Dempsey's crazy 1st round KO record

He didn't suck when he won multiple fights that went on longer than 4 rounds so I'm still confused what point you're trying to make in a discussion about how effective he is in the 1st.

 

To play devil's advocate

-Spinks was a terrified light Heavyweight who lost before he entered the ring.
-Williams was a very quick and questionable stoppage. He was hurt, but wide awake and still had his legs.
-Stewart was a 3 knockdown rule KO, but it was an impressive display of finishing ability on Tyson's part.
-Seldon clearly took a dive. That was faker than a WWE match.
-Lmao at Marvis Frazier.

What's in Dempsey's favor is that he has multiple 1st round knockouts/knockdowns utterly destroying men much larger than himself in the 1st. With Tyson it was the opposite. Often when facing larger opponents, Tyson needed to break them down or Tyson simply couldn't put a dent in them. On several occasions he went the distance or he lost.

 

Reminder that I'm just playing devil's advocate.

Being scared and not wanting to get in the ring absolutely should be factored in the value of a KO. It's for similar reasons Smith's KO of Witherspoon isn't held in high regard for some. Tyson did what he was supposed to do and gets credit for being the only one to KO Spinks, but Spinks had mentally checked out. I do agree intimidation is part of an arsenal.

There are plenty of people who question the Williams and Seldon stoppages. They were both very controversial.

Fair point about comparing the 3 knockdown rule to Dempsey's lack of neutral corner.

I didn't say Frazier wasn't legitimate, I'm saying he was severely overmatched and had no business being there with Tyson. Even Holmes, who isn't remotely a big puncher, KOd Frazier in 1. Unlike Spinx we have plenty of evidence Frazier had a bad chin and was dropped by Smith too. He was really a small cruiserweight.

Tyson's record against bigger men in terms of displaying his punching power yields very mixed results.

Smith, Tucker, Ruddock, and Green went the distance. Ruddock was dropped, but he was also hit in the nuts flagrantly by Tyson so many times Tyson lost a point. He did stop Ruddock in the 1st fight but this was controversial.

Douglas and Lewis knocked him out.

Bruno, Botha, Savarese, Holmes, and Tubbs are KOs over men who had a significant height and weight advantage. Tubbs showed up out of shape on purpose pigging out on food just to spite the promoters. Holmes was coming off 2 losses and a layoff.

9(5KOs)-2 is not a stellar record against bigger men if the discussion is punching power and early round knockouts.

If you're wondering about Berbick, Thomas, Biggs, Williams, Ribalta, etc they were either a couple lbs heavier or in some case weighed even less than Tyson so they clearly cannot be considered significantly larger opponents. Dempsey was easily destroying men who were 30-40 lbs heavier.

 

You can't penalize Dempsey when those were the rules of the day.

When people discuss fighters at their best, it isn't always a fight against their most elite opponent. Ali looked phenomenal against Williams but that wasn't even Ali's 10th best win and Williams was way past his prime. But the speed, athleticism, and sharpness Ali put on display were remarkable.

Toledo Dempsey was a force of nature. He'd be quite a handful for many fighters in the 1st round I'd imagine.