did sign for a fight that was canceled when the promoter Fitszimmons could not come up with the sufficient funds ??? Harry Wills NEVER blamed Dempsey for the cancelation of the bout ...As for my favorite fighter ever Harry Greb, were I Dempsey's manager I too would not match my heavyweight champion with a middleweight Greb. If Dempsey would lose to Greb [very doubtful] there goes millions of dollars losing the crown to a MW. If as most people thought the much more powerful Dempsey catches up to Greb and stops him, the public would bellow "Dempsey you big bully why not pick on a man your size, not a middleweight "? A truly NO WIN SITUATION... You S no matter how you slice it detest Jack Dempsey though he was idolized by the millions of people who adored him till he died... Were all those masses of Americans of his times and later less informed than the likes of you ? Hell NO I suspect...Give it a rest S you are on shaky grounds...
Wills wasn't just any contender. He was foremost contender through most of Dempsey's reign. Wills did in fact say that Dempsey was chicken to fight him. He gave more than one interview in his lifetime apparently. It is an appalling lack of intellectual honesty that you Dempsey apologists can not admit that a guy who beat 4 of Dempsey's 6 title defenses, and most multiple times, might be a more qualified threat to the title. The twists and contortions in logic displayed to evade that set of facts would be applauded by the Harry Houdini himself. But whatever gets you through the night, bro.
Dempsey was an animal. What he could do in the ring transcends styles and size. He wasn't human. I think he could've gone undefeated.
Rez, posters like you or I "lack intellectual honesty " as Seamus the parody of unbias and "honesty" attests to. He never answers my posts but babbles the same" Dempsey is a vile racist" excrement time and again... So Rez you or I are baying at the moon trying to converse with him reasonably. Dempsey is a racist for not fighting Harry wills, though they DID sign for a bout and also for not fighting a MW Harry Greb who lo and behold ,I thought was Caucasian...? Wow was I wrong. cheers Rez... P.S. let it be known that John Lester Johnson who a young Dempsey drew with was black. Let it be known that Big bill Tate, that George Godfrey and Chief Turner were black and Indian, were Dempsey's chief sparring partners throughout his championship days. Let it be known that Jack Dempsey paid for John Lester's nursing home bills years later. Let it also be known that Dempsey helped out George Godfrey when ill many years later, and let it be known that S is a muckraker posing as an unbiased social worker. take care R...
It's amazing that this superhuman animal didn't win every fight against the inferior opposition of his era by first-round ko!!!
This. ^ While I respect Dempsey's accomplishments in the ring, the fact is that as a HW ATG, his record leaves more than a little to be desired ... especially if you want to transplant him into Wlad's shoes and expect him to re-fight Wlad's career. :think Think about it for a second.
If Dempsey is only fighting white Americans in America nobody would have heard of him these days Let's go champ
Is there perhaps a bit of a double standard here though? You attack Dempsey for not fighting Wills, because he was the outstanding contender, but then you are very quick to dismiss the fact that Willard was the lineal champion! You cant have it both ways.
Of course Dempsey had to fight Willard. He was the legit champion. But was Willard an outstanding champion? Or was he one of the weaker champs in history who just came along at the right time to pick off an aged Jack Johnson?
Quite possibly the latter. My point is that Dempseys critics take an absolutist stance on Wills status as the #1 contender, but then assert their right to dismiss the paper credentials of people like Willard and Carpintier, on one pretext or another.