Evander Holyfield vs Jack Dempsey

Talent.

 

When hasn't he? At least, P4P wise.

 

Who exactly did Dempsey beat? I'm trying to remember. Jess Willard, the rodeo hand? He low blowed Sharkey and Gibbons into submission. He beat some exotic nobody named Firpo. And a bunch of guys Greb already beat? I dunno. I'm taking the athlete here.

 

I like and respect the legendary Dempsey a lot more than Holyfield, but being honest Holyfield will most likely win due to superior skills and PEDs.

 

Because he never fought a black fighter?

 

Johnson did sign to defend against McVey,Langford, and Jeannette,having beaten them before his pre championship days.
He defended against Battling Jim Johnson,and during his career fought black fighters over 40 times.
Hart fought 1 black fighter,Johnson.
Willard fought one ,Johnson.
Corbett fought 1, Jackson.
Sullivan fought none.
McCarty fought none.
Tunney fought none.
Loughran fought none.
T Sharkey fought 1, I believe.
Dempsey fought 2.

 

I've no idea who wins but I wanna be there!

 

My answer is the same as the Holy vs Frazier threads.
Once Holy is tagged hard he starts brawling and forgets about boxing Dempsey and that's his undoing. Dempsey out fights him for a TKO win.

 

You're surprised? I just argued with someone who told me Tua was more skilled than Joe Louis.

 

You have seriously misunderstood Tunney if you think he only had a reverse gear and threw weak punches.
Tunney was backing away for the majority of the fight(s) against Jack because he was intelligent enough to know not to mix it up with people stronger than him (something that Holyfield would have been wise to do) but mainly because Jack was pushing forward so Gene could counter while backtracking. However, when Jack was halted, stationary, or moving backwards, Gene would immediately shift and push on and seek to land combinations.
The 4th round of their second fight is a prime example (at 11:14):

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Right and once he became champion he drew the color line like the rest except for the exhibition against
Battling Jim Johnson. Dempsey wanted to fight Wills, the management was not having it.

 

This list has me wondering how long some of the other champions in history may have reigned if they were able to draw the color line and avoid any black contenders. How about Ali? Cooney wasn't a champion, but how long would he have gone undefeated? How about Tyson? It's questionable that the ones on the list above who completely avoided certain fighters belong on any ATG list at all...

 

How many quality black fighters did Dempsey have to face?
The answer is one. He failed to face his best contender for a time period which he should be righteously lambasted for.
He is not the only champ put in the top 10 that failed to meet a top contender.

 

Ali would have went undefeated.

 

Yes, exactly. My post wasn't directed at Dempsey specifically though (Sullivan would be a better example). There are others on McVey's post above who are better examples, who drew the color line 100% of the time. Not sure what their reasoning was back then for doing that, but it stains the legacy a IMO. Wish Dempsey-Wills happened, just to put the issue to rest, but it didn't.