Dempsey KO'ed By Godfrey ?

Yes, basically. What would be the value to Dempsey of knocking out a junior lightweight? How much would they have to pay Bernstein to allow Dempsey to level against him? He probably wasn't that hard up for money. People paid to observe Dempsey training. I am certain it was serious up to the point where Dempsey finished with the heavies. Sparring with the much smaller Bernstein was probably closer to a vaudeville routine with choreographed moves as part of the act. It was a show to amuse the crowd, on par with the old films of various heavyweight champions "fighting" Bob Hope or Jerry Lewis.

 

Dempsey was one-of-a-kind. Truly a beast, yet a gentleman as well.

 

Randy Roberts, in his book on Dempsey has this to say about Jack and his sparring partners.
"Getting ready for Gibbons, Dempsey hit his sparring partners with a fragilely controlled savagery;he split open their skin ,broke their noses,bruised their lips,and damaged their ribs.When one was knocked down,he waited for him to rise ,then knocked him down again.
Occasionally , some aspiring heavyweight with more ambition than sense ,would challenge Dempsey to box several rounds.One such fighter,Ben Wray stood seven feet two inches and weighed over two fifty pounds.A crowd of fifteen hundred people watched Dempsey shatter Wray's jaw in less than half a minute.Fortunately ,Wray did not have to fight the champion again,but Jack Burke,Frank Powers,Marty Farrell, George Godfrey,and other sparring partners had to fight Dempsey every day." Roberts notes that while wrestling with a lightweight fighter Dempsey brought his knee up into the groin of the smaller man.Paul Gallico was at the camp and once boxed with Dempsey for an article ,he said of Dempsey's treatment of his spar mates,"Dempsey treated each and every one of them as his personal enemy a soon as he entered the ring" .Larry Gains in his wonderful autobiography "The Impossible Dream recounts how ,the relief on the faces of those spar mates not selected to box was something to see ,[ Gains was a spar mate of Dempsey's , and fought Godfrey several times ].

 

There are similar stories about Louis's sparring partners.

They had to offer rates of pay above and beyond those normaly put up to find anybody desperate enough.

 

Yes, Ive seen photos of George Nicholson ,a long time spar mate of Joe's ,with what looks like half a bed mattress strapped around his middle.
Some boxers are easy on their spar mates Dempsey was not.Surprisingly Sir Henry Cooper ,that kind old gentle man , was known to be brutal with spar mates.

 

Curtis Shephard said that he stopped sparring with Louis because it wasnt wort it for any amount of money.

 

Hatchetman said that? Wow... and to think that certain fighters only got in the ring with Hatchetman if he promised not to use his full power. Louis was special.

 

It's funny how Louis kod so many guys in "exhibitions", either they started to get frisky[bad move], or his reflexes took over and he threw shots automatically.Bit like Lenny in "Of Mice and Men"," I only meant to pet him George".

 

I just imaged Joe talking to Jack Blackburn "What about the rabbits".

 

Some exhibitions of the period were basicaly four round fights.

If they wernt then it was common for one fighter to premeditadely turn it into a real fight without warning the other party.

Louis would have gone into most exhibitions asuming that the other guy would take a pop at him in an atempt to raise his profile.

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl " You can have all the ketchup Chappie"!

 

If it were true Depsey's people would not have kept using Godfrey, as they did for many years, so story is untrue.

 

i am sure jack got the better of the sparring but godfrey was a great fighter so i am sure he had some good moments in there

 

I have a full copy of an NYT article from that period stating that Godfrey suffered broken ribs sparring with Dempsey and would be forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout on the undercard as a result. I'll look it up and transcribe it later.

 

I am not disputing that Godfrey suffered rib injuries before the Dempsey-Gibbons fight. I have read the same in July, 1923 newspaper articles. The point of that quote was that the two did spar again prior to the Firpo fight. Godfrey's next official fight was on 9/17/1923.