Dempsey VS Sharkey appreciation thread

So no controversy in the end result?

 

We all know the end result. I’m fleshing out the rest of the bout it is an appreciation thread.
The end result was Dempsey won by KO. The controversy was Dempsey landed a blow, viewers can’t see on film, that may have strayed low, Sharkey turned his head toward the red to complain and got caught was left to the jaw and got stopped.
The end of the fight covered ad naseum doesn’t change my feelings on what preceded it. A very game Dempsey was competitive and improving while past prime against a very good and very motivated Sharkey.

 

The rest of your post is fair but we disagree here. I hardly call a 5 rounds to 1 59-55 scorecard in sharkey a favor competitive. You say improving, but after winning round 5, Dempsey was hurt again by a sharkey combination in round 6 and outboxed that round...so the tide never really turned for jack until he went low

 

I agree to disagree. I’ll watch the fight again when I can but even if the rounds were 5-1 in Sharkey’s favor as you see it, I found the rounds to be close and competitive not blow out rounds. The first one or two aside of course. Someone can lose rounds on a scorecard and still be in a competitive match up. I think this fight is close and exciting. I will def watch it again

 

There is no doubt that Wills was Dempsey's top/most deserving contender from July 1920 through October 1926. Which is slightly above 6 years.

Wills was the leading contender at least as early as his victory over Fred Fulton in 1920 and he got that fight with Fred Fulton because he was already considered a top contender.

Writers were claiming Wills as the best contender as soon as 1919, if not before.

If nothing else, I would like to see the reasoning that puts Wills behind Brennan, Miske, Gibbons, Firpo and Carpentier.

 

Greb beat Brennan, Gibbons, and Miske just to name a few off the top of my head. That's over half of Dempsey's successful defenses.

 

Meaning Wills always fought at heavyweight and pops into the mind of everyone as a heavyweight. Greb was a middleweight who occasionally fought heavyweights.

 

Isn't this a good reason to ask why Dempsey didn't defend against Greb, especially after Greb defeated Gibbons in an elimination?

 

Dempsey has been dead for 40 years. I wish he fought Greb.

 

I have Sharkey well ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage.

But Dempsey was breaking him down, and low blow or not, Dempsey's body attack had produced a change in Sharkey's body language, not unlike Kovalev in the mid rounds of his rematch with Ward. To me, this performance by a past prime Dempsey is to hard core boxing fans an important gauge of his ability after a string of post Willard cherry picked opponents.