Dempsey's era was truly the wild west of boxing

'In 1915, when I was nineteen, I fought Johnny Sudenberg ten rounds in the wild mining town of Goldfield, Nevada. I was in there with a good fighter, one much better than I was, but I took the fight because I was dead broke and my manager of the moment, Jack Gilfeather, had been able to jimmy a $100 guarantee because Sudenberg's scheduled opponent had taken a runout.

Sudenberg almost kiIIed me. For two rounds it was a fight. For the next eight I was a helpless, bIood-soaked punching bag. It was the worst beating of my life. I don't remember going down once, because I still don't remember the last three or four rounds.

Coldfield was a tough town. A stranger who got his brains knocked out in Goldfield was no rarity. So they dumped me, into a wheelbarrow and some Samaritan pushed me through the hilly streets. He threw me on the bunk in my 'home', a cave in the side of a hill.

I woke up at three o'clock the next afternoon - nearly twenty hours after I'd been wheelbarrowed 'home.' Everything hurt, of course. But I was young, and I was hungry. I stumbled over to the saloon where Gilfeather hung out, to collect my share of the purse. I asked where I could find Gilfeather.

A bartender said, 'He left town last night, kid. He got drunk and blew his wad shooting crąps.' I had been damn near kiIIed for nothing. I was broke and starving. It was the lowest point of my entire life. And, for the first time in my life, I longed for my childhood, tough as it was.'

- Jack Dempsey

 

wish their was footage of young Dempsey.

 

I love the honesty. Credit to Dempsey. He persevered and became the KO machine boxing hadn’t seen since Terry McGovern at his height.

 

Not only was Dempsey tough and resilient, he rematched Sudenberg less than two weeks later.

 

Getting the crap beat out of you until the final bell, not getting a single dime, and then rematching the same opponent in under a month...? Not even a journeyman desperate for cash would go for that and no sanctioning body would allow it...! Hell if someone even tried to do that today, the FBI would probably investigate.

 

Dempsey's account of the fight was pure fiction.

 

Care to explain?

 

Would have loved to have seen Dempsey vs Jake Paul. Worse beating than Willard?

 

And you know this how???

 

The newspapers that covered it.

The Goldfield News makes the point that "neither boy had been hurt to any extent," and details clearly how Dempsey kept Sudenberg on the end of his jab for the first five rounds before he determined that he could also outmuscle him in the clinches. The bout was called a draw because even though Dempsey landed the cleaner punches and was the better boxer Sudenberg was the more aggressive.

The Tonopah Bonanza said that the first two rounds were feeling out rounds before Sudenberg decided that he had to force the fighting if he was going to win. This allowed Dempsey to counter effectively. Some in the audience thought that Dempsey deserved the win.

Nobody but Dempsey ever described this fight as the massacre he pretends it to be. But it made for a great story. Adam Pollack's book also notes that Dempsey embellished the details.