How much does Dempsey's "Championship Fighting" tell us about Dempsey's own technical proficiency?

Dempsey's book "Championship Fighting" is often recommended to amateur boxers as a great source to learn boxing technique, especially involving hitting with power. At the same time, Dempsey himself, and fighters from his era, are often criticized as cavemen.

This thread therefore asks two questions:

1) How good is Dempsey's instructional book by the standards of modern technique?

2) How much does Dempsey's book tell us about Dempsey's own technical knowledge and abilities when he was still in his prime?


I invite the forum's thoughts.

 

He obviously knew his stuff.

Some of his ideas were a bit unorthodox, but no doubt would work.

 

im not a huge fan of dempsey and havent seen most of his fights but my first impression from reading the book was that he doesnt practice what he preaches. theres a lot of stuff in the book that, as far as i can tell, was never illustrated in real life. this isnt meant as a dig in any way. maybe dempsey got more creative in his later years

 

It tells me that Jack knew about boxing and different styles. It also tells me that he knew that certain things worked for HIM, and some didn't, but he knew about them, and thought he should include them for those who could make use of them within their styles of fighting.

 

I wouldn’t expect any less then a books worth of knowledge from the ex champion of the world would you?

 

I don't think the book tells us anything about Dempsey's "technical knowledge" at the time he was fighting. I think Dempsey wrote the book in the 50s, long after his last fight. I found some things in Dempsey's book that I like but I have no idea if he knew/used them when he was fighting or if much of it was stuff he picked up from being around the gym later on. His explanation for hitting with the bottom knuckles of the fist instead of the top two and his reasoning was worth the price of the book. I find that fighters who try to hit with the bottom knuckles have less hand injuries. Of course circumstances will sometimes make a punch land in an awkward position and the fighter will get a hand injury anyway.

As SHADAPLAD mentioned, Dempsey might have learned more about fundamentals and technique in his later years. Many fighters don't listen, and want to do things their way when they're young, and only after retiring they hang around, they watch, and wish they had used better fundamentals and technique when they were fighting.

 

I have a copy of the book and the opening states second printing, 1950. I do not know when the first printing was. He makes several references to his post-retirement days, so whenever it was it appears to have been written after he was finished fighting. Dempsey states that his main purpose in writing the book was to teach techniques and skills that he felt were being lost due to over-commercialization of the sport with too many trainers who were not sufficiently knowledgeable of the sport. He writes that in his research he went back to his early days and went through the details of the techniques - techniques that most pros know instinctively through repeated practice until they make the moves without conscious thought but would be difficult to teach someone else without fully explaining each detail. The techniques and motivation behind them make for very interesting reading and are such that I have not seen in other boxing books. They are primarily what worked best for him. It is a fine manual of scientific fighting with an emphasis on aggressive, explosive punching.

Now, Dempsey's name may not immediately spring to mind when the term 'scientific boxing' is brought up. In reading his biography, Dempsey makes a statement to the effect that when he started training for the first Tunney fight, he and his trainer found that with the long period of inactivity preceding him, he had to learn a lot of moves all over again. If acquired skills are not continually practiced, they will erode and one will revert back to what comes most natural. (i.e. use it or lose it) And in Tunney, as well as Sharkey, he was facing two of the most clever, scientific boxers at their best. So these fights may not be the best for seeing Dempsey himself put these moves and techniques to the full. If we watch the Willard fight WITHOUT the seven explosive knockdowns, we see some fine boxing displayed by Dempsey. I do not know of any film of Dempsey's fights prior to Willard. Dempsey is so synonymous with powerful hitting that his boxing skills receive scant notice. I will have to watch the film we have of him with an eye toward the techniques in the book. But I would not be surprised to not see them put into practice so much in his real bouts, since when he wrote the book he had the time to look back and reflect and analyze what he knew and even picked up after he had retired. Some of these skills may have been more evident in some of his earlier fights of which we have no film. But regardless of whether or not we see all these techniques in his fights, they are nevertheless valid and worth knowing by anyone.

 

Shock - heavyweight champion knows about boxing.