Dempsey's greatness.

Tubbs - fat bum

 

Depends what you mean by "bum". If that word is going to be applied to any fighters, it's probably best directed at the guys who had the talent but were too lazy, lacked discipline and dedication.

 

Dempsey was voted by the writers of his era as the greatest of all time, right ?
Dempsey vs Firpo was voted by writers as the greatest fight of all time or something many years later (I´m sure I read that somewhere).
So, based on that......what can we say about Dempsey´s charisma alone ?

I do think that the old writers overrated him quite a lot though.

 

He had charisma, but more importantly exciting devastating knock outs and fans and writers always overrate exciting fighters.

He was also the champion, in the early days of mass sports where peoples shared experience of a sporting event was new and exciting. Not only did massive crowds watch the fights but they were also in the cinema. There was a massive exposure, which other fighters didn't get.

Many writers may not know about avoided fights or not pay it any attention just like casual fans don't.

Ultimately it boiled down to this calculation = exciting KOs + massive exposure + the authenticity of the world title

 

I've seen better technique from bums in a Philly alleyway.

 

Seamus.. You know dempsey was the greatest of all times!!!!!!!!!!

 

dempsey was also agreat ambassador for the sport. he was a polite gentleman in his resturant. when you asked for an autograph, he always personalized it by asking for your name and writing - to my friend, so and so, best of luck pal then his signature. as far as his greatness everybody knows the fans of ali, louis, langford etc know this is the guy who may have trounced all of them; and so they get very defensive about it, imo.

 

Well, yeah, you know, it´s tough to see Firpo´s punching technique, no doubt.....
People will say "he was crude, so what ? Plenty of fighters are crude as well" and that´s true......but everytime I watch that I just find it horrid.

 

I've seen better posts by Mendoza.
How damning is that?

 

Here the idol of millions ....

http://joejennette.com/JennetteVsDempsey.html

 

Here you go again he ! Digging up whatever dirt you can to diminish the
stature of Jack Dempsey as a great heavyweight...Dempsey was guided by his braintrusts and no fighter of any importance takes on a last second substitute ... I have not wanted to return to this thread again, but it is you who despite your admonitions that you "like" Jack Dempsey, your actions speak otherwise...
P.S. so damn easy to take potshots of a highly esteemed fighter from another age, another time...The ONLY logical Black contender of Dempsey's reign 1919-23, was Harry Wills, and as you conveniently forgotten they did sign for a bout, which the promoter had to forfeit the deposit...Sam Langford, Jack McVea, Joe Jeannette, worthy heavyweights at one time were pushing 40 years....Sir what do you hope to gain by repeatedly trying to put down the legacy of a decent man dead lo these many years ?

 

Burt, I honestly believe that even you believe Dempsey ever had any intention of fighting Wills ...

 

Just so wrong. There is lots of correspondence that shows Dempsey himself tried to make the fight happen. Dempsey was not a promoter or a manager and yet he himself was trying to find a promoter to make the bout. The powers that ran boxing were not going to allow the fight to happen. Also posting anything concerning the incident with Jeanette without explanation is such a malicious attempt to smear Dempsey as I have ever seen. This event was going to be one of Dempseys typical exhibitions...not meant to be a true fight against a another excellent fighter. This would be akin to Ali expecting an exhibition with Lyle Alzado only to find Ron Lyle in 6 oz gloves in the other corner. No champion would agree to something like this and certainly not his managers.

 

BB-

The problem is that no "digging up" is required. The fallacy of Dempsey's mastery of the heavies is dramatically proven by the most patently obvious evidence. It is quite apparent that the milling set of the day was over-influenced by the rapidly emergent, tho bought-and-sold, media of the day. A couple generations later, we are a bit more jaded and worldly when it comes to the veracity of the media, promoters and the like.

 

Seamus, you are trying to defend the indefensible by trying to use pseudo
intellectual jargon to obscure the shallowness of your reasoning...You try to say in plain damn words that the thousands upon thousands of boxing
experts of the 1920s and after who held Jack Dempsey in such high regard
as a great heavyweight including great fighters of his time, great trainers of his time, great hard nosed boxing writers of his time somehow KNEW LESS THAN YOU !. You and this generation are more "jaded" than my dad's
generation, or my generation that fought, died and whipped tyrants in
WW2, so you can spout nonsense...Seamus whether you like it or not
I believe the opinions of my dad's generation, a hell of a lot more than
I do of your belittling a man you never saw fight, casting aspersions on the opinions of a few as Sam Langford, Mickey Walker, Gene Tunney, Jack Sharkey, Max Schmeling, and a host of others who fought Dempsey, knew Dempsey or wrote about him....They were THERE !. You weren't. cheers.