Please no one take this in a personel attack to dempsey. just answer with constructive arguements. Im simply asking a question, dont get carried away with it. my question is you take a look at the big heavyweights that dempsey fought........Jess Willard, Fred Fulton, Luis Angel Firpo, Carl Morris all have very soft bodies. Willard and Firpo look like they been doing nothing but eating southern grease for the past 20 years. Fulton is wiry but barely packs any muscle and looks more like an uncoordinated tall twig than anything. wheres his muscle? i look at the big men guys like liston big opponents and all of them are ripped to shreds. I understand body defintion have nothing to do with how good you are as a fighter, but **** if your a world class athlete you better not have a body that looks like it was made out of pancake batter. I mean I am only collegiate Athlete at D2 level, but almost all top athletes have some what defined bodys that you get from the strength/conditioning of your sport and the correct eating habits you display. I mean 90% of world class athletes have to have some what definded bodies(especially boxers where it requires the highest possible physical fitness) so are these guys just exceptions? It seems like most of the big men of that time have similiar bodies(outside of harry wills and godfrey who coinsidently were two of the best big men of that time and would have slaughtered those big white softies of the teens).
Fat can actualy be a benefit in terms of absorbing punishment to the body provided you have developed abdominals as well. About the only advantage it dose offer in fact. Fulton was lean and wirey and Dempsey totaly wrecked him with a body shot. I think Willard and Firpo were tougher punch bags though.
by no way am i calling willard fipro and fulton bums who couldnt have fought in other eras(in fact far from what i believe) i was just interested in what people had to say about this context. thanx for your opinion janitor. why is it that wills and godrey were ripped to shreds? did they train in a different manner than willard, fulton, morris or was it genetics?
I think that Willard was in prety good shape for the Johnson fight but lost his resolve after that. Genetics was undoubtedly a factor. Some people just cant get ripped. I think willards main problem in the Dempsey fight was his long periodd of inactivity.
Fat has little to do with power. Foreman was fat. So was Briggs and Super Greg Page. All three guys could hit a ton.
Godfrey was a natural heavyweight, but he was fat in some fights. Wills as far as I know was often in reasonable shape. Its not all genetics. Its part diet, and part exercise.
Gerry Cooney, Corrie Sanders, Tim Witherspoon and Tony Galento were all hard hitters who had less-than-chiselled appearance. It really has NOTHING to do with punching power. Some guys just dont look at all AMAZING when they are in shape. Others are just simply OUT OF SHAPE but they can still HIT. Guys that look like greek gods SHOULD be able to hit hard, but that doesn't mean the guy that looks like a truck driver however hard he trains wont be hitting even harder ! Another "not trying to discredit Dempsey, BUT ..." thread !
Frank bruno would be a fine example of a beautifully built man who was not that great,i mean he got battered in the end by a fattish guy like witherspoon did he not,having huge muscles and being able to bench press a house dont mean much when you get hit now does it
This is how I see it as well. I will give concessions when posters make clear and concise points when they try to discredit someone. Questioning the punching power of Dempseys opposition by concluding not all of the fighters he faced had a low body fat percentage / clearly defined muscles is dismissible.
This may be a small point, but also take into account the recording and picture technology of their day. It's not doing them any credit by far. I think people back then just in general had alot more "working" muscle than the weight room produced people of today. Not saying one is better than the other just merely pointing it out.