David Tua -vs- Jack Dempsey

A mediocre middleweight knocked him down 9 times early in his career. Firpo knocked him down early twice. Carpentier wobbled him early. Tunney, a light hitter at heavyweight, knocked him down. Sorry, but it was not an isolated incident.

Dempsey's chin looks solid for sure, but i think the Flynn KO was real. Notice that the "fix" talk only started years after the fight.
Cox quotes eyewitness report that were taken over 4 years after the fight, which described exactly what happened, what punch landed, etc. That's bull****. No one can remember those exact details of an (at the time) insignificant fight with 4 years between them and no slow-motion replay, photo's or any film at all.


The argument of "Dempsey couldn't have been KO'd by an old lightheavy because he took far better heavyweights without being stopped is hogwash, too. What if the referee stopped Ali after being knocked down by Cooper and the fight wasn't on film, would Cooper's knockdown have been impossible then too? What if Jack Johnson got knocked out in 3 rounds by a middleweight?

I suppose the difference between Dempsey's "fix" and Johnson's KO loss to Choynski is that Johnson wasn't white and a national hero.



I will add that Dempsey's durability, while seeming excellent upon first view, is pretty untested for an all time great heavyweight. Of the biggest punchers he faced, Willard, Firpo and Fulton, only Firpo landed on him and knocked him down twice in a 2-round fight. Most of his other opponents weren't that big hitters and often barely scaled over 180 pounds.

 

Immediately after the fight, it wasn't quite called a fix. I don't know why the IBRO author doesn't follow up the coverage by Colorado's The Pueblo Chieftain, which he quotes for a short next-day report, but the following day (Feb. 15) it printed the following (on page 8):

START MOVEMENT ABOLISH BOXING
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SALT LAKE FANS CLAIM THAT FLYNN-DEMPSEY GO WAS FIASCO
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Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb. 14.--Following the defeat in one round of Jack Dempsey by Jim Flynn at Murray last night, and the condemning of the whole affair as the worst prize fight fiasco in the history of the state, a movement was on foot today to persuade the legislature, which is now in session to bar all professional boxing matches.


Surprisingly, The Salt Lake Telegram didn't say a word about such thing (at least, by looking at several days after the fight). As for fight details, it also mentions a one-punch KO, about 25 seconds into the fight, same as the Salt Lake Tribune report which is quoted by the IBRO author. But it differs in that it was left hand to put the block down and a right hand hook to the chin, The Tribune gives it the opposite, right hand followed by left hook to the chin.

 

Tua is not in Dempsey's league. That much is obvious.

 

Even if the fight was on the level which is uncertain at best.

Your observation would be like saying:

"Dempsey knocks Tua out in one round just like Felix Savon did".

Only worse.

This fight is totaly irrelevant fight to a prime for prime matchup. So lets get down to the meat of the matchup which will be verry bad for Tua.

 

Where there is betting there is always going to be some bull**** going on somewhere.

 

Dempsey By Ko In 1 Or 2 Tua Would Be Overwelmed By This Smaller Raging Pittbull

 

Tua KO4 for me. Tua showed some great stamina and workrate vs The President and i don't see him gassing here.

 

I think ther would be some rough early moments for Jack but Tua did get KO'd in 1 rd by Savon and Jack was stopped also...I like Dempsey speed and workrate and quality for a win

 

The betting in Salt Lake City, with only 400 spectators, won't bring enough money to pay for a fix. This is not NY, Chicago of Philadelphia where you could have hundreds of bettors paying thousands of dollars for their favorite.

 

I like Dempsey unanimous decision here. Dempsey would outslug, outfight tua at every angle. Maybe not outwork tua like marciano would, but dempsey would make tua miss alot with his amazing footwork and incredible head movement allowing dempsey to land the more effective punches If dempsey fights smart and doesnt wrecklessy come in like he did vs firpo, dempsey wins.

 

You've never seen Tua before have you?

There is no way in hell Dempsey stops Tua IMO, his chin is fantastic.
It could go one of two ways:

Dempsey realises he can't stop Tua and outboxes him for a 12 round decision, or he slugs with Tua and gets stopped.

 

Dont you get it?

If you know what round your man is going down in you dont need to draw a large crowd to turn a quick buck. All you need is a bookmaker that will offer reasonable odds.

That is the main reson for doing it.

 

Tua matches Dempsey in power, and durability.

In virtualy every other aspect of the game we are comparing greatness to mediocrity.

It must be noted however that traincrashes between two come forward fighters are one of the few scenarios where a punchers chance really counts for something.

 

c'mon let's be real.

Tua: granite chin, dangerous left hook, hard puncher

Dempsey: was usually 170-180 which now is considered light heavy or cruiserweight, he had good power and good speed, but his chin against flynn left me wondering.

ima have to go for tua, not the tua after the ruiz fight, but young skinny tua in the early 90's , he was wayyyy faster.

 

Bookmaker doesn't offer his own money, he's taking bets from other people. Dempsey was little known at the time, Flynn was still considered dangerous enough, I'd guess the betting was about even, no big odds in favor of either. Besides $500 for Dempsey himself, you have to get about the same or larger sum for the other participants of the "deal", or there's no point for them to be involved into this.