Do you hold it against Jack Dempsey for not fighting Harry Greb?

No you’re right, it was only once. But wills won every round. He played it safe. He wasn’t knocked out of the ring and had to be helped up by a typewriter like jack was.

 

I don’t know, the guy was 35 years old and ready to retire because the heavyweight champion of the world wouldn’t defend against his number 1 contender for 7 straight years. how was Dempsey doing in the ring at 35 years old?

He obviously was able to figure out Luis firpo because he won all 12 rounds and put him on the canvas. Fipro barely landed a glove on him. How does that speak for Dempsey’s defensive prowess if that same version of a Fipro put him down twice and a typewriter needed to help Dempsey back into the ring to prevent him from losing?

You believe Dempsey was more impressive against Fipro..well Dempsey was in his prime and wills was 35 years old when he fought Firpo. Of course jack should put up the more impressive performance right?

But it’s totally subjective here. Dempsey finished him off early impressively as jack was a great puncher, but not before he nearly lost the fight himself and needed a type writer to help him back into the ring. Wills at age 35 was never put in trouble at all by the supposedly dangerous Firpo . That’s impressive to me.

 

The same Langford whom jack Dempsey refused to get in the ring with in 1916.


“The hell I feared no man. There was one man I wouldn't fight because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford.”- Jack Dempsey

 

W.O. McGeehan...

"The news has penetrated to this section of the beautiful Cumberlands that Jack Demsey is prepared to fight. Just as Mr. Buckshot Morgan was about to dispatch Loping Charley to Robinson's drug store with the news, he learned that Dempsey would not battle Wills until a year from the coming Labor day.
"Guess the news will keep," said Buckshot. "If that is the case it is hardly worth sending Loping Charley to the store after he has had a hard day. It appears to me that Mr. Dempsey is mighty slow to get real quarrelsome these days."
This sounds rather unreasonable on the part of Buckshot Morgan or he would not have been so free with the implied criticism. You must remember that it took the US over a year to train enough divisions to make a creditable showing in the world war. Mr Dempsey knows something about preparedness. he is not going to rush into a fight with the Senegambian with the rashness of a nation entering a war. There is too much involved, as any of Mr. Dempsey's friends can testify. (my input: this is last statement is ****ing hilarious)

Sometime ago before Mr. Dudley Field Malone socked Mr. William Jennings Bryan on the jaw and found that is was of glass, it seems to me that the boxing commission was insisting that Harry Wills, the Senegambian stevedore, was the one and only logical candidate and that Dempsey must meet him or be declared null and void.

Now I like young Mr. Gene Tunney better than any young man actively associated with the cauliflower industry, but I cannot join in the ballyhoo of a Dempsey Tunney bout until the status of the Senegambian stevedore is settled. If they intend to draw the invisible color line and the Senegambian what the boys would call "the work" or "the run around" it will be my painful duty to point out the fact that the three dukes- Farley, Muldoon and Brower- talk through their hats frequently and fearsomely." 1925

 

From Klompton

July 8, 1921 while in Omaha Nebraska on his way back home from facing George Carpentier: "Jack Dempsey, world's heavyweight champion pugilist, who passed through here today on his way to Salt Lake City, said he was unwilling to fight Jack Johnson "or any other negro fighter." "I will never fight a negro. There is nothing to this talk of me meeting Jack Johnson..." "I will meet anyone else that Kearns picks for me. Gibbons, I understand is a good man, although I have never seen him work. As I have drawn the color line, I am free to say that I think Harry Wills is a great fighter and who will whip the very best of them. As for Willard, I'll fight him any time -and lick him too."

 

Funny you mention Jeanette, Dempsey refused to face him in 1918.

Joe Jeanette got in the ring with Dempsey in 1918. Dempsey refused to engange with Jeanette and walked out of the ring while the crowd Booed. According to a newspaper article, he "gave boxing a black eye" when he did that. It's really shocking that the white men did not stand up for their guy, but booed him, even in the report afterwards.

Some more quotes from the article:

'Jack Dempsey, conqueror of Fulton, took refuge behind the "color" line.'

'Dempsey, who today stands at the pinnacle as a result of victories over all-white heavyweights'

'For weeks, Jeannette has sought a match with the Utah wonder, but for some reason best known to himself and his manager Kearns, Dempsey has persistently refused to meet a negro, despite the fact that he has fought John Lester Johnson in this city a couple of years ago'

'When he agreed to box at the Garden Show, Dempsey stipulated that he be matched with a white boxer and at that time refused to meet Jeannette or any other negro.'

'That had started out as one of the greatest fistic carnivals ever staged in this city, had been marred by one of the worst examples of sportsmanship - or lack of it - ever witnessed in the annals of local boxing. '


'There is no alibi for anybody involved in this disgraceful episode. In the first place, Dempsey should have accepted the negro's challenge if he had an ounce of sporting blood in his make up. To be sure, he had everything to lose and nothing to gain, but last night was no occasion to seek refuge behind the color line. There is no excuse whatsoever for Dempsey.'

 

Possibly you’re right. But if jeanette were a white man, would Dempsey have still fought him anyway?

Just seems like there’s always an excuse for jack never fighting a Man of color after John Lester Johnson’s broke his ribs in 1916