Obviously I'm taking about the Billy Conn that almost, nearly beat the great Joe Louis. Instead he's facing the Mauler of 1921. How's he cope?
Yeah, very well. Probably gets beaten out to the body though, as was the fate of Gibbons. Dempsey is especially to be favoured if there's more of that apparently terrible refereeing. I feel "keeping Dempsey busy" would be tougher than keeping Louis busy though.
Louis dried out and ate hardly anything to reduce weight and not look like a bully,he said he felt like **** against Conn.Louis was also more methodical and basically stalked the fleet footed Conn,Dempsey was in your face and quicker afoot than Joe.Jack gets to him sooner or later,probably, as McGrain says, via a constant body bombardment.
I've got Dempsey stopping him before the tenth. There wouldn't be many rounds imo actually that Conn wins. J takes him out of his stride from the first round. He'd be to busy hanging on to his head.
Yeah, I’d think Dempsey would be a worse style matchup for Conn. He matched up quite well with Louis. Not sure about the first part, though. I’ve heard it, but it doesn’t really jive for me. He weighed less than 2 pounds more in his previous fight and less than 3 pounds more in his next fight. Then there’s the whole thing about the weights being fudged that a lot of people subscribe to. Conn being lighter than listed and Louis being heavier to make it appear less of a mismatch. I’m not sure about that one, either. They didn’t look more than the 25 pounds apart they were listed as to me.
I can also see Conn at the back end, actually going for it with Dempsey, the old red mist descending as it did with Louis. Of course, it wouldn't help Billy boy, just being about his ending a little quicker!
Dempsey would beat a very game Conn to a pulp. Conn was a tough guy and wouldn't go away easily he likely takes a prolonged beating before crumbling.
Conn is the type of boxer Dempsey had problems with. I think Conn is a better boxer than Tunney but smaller. So Conn may well outbox Dempsey with his straighter quicker punches. That 10lb weight advantage may mean Conn gets bullied though. Hard to say, it's a good match up.
Conn was talented, tough and game but I see the 1921 Dempsey, still in his prime, doing a number on Billy ..
He didn't do that with Tunney and healthy Miske fought him to a split decision and Greb supposedly outboxed him. Dempsey would need to break Conn to the body. If Conn is beating Dempsey to the punch, he would respect Conn's power.
