Does Harry Wills have a case to be ranked higher than Jack Dempsey?

This is the reasonable way to approach any patently biased reports from either end of the spectrum.

 

All I did was post the report they aren't my words ! I just pointed out that the crowd didnt think much of it as a rebuttal to Seamus saying ,[perhaps sarcastically,] that it was a great fight.If you want to put the fight in context Norfolk was 5 8" Wills 6'2"with about 30lbs between them.

 

You keep throwing around Norfolk's win over a sick man that probably should have been hospitalized as if it means something. He couldn't even knock Miske out. Let's settle this and do a comparison of how these so called fighters that Dempsey ducked did against Dempsey's title opposition.

Sick Miske - Greb? Only could manage a decision despite beating on Miske for 10 rounds. Norfolk? Took a decision in a close fight, couldn't even knock Miske out. Dempsey? Annihilated him. Early.

Bill Brennan - Greb? Took 4 decisions. Greb couldn't even win the majority of rounds in their 3rd fight. Dempsey? Slaughtered him in the 12th round. The first fight Dempsey knocked Brennan down for the first time in his career...then 5 more times. Greb fought a ruined version of Brennan.

Carpentier - Jeannette? Was given a gift decision by the referee that the ringside reporters disputed. Dempsey? Annihilated Carpentier in the 4th round once he was given the OK.

Gibbons - Greb? "took of the licking of his life" at the hands of Gibbons. Greb only won one round in their first fight. It wasn't until he finally caught a break against Gibbons in an electrical storm that he was able to win a newspaper decision which was influenced by the description of one man's opinion from the 6th round on. The last fight Greb fought a stale version. Gibbons got the better of Greb in their 4 fights. Dempsey? Won every round off of Gibbons who fought on the defensive and tried to avoid the fighting the entire night.

Firpo - Wills? Went the entire 12 rounds against a guy that gave no shits about the finer aspects of boxing. Dempsey? Beat the **** out of Firpo and put him down for the full count in two.

These guys don't hold a candle to Dempsey's work.

 

He had some good results it cannot be denied.Norfolk was simply outmanned by Harry imo, he was too big and powerful for a guy who was essentially just a lightheavy .

 

The 20's was robbed of it's premiere heavyweight super fight. Dempsey has an asterisk next to his name and record. No one knows who would have won in say 1919 or 1920 but the fault lies on Team Dempsey. For this and inactivity and the fact that he essentially began to dissipate as a fighter July 5th, 1919 , Dempsey is an underachiever for me .. a great icon but a bit of an unknown.

 

Wills never came close to losing, and he never came close to stopping Firpo he just contented himself with winning a points scoring maul.
Dempsey went in there to get Firpo out as quick as possible that's how he fought, he took risks.That's also why he was in million dollar gates and Wills was fighting for peanut butter sandwiches.
Still claiming a typewriter helped Dempsey back in the ring? Must have been some machine!
For your information Dempsey tore his rectum open when he landed on that table and badly bruised his spine on that old Corona .He wasn't illegally helped back in the ring, the reporters where trying to get a snarling
wounded beast off of them,a192pound fury who was kicking and clawing away in an effort to get himself back in the action.It was sheer self preservation.

He kicked judge Kid McPartland in the eye!
The difference is when Dempsey went down he got up in a rage and tore straight back in.Wills was sometimes criticized for lacking that same appetite for the fire when things got hot,some ringsiders thought his ko by Uzcudun was a bit tame. The quality of the Paulino film doesnt allow any real criticism of a surrender imo.

Check the weights of Firpo for the two fights.

 

What did both weigh in those fights?