Jack Dempsey vs Tony Tucker?

Dempsey wouldnt have gone anywhere near Tucker.

 

Tucker late stoppage. Defuses Jack's attack, outmuscles him and starts heaping on the damage after round 5. It all snowballs from there.

 

Dempsey Ud and fairly convincingly at that

 

Color line? Not sure. He did fight a number of African American fighters when he was a young contender. I don't think he would refuse a match with Tucker.

 

No the color line was his excuse for avoiding talent. Its easy to fight black ham and eggers. Its another thing to get in the ring with a black man who is also a true heavyweight AND has ability. The color line didnt have anything to do with Dempsey avoiding Wills, Dempsey was just happy to use that excuse.

 

I say that it's like Dempsey and Willard as he showed he could take big men apart

 

Yes he would.

 

Oh I didnt realize we were talking about a 38 year old Tucker who hadnt fought in three years and came into the fight ill trained. In that case Dempsey MIGHT have fought him. But Id still doubt that because Tucker was just an all around better fighter and athlete than Willard even at 38. If Dempsey was ducking exhibition bouts with an old used up Jeanette he wasnt going to be facing a guy much bigger than Jeanette.

 

The facts, not fanboy fantasies, say otherwise.

 

I read the newspaper account of the Jeanette fight. I wish Dempsey would have said yes.

However, if you were a manager with a rising contender, and a dangerous old veteran stepped in to fight your guy at the last second, would you let him take that risk and potentially lose a title shot? I am sure that even an old Jeannette could be competitive vs Dempsey for a few rounds and would have a minor chance of scoring an upset.

Its a huge risk for any manager to take.

 

It was a short exhibition and if they were that scared of a 39 year old balding Joe Jeanette who hadnt won a meaningful fight in years its says a lot more about Dempsey’s limitations than Kearns managerial acumen. I mean the fact remains that Dempsey used the color line to his advantage. Before he was champ and after. He wasnt making some socio-political statement, he was ducking fighters that even you admit could have potentially caused him problems. So, no, I dont believe Dempsey would have fought a six foot five 220 pound prime tony tucker who was a talented pro with a solid amateur pedigree as well. Hell, he probably wouldnt have fought him if he was white unless they could fix the fight before hand as they did on at least one occasion and several other suspected occasions.

 

Remind me what the fixed fights were against again. Fulton and who else?

 

Did Gene Tunney ever use the color line excuse against anyone?

 

He never fought a black opponent, dunno if he ever specifically mentioned the 'colour-line', though.