Jack Dempsey is officially 1-2 after his comeback in 1926, but it was against quality opposition in Tunney and Sharkey. How highly do you rate Dempsey in those years?
Hard to gauge , he was coming off a long layoff. Tunney had a bad style for him no matter when they fought, but most agree a younger Dempsey still would have had more for him
I suspect he was the 2nd best fighter of this era, but the time where he could take Tunney was a good 6-7 years prior.
He was a couple years past his "use by" date. Nearly 3 years of movies, parties, vaudeville shows and exhibitions against Charlie Chaplins of the world used him up.
He was obviously rusty and past his best. The long periods of inactivity during his reign and the Hollywood lifestyle had made their inroads. Evaluating his skills for this time period is also complicated by the fact that the three fights he had in '26 and '27 were against his arguably greatest opponents who were at their respective peaks. It was observed in the first Tunney fight that his legs were gone. Dempsey did appear in better form in the Tunney rematch, but unfortunately for him, so did Tunney. Against Sharkey, controversial ending notwithstanding, he showed that he could take a beating and turn things around with one explosive shot. So in my opinion, in the period in question Dempsey was the second best heavyweight in the world. It has been said that after Tunney retired Dempsey probably could have won the title again. That he chose to not pursue that path would indicate that he no longer had the motivation, although he did embark on a lengthy exhibition tour in the early 30s to test the waters and maybe land a title fight with Max Schmeling. In 1927 Dempsey was 32 and still young enough to have something still in the tank. Perhaps if he had been more active during the latter part of his reign he would have been sharper, but even then Tunney would have had his number.
