How good was Dempsey's title reign?

:good

What is the date of this poll ?

 

BRAVO to you Q. When Dempsey was at his peak,flattening Willard [who was never floored before], Jack Dempsey became an idol,and was considered the
most destructive heavyweight who ever lived. In this prime, I truly cannot see
any other fighter in history beating him. He at this point in time combined the
speed of a welterweight, with animalistic hitting powers from short range.
Though 188-95 pounds at his best,Dempsey was described as "amazingly
strong ", as from the waist up he had the deltoids and frame of a 210-20
pound heavyweight. It is true that he took a three year layoff, went to
Hollywood,fired his mentor and manager Jack Kearns, and after he made his
"comeback " against a razor-sharp Gene Tunney, foolishly without a TUNE_UP
bout, Dempsey was easily outboxed. How could it be otherwise ? But ,at the
age of 32,Dempsey, fought a PRIME Jack Sharkey,and though outboxed by
the Boston Gob, weakened Sharkey with body blows and then flattened him
with a short left hook in the 7th round. This is the Jack Sharkey, that gave Harry Wills , a drubbing one year before. Then as we know about the second fight with Tunney,Dempsey dropped the elusive Tunney in the the 7th around with a barrage of punches, and the ref made Dempsey go to a neutral corner
before he started counting ONE, and Tunney was down for about 17 seconds,
got up and backpedaled to last the round,and escape a ko. To top this off, in the 10th round Tunney dropped Dempsey with a short right hand and the
Chicago based ref,started the count IMMEDIATELY, while Tunney hovered over Dempsey...Hmmm! So to sum it up Q, I agree with you that Ray Arcel, Hype Igoe, Grantland Rice, Damon Runyon, and yes, Sam Langford,knew what they were talking about when they lauded the prime Jack Dempsey,as the greatest Heavyweight they had ever seen, man to man...Cheers.....

 

7 outta 10 listed guys on here, Dempsey faced. It's a damn shame Wills and Greb weren't among them, but that's still nothing to sneeze at considering how harshly his reign gets criticized. I'm curious as to the exact date too, since Brennan's got nearly twice as many votes as Greb and Willard to be a clear 2nd.

Edit: I see you've already got the date up. Good stuff. :good

 

Sorry Burt and Quarry but you guys are both wrong in regards to Dempsey-Greb. There was a demand for the fight. So much so that Dempsey, early in his reign was offered $50,000 plus 50% of the gate reciepts for a ND match of either 8 or 10 rounds and flat refused it. Now this is a ND match against a 160 pound fighter who couldnt punch. His title was as safe as it could be and on paper, according to Dempsey nuthuggers an 8 or 10 round ND match against a guy who could make 158 and couldnt punch is a pretty damn safe and easy $50,000 but Jack turned it down. Thats point 1. Point 2. is if there was no demand why was the minimum purse offered for Dempsey's services against Greb $50,000 with 50% of the gate? Thats more than Dempsey had made for any other fight up to that point. Obviously the promoters felt there was demand. Otherwise they wouldnt sink that kind of money into one fighter (much less expenses and Greb's purse) if they didnt think there was demand. I can show you innumerable articles from that era where Greb is lauded as the logical contender for Dempsey regardless of his size. When Greb beat Tommy Gibbons the fight was promoted by Tex Rickard as to decide the logical white contender for Dempsey's championship. Dempsey was ringside for the fight and was quoted afterwards as saying that Greb was big enough to fight him, won all the way against Gibbons, and that it looked as if he would have to face Greb in the summer. Dempsey then went on a trip to Europe and upon his return changed his tune saying Greb was too small. Instead Dempsey chose to stay inactive for a year and when he returned to the ring he did so against Tommy Gibbons, who had lost nearly every round to Greb in the eliminator... This was lost on few at the time. Its one thing to hero worship Dempsey but lets not make up facts to suit your case.

P.S. Darcy was not a title defense regardless of what some might say. That was a four round exhibition, using large training gloves, and unless Im mistaken the rounds were even 2 mins (Id have to double check this). When it was announced the following day that the New York commission had demanded it be a legit match several of the buffalo papers mocked such a ruling and admitted knowing nothing of it despite being on hand for the fight. The majority of papers who covered the card listed it very clearly and plainly both before and afterwards as an exhibition. Some would like to claim they have found a previously unknown or forgotten Dempsey fight but thats hogwash. Darcy was Dempsey's stablemate and sparring partner, he had appeared in exhibitions with Dempsey before and after, including in New York state where supposedly this match was made a legit match because exhibitions werent allowed (bull****). This was absolutely NOT a real match and not a championship fight regardless of what some would say.

 

if your getting embarrassed take a chill pill i will be back tomorrow to continue.

 

Mc, I know nothing about the background of other posters, but I fervently agree with him,about Jack Dempsey's GREATNESS. I come from a period,when I was a young fella,where many older men and family friends saw Dempsey fight, and absolutely gushed about his prowess. This exposure
to their opinions,and from opinions I have read from a Lou Stillman ,Ray Arcel,Bill Gallo, and other great boxing writers, and also from older men who I would talk to in Stillman's gym, have left an indelible impression of Jack Dempsey's place in boxing history that no poster can detract nor add on.
And I have great respect for you Mc,as always. Take care...:good

 

Maybe the answer lies in the fact that Rickard always had to have an opponent who he felt he could promote as heavyweight champion in the event that Dempsey lost.

I've said it before, and you might scoff at it, but Greb's style of fighting, his lack of the KO punch and his size, was NOT generally considered heavyweight championship fighting. Rightly or wrongly, people are prejudiced. Greb as heavyweight champion would have been something completely different, perhaps TOO different. Hey, even in the 1960s there were many "old-timers" who couldn't warm to Cassius Clay's style and thought it was an insulting to watch a big heavyweight like him run around like he's a bantamweight.

Firpo and Carpentier, if they were to win, were likely to win by some "super punch". Plus, they were easily promotable along exotic "Latin" and "French" romantic stereotyping.

Tunney was a hard sell for a while during his build-up years because there was a feeling he couldn't punch, but he was grown as big as Dempsey and had knocked out some heavyweights, plus he was the US marine going up against the old draft-dodger again. .... and with Dempsey coming off a 3-year layoff he was ideal. Still, I don't think he proved a huge draw when he elected to fight Tom Heeney, probably because the press painted him as some sort of intellectual.