I saw in this short clip that it says he fought 148 fights and won 108 of them by knockout. Did I hear that wrong? I wouldn't doubt that Dempsey fought that much since he was a hobo and fought for s****s. [url]https://youtu.be/gWHEqW8I2oI?t=116[/url]
He fought a lot of fights that don't feature on his official record. Even his 1931-32 "exhibition tour" featured a lot of proper fights. Like Joe Louis, perhaps some fights were officially billed as exhibitions for contractual reasons. And then, yes, who knows how many fights Dempsey (and others) had in their hobo days.
These are some of Dempsey's post-1927 exhibitions, including the tour of 1931-32 [url]http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/dempsey2.htm[/url] They cannot be regarded as official fights but I daresay many of them were legit, with opponents trying to make a name for themselves, and Dempsey going for the KO to give customers their money's worth. As for Joe Louis, there are actual legit 10-round contests from his prime years that never got on the official record because he was under contract for a big fight and took a tune-up on the side against the stipulations of his contract. I know for example that he KO'd Roscoe Toles in 1935 while under contract to take on Primo Carnera next, so they just advertised it as an exhibition. Also, in 1950 he was fighting legit fights billed as exhibitions before officially announcing his comeback as a championship contender. He KO'd Pat Valentino in 8 rounds in such an "exhibition".
