Fulton claimed he was "double-crossed" against Dempsey

Do you have access to pull up the
"IS JACK DEMPSEY SLIPPING?
Chicago Tribune - Jan 8, 1922"

shown at the right side of your google page?

 

A very humiliating loss for Fulton. It's natural for a man to look for some sort of face-saving alibi.

 

This fight was filmed. Never saw it!

 

Dempsey Mayweathered Fulton? Protect yourself at all times

 

Dempsey should have retorted, "well, I was pulling my punches. Didn't realise your chin was that weak, Fred."

 

I have heard of this Fulton claim before. He was suspended by the Minnesota State Athletic Association for making this claim.

My take--I go with both the Flynn and the Fulton one round ko's being legitimate, but, strangely, I guess the "evidence" is stronger that the Fulton fight wasn't, as the one making the fix claim, Fulton, at least should have known.

 

Fulton later claimed that he actually did take a dive but I dont buy it. Mike Collins, Fulton's manager, never had anything good say about Fulton after they split up. He basically said Fulton had no chin and no heart and was a front runner. That type of fighter is never going to show up well against Dempsey.

 

I wouldn't take an ex-manager's bitter gripes and snipes as much to go on, but yeah, Fulton seem to have been limited by some vulnerability.

Fulton did beat some good fighters though. The consensus seems to be that his beating of Langford was legit and quite severe, in spite of a claim or two that it was fishy.

 

Fulton might be overrated quite a bit due to his victory over Langford. According to Jack Gibbons, Langford had suffered a severe cut over his eye in training a couple of days prior to the Fulton fight but went through with the fight because it was a big payday for him. Fulton reopened the cut almost immediately and Langford fought under a severe handicap.

 

Fulton was certainly pretty good, and a top contender.

I have heard about the cut claim from other sources. Ted Carroll mentioned it if I remember.

**Whether cut or not, Langford was on the cusp of a severe decline, although he remained a dangerous opponent.

 

Fulton is making excuses. He got his **** tossed against Dempsey. 23 seconds, 4 punch combination, knocked the **** out. This was a good win for Dempsey. Fulton had recently beaten an old but still dangerous Sam Langford, and Fulton was the best heavyweight contender out there not named Wills. Fulton was 6'4 210lb and appeared to have a bit more skill than the other big men of his era. A difficult fighter for sure for a 185lb fighter of that era. I don't think Fulton was a world beater, but Dempsey's victory was so dominating it must be taken into consideration.

 

I agree that Dempsey scored a legit ko.

Fulton went out so fast that he was eliminated as a possible contender while Dempsey was champion. Not even Rickard (or P T Barnum or Cecil B DeMille) could sell him to the public as a future opponent of Dempsey. I think he was just trying to cloud the issue enough to get back into the picture.