[RING, Dec. 1962] 40 Experts Pick Greatest Heavyweight (Dempsey wins)

Fleischer at least has the advantage over yourself of having seen Johnson fight from ringside?
What have you seen? Grainy segments of
Burns, Willard, Moran,Flynn.

 

lmao .... HILARIOUS

 

Absolutely. But it does seem the myth was still stronger than the man. And kudos for Jack and Crew. Very, very few become a myth in their own lifetime.

 

If I was going to produce a list on that date, disregarding everything that happened subsequently, it would probably look like this:

1. Joe Louis
2. Jack Johnson
3. Jim Jeffries
4. Rocky Marciano
5. Jack Dempsey
6. Sam Langford
7. Gene Tunney

 

I'm not going to type every reference. Heres one:

Unforgivable Blackness The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
- page 265
"After checking in to the Grand Hotel, he invited the French reporters - over whom he towered - up to his suite to watch him bathe and dress before making his first appearance onstage at Magic City in Montmartre. They were suitably awed. One pronounced him "as handsome as a Congolese Apollo." Because he was naked, wrote another, one could admire his chiseled arms and shoulders, and his legs "so beautiful and slender." A third, watching as two valets helping him into evening dress and carefully put all his diamonds in place, compared him to an African king. The private display made the champion two hours late for his performance at Magic City, but the crowd in evening dress cheered him anyway as he sparred gracefully with the handsome young French favorite, welterweight Georges Carpentier."

And, yes, that does seem creepy.

 

It wasn't because he was the best heavyweight, which is what they were supposed to be rating them on.

 

I'm sure Nat was fond of him in and out of the ring. A chummy relationship from a coverage perceptive similar to say Ali and Howard Cossell.

I almost never comment on a fighters dressing habits. From memory on reading the Tommy Burns Canadian Champion book, Jack Johnson liked to wear tight pants and stuff a sock down there. With a mostly male audience, well...I suppose he liked attention at all times.

Johnson had problems with women in Australia too. For such a promiscuous man with multiple wives and hookers, it's amazing to think he had no children of his own.

 

Huh? Once a week? Not even close. Maybe I mentioned a few times over ten years when someone brings up a topic like this, but the pants thing was something I do not recall ever mentioning.

My issue with Johnson is more focused on his physical treatment of women, not that he had zero children with them, but it's plausible to think he must have caught something.

To this day an openly gay fighter is not fully accepted by the majority of the boxing community. There had to have been at least a few with ability. We just don't know who they were. Was Johnson Bi? Not sure, but if he's inviting men to watch him bathe perhaps the answer is yes.

 

No Homo, of course.

BTW, how deficient were folks back then that a 6 footer "towers over" them? Were they fed sawdust as children?

 

Using the word "Greatest" as the only criterion for the poll probably makes Dempsey the winner, because he
was the first boxing media superstar. No one else came close to his popularity/notoriety until Ali. He also might be considered the first "modern" HW champ....Johnson certainly didn't fight like a 20th century boxer with all his grabbing, holding and sparse punches. Neither was Willard. Jeffries was a muscle bound oaf, then you really start to get into ancient times.

Same would go for Babe Ruth...he's the "Greatest" baseball player because he one handed CHANGED THE GAME of baseball. He also had tremendous stats in many categories, including PITCHING.

Same could possibly go for Wilt Chamberlain. They had to change rules of the game for him. Plus he screwed 30,000 women but that's besides the point.

Dempsey was without a doubt "the Greatest HW Champ" until Ali took away that title. No, I don't think Louis supercedes Dempsey for this title.

 

Great poll !!!
Any comments on the true greatest .....Dempsey ?

 

Oh and tunne y was the best pure boxer in the heavyweights