How much blame should Dempsey get for not fighting Wills?

Reading a bit on Dempsey and it seems like his management wanted to draw the color line more than him. Regardless who's fault it was it still hurts his legacy.

 

It's not like he was a kid who only held the title for a year or so. He held the title for seven years and was one of the most inactive heavyweight champions of all-time. He was mature and independent enough to break away from Kearns during the middle of his championship reign. He was calling the shots from that time on. I don't buy the argument that Rickard could have stopped Dempsey from fighting Wills if Jack had wanted to make the match instead of being intent on playing it safe by avoiding his No. 1 challenger. By the time he broke away from Kearns, he was undoubtedly a pretty savvy guy, pretty well conversant in legal and practical matters. He couldn't have spent all his time in Hollywood just mugging in front of a camera. He must have learned something about business matters from all those high-rolling Hollywood actors and producers. He sure spent enough time away from boxing while in California to have time to reflect upon and strategize about his boxing career.

 

People out here talking about the Coloured heavyweight title and the Caucasian heavyweight title fighters, who were both so good but let me tell you something, and I don't want to get banned again, because this is not racialist but the Asian heavyweight title of that time...? Ain't nobody on the boards ever cared about those dudes enough to ask if it was a problem for anybody's legacies that they didn't bother with them. Because they were not good then. Not good at all. I'm not saying that was inherent, but they were at least not bringing their A games at that time.

 

That's all I'll say. No hatin'.

 

I'm sure they were involved with other things that they did well.

 

I can't cite any of them right now, off the top of my head.

 

It certainly doesn't mean that those things don't exist.