Who was Jack Dempsey's third most deserving title opponent who never got a title shot?

From April1916 until Feb1918 Johnson did not have a contest.FromMay1920 until May 1923 he was also inactive.
From Feb1924 until May 1926 he did not fight ,its not difficult to remain undefeated if you aren't fighting. Johnson was 41 when Dempsey won the title he wasn't relevant to the heavyweight crown during Dempsey's reign.

 

After Wills, the next biggest threat to the Dempsey reign was actually Firpo.

Was Renault or Greb anymore a threat than Brennan, Miske and Gibbons?

 

Firpo is excluded because he got a title shot.So did the other three you mentioned.lol

 

Yes, I know, just saying. Firpo getting his shot puts things in perspective. That's how you differentiate between deserving and undeserving.

To be deserving the guy has to be equally deserving as the guys that got their shot.

Renault was decent but no more outstanding than Brennan, Miske and Gibbons.

But Firpo eclipsed all of them. He was the box office draw.

 

Clark beat exactly ONE heavyweight during Dempsey's reign, he was having his first and last fight.

Clark had 24 fights during Dempsey's title tenure and managed to win just 7 of them.His opponents had the following resumes.
9-7-0Lhvy
1-2-0 Middle
7-5-0 Middle
Debutee who had the one fight and retired!
7-2-1 Lhvy
18-8-1 Lhvy
7-2-1Lhvy
He was as relevant to Dempsey era as Jim Jeffries is to Anthony Joshua's!
George Godfrey was a 7 fight novice who had drawn with Langford in his second fight!
Tate was 13-11-0.
Flowers was a middleweight.
Langford had no business anywhere near the Dempsey of 1919 and after.

 

It'd be Renault. But yes no more deserving than those Jack did fight. There's no outstanding element to a claim for a Renault shot.

 

I've just proved conclusively that Langford beating Clark during Dempsey's reign means absolutely jack sh*t! Dempsey refused to fight Langford in 1916, sensible man ,Dempsey was then a 21 years old lhvy.
Miske Carpentier and Gibbons were not novice light heavies or middleweight journeymen which is all that Clark was beating during Dempsey's reign .He won just 7 of his 24 fights whilst Dempsey was champ and they were all third raters!
Clark was never ranked at either heavy or light heavy during Dempsey's reign.
Carpentier was the European Heavyweight champion when he challenged Dempsey.
Dempsey had agreed to give an exhibition with Joe Bonds for charity when he got to the arena Joe Jeannette tried in inveigle him into a fight .Why should Dempsey fight Jeannette for nothing? You don't make any logical sense ,you never have ,your hatred poisons everything you touch.You are just a figure of fun now, just get used to being the court jester ,maybe get a hat with some bells on it? lol

 

No more deserving than those he did fight , but more deserving than the others he didn't! Which is exactly my point!

 

When Dempsey won the title off of Jess Willard, Jack Johnson was the last reigning heavyweight champion, and had just beaten two decent (not great) contenders in Bob Roper and Tom Cowler. Given the way Willard was outclassed and not including Wills. If Vitali or Wlad Klitchsko beat the same contenders today, it would be an outrage if they didnt get a title shot at Tyson Fury.

Also, wins over Jack Thompson and Homer Smith in 1923 were enough to show that he was still on the level of most contenders, it wouldnt have been an outrage to give him a shot and there werent many others who deserved a shot ahead of him. Maybe greb, but even at that age, most would think that a Johnson Greb fight would not be too dissimilar to Johnson Ketchell.

The 1926 run was the first time where he started to lose against contenders, and even then he was far from discgraced. The guys who beat him were good contenders and he wasnt totally outclassed. He did still have the one last hurrah against Brad Simmons as late as 1931 when Dempsey was long since retired.

He was also mentioned by the press as relevant from time to time. If promoted properly, it would have probably been Dempseys biggest fight. Ironically, many say that the world at the time couldnt have actually coped with such a fight, much less a Johnson win. In fact, if any fight scared Jack Dempsey this would have been the one. NOt because of jacks form and skill, but imagine the pressure and what a loss would do to his career.

Your points about inactivity and age are, of course, well made, but the difference is when an All time Great has relevant wins (even 1) and the reigning contenders are not really standing out (Greb wasnt a big factor no matter how much we revise, even Wills was mainly treading water for a lot of this time, and as you are pointing out so successfully no one else has really deserving of shot), and we are only looking for the Third most deserving opponent.

 

I don't know. He holds more than a dozen wins combined over them.

 

Might one of Dempsey's earlier opponents have a case?

Fred Fulton had a 20 fight winning streak over a two year period after Dempsey beat him.

Even Jess Willard might have had an argument after he beat Floyd Johnson.

 

There is evidence readily available that perhaps people of that era, thought Greb too small to fight Dempsey. There are alot of articles by well known writers of the time stating just that, Greb was too small, a MW, smaller then Carpentier. Nevermind that he beat all those HW's. To the revisionists Dempsey ducked Greb, not so by the writers and fans at the time. Yea, I know there were offers, but they came to nothing. Another myth fading into the sunset.

 

There is just as much evidence that Greb had him figured more than any other candidate for the title and many contemporary accounts to back this. This is just boring to an infinite degree to recite the fact that Greb beat almost all of his challengers, most multiple times, and that he was extremely successful in sparring with Dempsey, and that the likes of Carpentier was absolutely terrified of facing him. Do we really need to go retrace these FACTS again?

I agree that Dempsey & Co. found the path of the least resistance and highest return and that Greb did not offer either. But in a boxing sense, he was proven to better than any who faced Jack for the title with the exception of the man who ultimately beat him.