Dempsey's take on the non-fight with Wills

"what book was written"

I think it is the internet. Information, such as records on boxrec, newspaper reports, etc, are far more available than decades ago. Wills is far less the shadowy figure he used to be. His record is out there for everyone to see.

The other main factor is that racial attitudes have changed in the last decades. I don't remember much discussion of the color line when I was a kid back in the fifties. Now it comes up all the time.

 

Isn't there an element of:

'"There was a color bar. They wouldn't let you fight no place. Rickard wanted to make the fight, but there was no place you could put it on' = 'If you wanna face the best, take the test'??

 

It seemes that Dempsey/Wills never happened due to outside presure than toa lack of desire on Dempesy's part.
I never buy the "there was no money in it" argument when it involvs the two best in a division.
Are you really going to argue that no one will pay to see the two best guys fight?

 

Wills himself exonerated Dempsey, saying "It wasn't Jack's fault." Further details of what Harry had to say about this issue would be helpful. For whatever it's worth, Wills and Dempsey, both successful businessmen in NYC during retirement, seemed to remain on friendly terms until Harry died in of complications from diabetes in 1958.

The famous photographs of Jack signing a contact with Wills on the other side of the table is compelling evidence. Harry seemed to know a bigger force than Dempsey was the obstruction to a title showdown.

 

Well, the fact is that Dempsey was the highest paid athlete of 1925, without even defending the title. Life was good, then Wills got paid $50,000 for not getting an opportunity to step in the ring with Jack. Both wound up a lot better off than Langford.

Hell, I'd sure accept $50,000 for not fighting Dempsey! (Can anybody calculate how much $50,000 in 1925 currency would be equivalent to in 2012 American dollars?) Harry got a nice payoff (which he managed smartly), and enhanced his historical stature in the process.

 

While larger forces than Dempsey didn't want the fight, I am not so sure how much of it really was because of specific or national "racism." The color line, even in the 20s was scoffed at by most of the boxing public and the press in all but one region of the U.S. There was a bigger motivation here and it is one that champions Floyd and Manny are familiar with; that is -keeping the title by fighting as many minimal risks as one can get away with.

Dempsey was quiet about it because he, like the vast majority of fighters then and now, conceded negotiations and business outside of the ring to managers and promoters.

Whose to say that those "photographs" of him and Wills signing the contract weren't bluffs? It came out after Dempsey was getting criticized for ducking Wills. Recall that Dempsey also got criticized for being a slacker during WW I. And suddenly, a photograph appeared of him holding a rivetting gun in a Philly shipyard. The problem was, he was wearing patent leather shoes. So much for that.

Finally, long after he retired, he composed a list of things that he would do differently regarding his pro career... one of them said point-blank that he wouldn't "draw the color line."

 

Yeah, he screwed himself with that photo of the leather shoes. Not sure if he avoided Wills though it's possible. Just feel there were other factors that kept the fight from happening but who knows? Will do minimal research on it.

 

Burt gon' verbally scissor kick you mother ****ers in the dome when he sees this

 

Why do you have to insult me PP ? I am old enough to be your father,and when I was your age, I would have taken you to the woodshed and given you a well deserved spanking...I try to be civil with you, but to no avail...You are so BRAVE to pick on a senior citizen 3000 miles away... ESB
is so proud of you...

 

That´s not nice PP....I disagree with Burt sometimes, but there is no need to do that with him in every Dempsey thread.....