Breaking down Jack Dempsey from film

Gable would have been a very plausible, convincing Dempsey.

 

Treat Williams did ok,the film needed more $ spent on it.

 

The Charles Bronson movie HARD TIMES was a take off of Dempsey early barnstorming years (of course Bronson was about 54 at the time). Bronson's name in the movie was a takoff of Dempsey ("Chaney"). Whatever, it was a great movie, one of Bronson's best. Bronson was in remarkable shape in his fifties.

 

Bumping for the Hard Times reference lol. Stumbled upon this thread while reading into Bronsons flirtation with boxing.

 

As a whole a HORRIBLE and really uneducated article. Lots of mistakes. Lots of poor technical analysis. The author and most importantly Monte Cox should be ashamed of themselves.

 

In their search for the next leading man to promote in film the studio executives of the 30's specifically were looking for someone who looked like Jack Dempsey. They found Clark Gable.

 

Hard Times is one of my faves. Bronson was always shredded, even in his old age. Good Lithuanian genes on that one.

 

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Well done J!!!

 

Dempsey having trouble with boxers/movers is incorrect. The three fights that the author is most likely referring to are the Gibbons fight along with Tunney I & II.

The Gibbons fight is absolutely no indication that Dempsey had trouble with movers. What Gibbons did wasn't move, it was out right running. Go ahead and watch the film, you will see at multiple points that Gibbons outright turns around and runs to get away from Dempsey. Nobody not Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson, or anybody will look good cornering a guy who straight up turns around and runs. Dempsey had no trouble catching up with him for the most part. The overwhelming majority of the fight was fought on the inside and Dempsey was in complete control every second.

Had Gibbons boxed normally or did anything other than run, he would have ended up like the rest of Dempsey's title reign.

The first and second Tunney fight hopefully need no explanation. At that point Dempsey hadn't boxed for a good number of year and had gotten fat during his Hollywood layoff. He himself said he was 227 lbs before he started training for the second fight. During the first fight, Dempsey was sick. It is believed someone (perhaps his bodyguard) had put something in his olive oil that he drank during his training. Not to mention Dempsey's legs were practically gone. This is noted by his inability to bend at the knees when bobbing/weaving. Nearly all of his bobbing/weaving is done by bending over at the waist which is technically incorrect technique. However when your legs are gone you have to make compromises.

Everything else this author says is bull****. Everything he says is coming from a perspective of someone who has never boxed before or at least worked close enough with boxers to know how the fight game really is. Boxing isn't like other sports where you can give accurate analysis and advice without ever being apart of the sport.

 

Quite obviously it completely ignores the skills Dempsey offers when viewing him on film. The author HAS NOT spent enough time viewing Dempsey on film. True analysis of any fighter on silient era quality film takes allot of time and patience

 

As an example those who have not spent the time to really watch Johnson say he is just holding. NOTHING could be further from the truth. Lots of very high end skills going on with Johnson. Control, tapping elbows to mute body punches, catching short hooks just as they are about to land and instantly retaking a control position. Different skill set but the same idea when watching Dempsey. He routinely slips, bobs under punches sometime 7-8 consecutive (Tunney), best short puncher in hwt history and look to Firpo and Carpentier as clearer examples. Watch the next to last knockdown of Firpo as an example of short blows. Right hand left hook and they can't be thrown shorter.