Did these black HW's have a chance against Dempsey Circa 1927?

Harry Wills undoubtably beat better competition than Jack Dempsey. Why do people rate Dempsey over Wills?

 

I do have enough faith in Dempsey's ability to favour him over Bearcat Wright, who despite being a bigger man than Dempsey was not all too invested into being a top heavyweight, comfortably losing against his best opposition. He was a fringe contender at best, with enough power to be threatening.

Gains and Godfrey would have been interesting opposition for an aging Dempsey. Godfrey was probably better than Gains at that time, considering that he stopped Gains the previous year. Godfrey had a busy year in 1927, winning all 16 of his contests, 14 of them by way of KO. He just wasn't able to get any contenders in the ring with him aside from Maloney, whom he knocked out cold for 10 minutes.

 

I could not disagree more. Rocky IV might be the greatest piece of cinema I've ever seen. Its like Bergman's Persona- a character study of two people who have so much and yet so little in common and their destructive, consuming, homoerotic breakdown. Except instead of dialogue and avant garde montages there's an over the top boxing match and an '80's training montage in which the titular character runs up a mountain in the Russian winter in only a coat. And a robot.

 

Yeah, that's what I meant. Mayweather did absolutely nothing wrong but take advantage of a guy who has the IQ of a tree.

You ever have that weird, disorienting feeling where you think you're reading something you didn't remember writing, then you see it's someone else who wrote it?

 

I shall take this as a compliment.

 

Godfrey was Dempseys sparring partner.

 

why do people rank dempsey over wills? because practically everyone who actually saw that era (i.e. people who were there) saw dempsey as one of the greatest, if not the greatest. Not too many people from the era saw Wills that way.

You can blame it on racism but there were plenty of experts that saw Jack Johnson as greater than Dempsey or Louis as greater than Dempsey. Wills, despite a strong resume, was never regarded that way. So one can blame it on racism, but on the other hand, it makes little sense that many people who actually saw these guys in their primes rate Johnson or Louis ahead of dempsey.

I know wills deserved a shot and its incredibly unfair that he never got his chance, but sometimes a fighter gets overrated when they didn't get a shot.

Another reason why people might rank dempsey ahead is because there is actual footage of dempsey at or near his peak. Unfortunately, it isn't true for wills.

 

When Wlsil stepped up he lost twice by ko, to Sharkey and Uzcudum. Not just lost, but looked awful, in comparison to stories of how great he was. If he had not gotten opportunities to fight the 2 of them, we would have people saying he would have easily defeated both.

 

Good point. People mention Langford, McVey and Jeanette, even Peter Jackson as ATG HW but you never hear anything about Wills outside of a Dempsey match up context.

 

Valid point.

The truth with Wills is stranger than the fiction. He was enormously hyped in his own time, but once he started to loose, he just evapourated and was quickly forgotten.

Peter Jackson was listed among the heavyweight greats into the 20s.

Sam Langford was listed among the heavyweight greats into the 50s.

I just don't understant it.

 

Very good question.

Probably yes on paper, but Dempsey did a lot to counteract the fact by his latter inactivity.

Dempsey did have the option of outlasting Wills, and ther is some evidence that he planned to go down that route before Tunney got him/Sharkey gor Wills.

 

Wills beat a 1914 version of Sam Langford, by far better than anyone Dempsey ever beat. By the time Wills took on Jack Sharkey and Uzcuden, he was way past his prime.

 

Max Schmeling beat a better fighter than anybody Muhamad Ali beat.

Does that mean he was greater?

 

Wills also beat near prime versions of Sam Mcvea and Joe Jeanette, arguably better fighters than anyone Dempsey fought.

Wills deserved a title shot as early as 1916, he beat the 3 best contenders for johnson's crown.

Dempsey went on to publicly duck sam langford in 1917