OK I know this is a contentious subject, but it is also one where the timeline causes a lot of confusion. What I have done here is write down the dates of key events, to help people understand their relevance to eachother. It is a work in progress, so I am open to suggestions for improving it. I have left out key fights that took place while Dempsey was coming up through the ranks, and key fights on Harry Greb's resume, to avoid making it too complex. 1919 July 4 Jack Dempsey defeats Jess Willard to win the Heavyweight Championship 1920 July 26 Harry Wills defeats Fred Fulton September 6 Jack Dempsey defends his title against Billy Miske October 12 Georges Carpinter defeats Battling Levinsky to win the Light Heavyweight Championship December 14 Jack Dempsey defends his title against Bill Brennan 1921 July 2 Jack Dempsey defends his title against Georges Carpintier 1922 January 2 Harry Wills loses to Bill Tate via DQ January 6 Harry Wills draws against Bill Tate March 2 Harry Wills defeats Kid Norfolk June 11 Jack Dempsey signs articles to fight Harry Wills July 24 Jack Dempsey defends his title against Jimmy Darcy September 4 Jack Dempsey is scheduled to fight Bill Brennan, but the fight is disallowed by the Mayor 1923 July 4 Jack Dempsey defends his title against Tommy Gibbons July 12 Luis Firpo defeats Jess Willard September 14 Jack Dempsey defends his title against Luis Firpo 1924 September 6 Jack Dempsey is scheduled to fight Harry Wills, but the fight is disallowed by the New York State Athletic commission September 11 Harry Wills defeats Luis Firpo 1925 February 1 Jack Dempsey formally announces his retirement from the ring, and splits with Kearns June 5 Gene Tunney defeats Tommy Gibbons July 17 Dempsey appears before the New York Licencing Commission, and agrees to fight Harry Wills September 28 Dempsey signs articles to fight Harry Wills, but his cheque subsequently bounces 1926 September 23 Jack Dempsey loses the Heavyweight Championship to Gene Tunney October 12 Harry Wills loses to Jack Sharkey 1927 July 13 Harry Wills loses to Paulino Uzcdun July 21 Jack Dempsey defeats Jack Sharkey September 22 Jack Dempsey fails to reclaim the tile from Gene Tunney 1928 March 4 Jack Dempsey retires, this time for good
The NYT published a timeline around that time. I used to have it, but I can't seem to put my paws on it.
One event that often gets forgotten, is Dempsey's anouncment of his retirment in 1925. We might well speculate about the panic that this migth have caused, among the various promotors and governing bodies. Sudenly the title was efectivley vacant. The traditional method of finding a new champion, was to match the two top contenders, which was basically going to mean Wills and somebody else. Perhaps Dempsey genuinely wanted out of the game, or perhaps it was a shrewd tactical move to put pressure on them. Either way, it seems that Dempsey was ultimately too big to retire, and he had to be brought back one way or another.
Here I offer a timeline of events leading up to Jack Dempsey winning the title, and Wills becoming his outstanding challenger. It involves more interpretation than the previous timeline, so any criticisms are welcome. 1917 June 19 Fred Fulton defeats Sam Langford September 3 Fred Fulton defeats Carl Morris 1918 January 18 Fred Fulton and Billy Miske fight to a draw February 25 Fred Fulton defeats Frank Moran, and Jack Dempsey defeats Bill Brennan on the same date May 03 Jack Dempsey and Billy Miske figth to a draw July 27 Jack Dempsey defeats Fred Fulton November 28 Jack Dempsey defeats Billy Miske 1919 July 4 Jack Dempsey defeats Jess Willard to win the Heavyweight Championship 1920 July 26 Harry Wills defeats Fred Fulton After Fred Fulton defeated Sam Langford in 1917, he set about knocking off the other top white contenders, one by one. Some of them were coming off a loss, and some were on the way down, but he prety much rounded them all up. It is not hard to see how he started to be seen as the top challenger. At the same time Harry Wills was caught in no mans land, fighting the same black contenders over and over. In 1918 Jack Dempsey starts to tear his way through the division, but at the same time Billy Miske fights both Fulton and Dempsey to a draw. At this stage the search for the next challenger for Willard's title, seems to have been resolving itself into Fulton, Dempsey and Miske. After Dempsey had defeated Fulton and Miske, he was the natural choice to fight Willard. It then made sense to match Fulton and Wills, to see who was the best possible challenger for Dempsey. Although Miske's illness would take him out of the picture, it is not hard to see how he might have been seen as a viable title challenger.
Wills was already a factor before Dempsey came to the title: https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=S50FAAAAIBAJ&pg=5170,1460891&hl=en This is a newspaper article from 1915, identifying him as the best HW in the ring in the opinion of many. Below is a very interesting article which claims Dempsey "hated" Wills. Dempsey also, according to this writer, wanted to take Wills "down into the cellar" like Jeffries offered Johnson. Plenty for both sides to chew on here https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=lVQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3145,4022518&hl=en Interesting article on the colour line and Dempsey's intention to break it: https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=mkkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2938,2855724&hl=en
Thank you for compiling this data In many ways it showed Dempsey cleaning up his division,, directly ie: beating Fulton Or indirectly ie: Dempsey beat Fulton who beat Moran Many people don't realize Fulton is a HOFamer with a lot of Fights 83 wins(72 by KO), 17 losses and 4 draws. named to the Ring magazine list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. You don't get a record like that by being "No Good" Fighters then especially HW had their most activity as pretitle compared post title..Cause to many ways to earn money not fighting Middleweights like Greb go broke cause Hollywoods not calling him
The problem with the first article is its full of bullsh*t. It states Wills was undefeated , the article is dated Dec 10th 1915 Wills had lost to Sam Langford by knockout on the 26th of Nov 1914.lost to Sam Mcvey by decision on 29th of Dec 1914 had earlier, in 1912 been kod by Kid Cotton, Jack Johnson's sparring partner.Wills lost to McVey by decision on19th May 1915 ,7 months before that article was published ,and he would be kod again by Langford just 2 months after on 11th Feb1916 . Wills was becoming a factor but the best challenger in Dec 1915 ? No way! The second article claims Dempsey hated Wills but has no confirmation of that from Dempsey. Dempsey co- authored two autobiographies both of which I have, in them he stated the only man he hated was Carl Morris ,because of how he treated him when he was his sparring partner.. As to the third article Dempsey made a couple of conflicting remarks about the colour line. Very early in his reign he said he would pay no attention to coloured challengers as Willard had said before him, later he softened this stance and said he would fight anyone.Whether he was sincere who knows?
Look Him and No 1 contender want to fight publics screaming for it But the right hand of government and bureaucracy wont allow it to happen but its left hand is demanding it must happen.. he's champion he feels honor bound to fight no 1 contender No promoter will promote even though its a million dollar gate its him not Kearns running the show He's rich enough to retire wealthy Hes 30 I would announce my retirement then under those circumstances
I love Dempsey but the facts are he should have defended against Wills and he didn't Rickard ,Kearns & the NY commission must bear some of the blame for that but we can't give Jack a total free pass for the fight not happening.imo Wills was the standout contender for perhaps 3 years ,not the 6 that has been claimed for him, but that is long enough for him to have earned his right to a title shot. I for one wish he had received it because I'm convinced Dempsey bombs him out.
Yeah, it is, but it's like a really ****ty website that knows enough to know a fighter matters and nothing else. Toss it if you like, but it's a profile, if a bad one, of Wills, older than any i've seen of Dempsey. Well, it does have a direct quote - "One day I'll get him in the same position in which Jim Jeffries got Jack Johnson." The writer then goes on to say that he means challenging Johnson to an all-in in the cellar. There's no "I hate him" quote but Dempsey intimates that he would very much like a square go in private for no money. Sounds like he didn't like him very much to me, at least on this day.
I get the idea that relations between the two declined, as Wills resorted to ever more desperate measures to force Dempsey into a fight, and consequently made himself a greater nuisance to the latter.
No your wrong He was the number 1 rated contender by every major rating system from 1920-1926 until he lost to Sharkey 6 years 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 6 years RING 1924 Jack Dempsey, Champion 1. Harry Wills Tommy Gibbons Charley Weinert Quintin Romero Rojas Jack Renault Luis Angel Firpo George Godfrey Jim Maloney Erminio Spalla 1925 Jack Dempsey, Champion 1. Harry Wills Gene Tunney Jack Renault Bud Gorman George Godfrey Jack Sharkey Young Bob Fitzsimmons Paolino Uzcudun Jim Maloney Harry Persson King Solomon Johnny Risko Ray Neuman