Dempsey vs Wills article

Like the elephant in the room someone denies is there, the fact
remains though some posters to bolster their argument of Dempsey completely avoiding Harry Wills are these...
Jack Dempsey and Harry Wills DID sign for a bout with a Michigan promoter that was LATER cancelled because Fitzsimmons could not get financial backers to come up with the contracted dough...This is a FACT and it was NOT Dempsey's fault that the bout was terminated...Even Harry Wills exonerated Dempsey...But his naysayers today conveniently BURY this fact.
2- I have over many decades read about the terrible race riots that occurred the day after the Jeffries/Johnson HWT title fight in Reno....Many riots occurred and many folks were injured and many died as a result...
From that terrible time after, promoters and State Boxing commissions avoided interracial heavyweight title bouts across the nation...And because of this a decent man like Harry Wills
NEVER got a title shot because of those riots...Dempsey HAD nothing to do with this event that happened in Reno...Even Harry Wills admitted this. It is so easy for today's critics to conveniently overlook these facts and make a decent chap Jack Dempsey the sole scapegoat and scoundrel because of events a decade earlier.
What gets me sad is they finally DID sign for a bout, with a Michigan boxing promoter because Tex Rickard would not
arrange a mixed bout Title fight and William Muldoon from the NY State boxing commission wouldn't sanction it....
But eventually they, Dempsey and Wills, did sign for a bout and through no fault of the willing Dempsey it was cancelled...
Even Harry Wills didn't blame Dempsey, and no fair minded
boxing fan should now 90 years afterward...
I'll say this one more time, all of us are products of our times,
and so were the boxers of the early 1900's...

 

Jeffries embarked on a series of exhibitions staged over 4 rounds emulating Sullivan.There was a bonus of $100 to any fighter that could stay the 4 rounds with him .In the sense that an unofficial decision was announced,[whether the opponent had successfully negotiated the 4 rounds,] they were fights but they were billed as, and essentially were exhibitions.

NB The referee of the Jeffries v Munroe four rounder Duncan McDonald rendered a decision after the bout was over, he gave it to Munroe.Munroe received $250 for lasting the 4 rounds instead of the $100 he had been promised for just having a go.

 

The reason HW fighters Dempsey's era and before fought less as titleholders
then after, was because of money they made not having to risk their titles..
Before TV,and Radio,Movies with sound to see a HW champ was a treat to people .Many who probably never saw a fight cause laws restricting boxing or static from their community by being seen at a prizefight...Hell Boxing was illegal in NY
for many years that bouts were "Exhibitions...Well guess what ??
the Depression killed vaudeville People had movies and now boxers couldn't tap that source
of income ,that could make them thousands ..It was gone!
Joe louis couldn't make 1000's a week as the HW champ appearing as a
"See the Great Joe Louis Live in Person" anywhere without fighting cause that opportunity wasn't around
if it was you can bet his Manager's would have him doing that instead of fighting so often that it was erroneously called Bums of the Month Club cause they were not all bums
But it didn't allow anyone of them to develop the skills to be a better challenge cause he was knocking them out before they could develop better.
Using rapid fire punching ..both guns blazing, straight punching action
pedal to the medal, bazookas in both hands "God he was something

 

Well jeffries may called it an exhiition someone paying to watch it may have bought their ticket cause they heard it was going to be a 4 round fight

 

The term "exhibition" does not necessarily preclude the match from being a "real fight".
Especially in the days of Jeffries and Dempsey where there were legal/moral sensibilities surrounding prize fights and boxing matches.

Exhibition might just mean non-title fight or no-decision fight, or simply a nice way around legislation against prize fights.

 

But their activity was more pre-title in those days Dempseys was 11.4 a year before he won title where as Ali was 4.7 fights a year

 

Yes thank you for correcting that mistake and educating me on the subject