Where he beat up a handful of punks on some street when he was 70 something years old? I think they tried purse snatching some woman. He wrecked shop and then stood over one or all of them until the police arrived. I can imagine the crotchety old ******* that was Dempsey doing it too.
Suposedly he droped them both and they just didn't fancy it at all. Cool. I hope to Christ it's true, i've pretty much decided to believe it.
'The last thing you lose is the punch'... I believe it, most muggers would be put off by a couple of decent rights and go and find easier pickings.
Dempsey wasn't exactly a small guy either. He could carry quite a bit more than 200 pounds on his frame and look quite good.
One of my favorite Dempsey stories is the time he stopped by Tony Galento’s training camp to wish him good luck and the always obnoxious Galento begin mouthing off to the old champ. Next thing you no Jack is in the ring with the gloves on and two ton Tony is knocked out cold!
I can believe this. My old trainer, at seventy years old, had fists with a comparable density to volcanic rock and could punch with surprising vigor. He was a 5ft 7in former welterweight who probably weighed around 170lbs in his old age. Dempsey, at a probable 200lbs, would likely deck two desperate youths.
Dempsey wrote about this in his autobiography. He was dressed up and sitting in the back of a cab when these two young punks tried to take him on. The driver froze, but Jack took each of them out. He mentioned that if these wayward kids had gotten involved in a recreational activity like boxing, they wouldn't have been so inclined to get themselves in that kind of trouble.
Reputedly a (finally) retired Archie Moore KO'd a punk who was giving him and his fellow tourists some crap - I think it was in an African nation. Archie would have been in his 50s, at least, by that time. Moore wrote or talked about it years ago for an article or biography. It didn't sound like he was boasting - more like he found it amusing.
Dont you beleive it. Eddie Futch iced an abusive skin head with a single punch when he was in his 80s.
