Dempsey, Liston, Holyfield, Frazier.

so who shot him before all those other fights against name fighters? he did not beat any of them.

 

Interesting points, still "best performing" in a given year is equal to "best heavyweight" in a year, surely?

What occured to stop the Wills fight happening?

Are you sure there was no demand for Greb? Less demand than for his title defenses against Miske, Brennan, Carpentier, Darcy, Gibbons & Firpo? Surely Dempsey-Greb would've drawn much bigger revenues than Dempsey-Darcy? Was 40-32-33 Darcy considered a good title defense at the time? :think

 

Nobody, he just failed against every better man he faced.

I don't rate the guy as highly as many other classic members do, by the way.

 

I dont think so. "best heavyweight" can often be a contender who is seen as the future of the division. "Best performing" can be a champion seen as keeping the seat warm.

I think that is well documented. you dont sighn to fight somebody if you are avoiding them. wills was number one contender to willard from about 1915 yet it is dempsey not big jessie who gets the beef for a fight not happening. wills could not have been as good in the dempsey era as he must have been in the willard era could he?

It could have happened if the people demanded it as much as the firpo or carpentier fights. personaly, rightly or wrongly, I think carpentier was a bigger fight and resulted in the feeling a smaller fighter had no chance against the champion. there just was not enough hype behind greb, maybe he suffered from over exposure fighting as often as he did? maybe fans would only buy into international mystery contenders from the other side of the world?

The darcy fight was a work out, recently bumped into dempseys title defences as a world title fight. It never used to be the case.

 

Brennan pretty much got dominated against every contender he faced, nevermind champions. If you've got eyes its pretty clear Williams is about 10levels above Brennan.

Williams had been shot and lost 70% of his intestines before facing but then again you already know that

No, no demand to face Greb, just loads of demand to see him face 2 fighters Greb dominated in Brennan and a dying Miske, the public found those match ups far more interesting

Why couldn't they have moved Wills-Dempsey to another state like Lewis did with Tyson?

 

"Jack Dempsey successfully defended his heavy weight championship last night for the first time since he won from georges carpentier at Jersey City, more than a year ago. Jimmy Darcy, a 'stable mate' of Dempsey’s was the opponent, and the champion received the decision after four rounds of boxing. Such is the information that reached here today from Buffalo, to find confirmation at the office of the New York Boxing Commission. Dempsey, originally carded to box an exhibition with three opponents at Buffalo last night, was confronted, just before entering the ring, with a telegram from the local office of the New York Boxing Commission, advising that he would be permitted to meet only one opponent, and that the bout must go to a decision. Jimmy Darcy, light heavy weight, who has been on tour with Dempsey for the last several days, was selected as the opponent. The champion took no chances on any adverse decision being given, the advices from Buffalo state, and boxed in a masterly fashion for the four rounds. At the conclusion the decision was his by a wide margin. At the office of the New York commission today, Secretary Harry burchell said: 'Of course the bout had to be a decision. We had to see that the law was upheld. We make no distinction between exhibitions and regulation contests, according to law.' So Darcy has the distinction of having lasted longer with the champion than Georges Carpentier, jess willard, ed gunboat smith or carl morris. Had Darcy landed a 'lucky' punch he would be the world’s heavy weight champion today." San Francisco Chronicle

 

Watch the Chuvalo and Bonavena fights and Johannson II.

 

I said that Dempsey's was deeper than Frazier's, not that he had the single best win.

I think Dempsey's demolition of the heavyweight division on his run to Willard was better than anything Liston did. Levinsky (KO3), Morris (KO1), Gunboat Smith (KO2), Fulton (KO1), Willard (KO3)...

 

Frazier
Holyfield
Dempsey
Liston

 

holyfield is by far the best out of the 4

 

because it was the 1920s.

 

That's up for debate with Wills and Greb in the picture

That is a serious stretch. Ali was champ in '67 and lineal until '71. Frazier was still a little green in '67 and hadn't any big wins at that stage. He didn't win the unification until '70 and the better fighters were probably on the WBA tournament