Could any other fighter have beaten the Jack Dempsey that Gene tunney beat?

Well Sharkey could have and should have but,he allways had a few bats flying around in his belfry.

 

I think not, also. It is interesting, though, that Rickard wanted Dempsey to fight Uzcudun first and Dempsey refused. Given the problems Dempsey had with the swarming Meehan ten years earlier, maybe he was leary of the swarming Uzcudun with his granite chin.

 

Well it was granite till Louis landed on it and cracked it ,along with several of his gold teeth which landed on the canvas.

 

Yeah, but Uzcudun was 28 in 1927 and 36 when Louis finished him.

 

Certainly Uzcudun had the chin to last against an aging Dempsey or anybody else. I can understand how Dempsey might feel this was a fight he could do without. Wills probably wished he had done without Uzcudun also.

 

It would have been an extra fight in the spring, followed by Sharkey, and then Tunney, as I understand it. Dempsey nixed it for whatever reason and Uzcudun was eventually matched with Wills.
Clearly Rickard wanted to get Dempsey into the ring as many times as possible, but I don't think he would have floated an Uzcudun match unless he thought Dempsey would win. Dempsey and Uzcudun would have drawn a big gate but nothing like Dempsey and Tunney, which was the big payoff for Rickard. On the other hand, because Dempsey lost so badly in 1926, Rickard probably thought Dempsey needed a couple of wins under his belt before he tried selling the Tunney rematch to the public.

 

Tunney could beat him of course, but Sharkey could not, and I'm talking about another fight, for the title, not the actual fight in which Sharkey was kayoed in 7. If he had fought Dempsey for the title, he would have had some good moments, but Dempsey would have done something to rattle him and make him go careless, like maybe fouling him and Sharkey would snap. Dempsey would have devoured him. Sharkey did not have the icy, disciplined demeanor that Gene Tunney had and that would have led to his downfall. As for Uzcudun, well maybe Jack had trouble with guys like Meehan in the days before he won the title, but Uzcudun and Meehan were totally different type fighters. Willie Meehan was a fat, jiggly, tricky slapping kind of defensive boxer, whereas Paolino Uzcudun was a straight ahead Chuvalo-like brawler with a similar chin to Chuvalo. This was not pre-title Dempsey, and he would have torn into the Spaniard with fury, and would have had no trouble finding his man. Dempsey would have won inside 6 rounds by ko. The most interesting "what if" matchup would have been the young, upcoming Max Schmeling, or even a challenge by Tommy Loughran.

 

Tommy Loughran
Jack Sharkey
But they couldn't have done it like Tunney did it, they would have taken more punishment, would have held on in a late rounds onslaught.
Sharkey was a tad unlucky against Dempsey, but he brought that on himself.

 

Dempsey/Uzcudun would have been very difficult for Jack at that stage of his career. He no longer had the legs which took him 15 fast rounds with Gibbons, and his counterpunch timing was pretty much shot by 1927. Paulino would have been the one coming forward here.

If Jack Delaney was at the top of his game, he could have given Dempsey a miserable time of it, and I think Bright Eyes would have made certain of being honed to a razor's edge against an opponent of Dempsey's pedigree.

Stribling was very very hot in 1927, and held multiple decision wins over such luminaries as Maxie Rosenbloom and Tommy Loughran. If he managed to avoid overtraining for a bout with Dempsey, he just might have pulled off a distance win over the 1927 version. (Given his history against Berlenbach and Schmeling, I expect that Stribling would indeed have overtrained for Dempsey, and pay the price. But I think he did have the ability to prevail over the shot former champion.)

Tommy Loughran would have decisioned the 1927 Dempsey if a bout between them went the scheduled time limit. It would be absolutely imperative for Jack to take Tommy out.

What was unfortunate for Dempsey is that the title fight he signed for against Harry Wills never took place. The aging Wills was tailor made for Jack, and would have been an easy title defense that would have extended Dempsey's reign. Even a shot Dempsey would have had an easy time nailing the semi mobile Wills with his sledgehammer blows.

Scanning through Ring Magazine's ratings for 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927, it's obvious that there were very, very few worthy challengers for the heavyweight title during the so-called "Golden Age of Sports." That dearth of quality contenders is hardly Jack's fault. He could either be excoriated for establishing a "Bum of the Month Club" precedent for Joe Louis, or be maligned as he is for sitting on the title until a worthy contender came along. Miske, Brennan, Carpentier, Gibbons, Firpo and Tunney, were six of the very few credible challengers available to defend against during Jack's seven year reign. Remarkably, Harry Wills may be the ONLY deserving contender Dempsey did not defend against. Most champions have more than a single glaring omission from their resumes.

Dempsey's legacy has been sharply criticized for his failure to defend against Wills, and properly so. However, Jack does not get enough credit for choosing to risk his championship against Tommy Gibbons, a man Dempsey's handlers wanted no part of. George Godfrey wanted no part of Jack after Dempsey busted the big man's ribs in a sparring session leading up to the 15 rounder with Gibbons.

A key reason why Ali's "The Greatest" has to do with the calibre of his available opposition, a circumstance he hardly had control over.

So:

Uzcudun
Stribling
Delaney
and
Loughran,

in addition to Tunney, all had the ability to defeat Dempsey in 1927, but saying that they all could have done so is not to say that they all definitely would have succeeded.

Concerning Jack Sharkey, he was beginning to fade under Dempsey's slams to the body. Dempsey-Sharkey was scheduled for 15 rounds, and Sharkey was staring to wear with over half the time limit remaining. Assuming their match does not end in the controversial fashion that round seven did, it would have been all downhill for Sharkey over the latter half of the contest. No, I do not believe Sharkey could have defeated Dempsey in 1927, certainly not by meeting him head on as he did.

 

Right. The only thing lacking with Loughran was size. He came the closest to approximating the style of Gene Tunney, and may have been a shade even better as a pure boxer. He had the ability to beat a 1926 version of Jack Dempsey, but again, he lacked the size to withstand Dempsey's explosive, sudden bursts of power that even felled Tunney, who was at least, a legitimate heavyweight and at least as big as Dempsey. A young Schmeling may have been able to surprise Jack with one of those straight, acurate right hand counterpunches he was capable of.

 

I considered Stribling, but he just doesn't look good enough to me. Not strong enough.

Against Schmeling he backs straight up, hardly any lateral movement. Even an old Dempsey would run him down if he tried boxing like that, IMO.