...... Yes, another Dempsey thread, but i believe it is a valid one. I don't want to start a discussion about whether or not Dempsey deserved the nod in those fights, nor whether was injured or any of that, but i want to look at the fights from a stylistic point of view. Meehan was, for a heavyweight, a short and chubby 5'9. Now from what i've read, he was a swarmer, throwing many punches of which not all landed but he got a lot of work done. I get the impression that he smothers his opponent. Dempsey was troubled somewhat by this style as Meehan did fairly well in all of them, whether he lost or won. Dempsey at 6'1 was pretty tall, especially for his time. A bit like Ali was with 6'3 in his time. I have always found it remarkable that Dempsey used a swarming style despite having a height advantage over most of his opponents. Because of his height he seems to be a bit open when making defensive manouvres, causing balance trouble. Anyway, my point is, when two swarmers meet, the shorter one may actually have an advantage. Could this perhaps account somewhat for Meehan's succes? Could this bode bad news for Dempsey when confronted with a 5'10/5'11 Marciano, Tyson or Frazier? Altogether it is pretty hard to predict because swarmers are pretty rare and swarmer vs swarmer matchups are even more rare. Quarry prettyy much fought a swarmers fight against Frazier, coming forward with many punches while keeping a high guard although he didn't employ the upper body moment that a Dempsey or Marciano would use. Thoughts?
These authors, who were doing all three Fulton-Meehan pre-fight daily reporting and the fight reports themselves, were also confused and had no idea how the hell had a fat guy with mediocre skills for both offense and defense troubled Dempsey.
Meehan may very well have had a style that troubled Dempsey and other fighters to. He was supposedly a superman in 4 round fights. Dempsey took only one victory in his five meetings with Meehan while suffering draws and losses in the other 4. Some posters here, have already claimed that all five of Dempsey's meetings with Meehan were exhibitions. Frankly, I think it od, that everytime a hall of famer has a bad run of meetings with a fighter of average credentials, that it is automatically deemed as an exhibition or robbery. Nevertheless, I have never seen these fights, nor read much on them, so I can't pass judgment. Still, Dempsey was the first round knockout king, and one of the greatest rated punchers of all time-two cliams that Dempsey supporters often like to boast. If this is the case, then frankly I don't see any reason to give him a pass for his lackluster performances against Meehan, and automatically assume that these fights should be ignored when comparing him in head to head matches with other great fighters. My $0.02.
I imagine Willie Meehan as being a fat fast-handed slapper with clever footwork. He had no power, has far as I know, and I dont know if he could be classed has a "swarmer" since that implies pressing forward and attempting to KO or break your foe in some way. I always figured Meehan to be more of a "shoe-shine" puncher, lots of volume, no real power, and a bit of ring craft. A member of the fat man's ballet, any irritating crafty journeyman, but something of a creampuff puncher.
Sounds a bit like Calzaghe, who incidentally is pretty hard to outpoint as well. He has a strong chin but he's not fat and short.
it's one of the puzzles of fighting,some people just have others numbers, and while it makes no sense stylistically, it just happens. maybe it was mental, dempsey couldn't put meehan away and just froze when fighting phat boy. also not to be discounted is meehan only had to fight four rounds with dempsey, who's to say butterbean couldn't have made fights interesting for four rounds with people much better than him.
