In the Ring With Jack Dempsey - Part I: The Making of a Champion

Excellent question and I wondered about it myself ... there are a few very brief mentioning moments but not as much as you might think considering the insanity of that plague.

 

There seemed to be no lack of boxing cards in 1918 with Dempsey fighting more than once a month, even a couple of times a week, right through the period. However, the turn outs for such a sensational fighter was rather low given the huge crowds of the next decade. I have seen all the photos of soldiers marching with face masks..but none of any of boxing fans watching these fights.

 

Yes. Many fights were cancelled, clubs were closed, hours and lengths of fights were limited. Two of Greb’s fights were cancelled due to the Spanish Flu. After Greb fought Miske in 1918 he wasnt able to return to the ship he was stationed at while in the Navy because it was under quarantine due to an outbreak aboard.

 

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Well. players and spectators were wearing masks.

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Same thing happened after the Jim Savage-Battling Levinsky bout in the preliminary to the Willard-Moran fight. Both fighters left the ring immediately. No reason to stick around. "Business is done, let's go home."

 

Great images. Nice post.

 

But not at boxing events?

 

only two!
Under today’s restrictions I don’t think Greb would have fought more than two times a year.

 

Reading through this thread, for fairness I will relate what I think are the issues klompton2 raised as his disagreement with Adam. Here is what I think is the relevant quote from klompton2:

"Jack Dempsey couldn't defend his championship against Wills but he would have if he could and he would have won."

Klompton2 ascribed this position to Adam off a private phone call.

All sorts of very complex historical issues about race relations in the US will be touched on by exploring this controversy, and perhaps more importantly, a basic philosophic question--should public policy be held hostage by the threat of violence by extremists? The rise of Joe Louis, a scant decade later, did not apparently lead to any wide spread racial violence that I know of, and instead began the process of desegregating all sports.

This upcoming discussion will outline some very important issues which go far beyond Dempsey and Wills, or for that matter klompton2 or Adam as individuals. I personally think it about time someone presented fairly Wills' side of the controversy. I am happy klompton2 is doing it if he is.

As for the other controversies about the Flynn fight and Willard's condition, they are relatively trivial. To me klompton2 is correct in posting that he responded to the spin some others put on these controversies and the evidence Adam presented, rather than to Adam directly. It would have been wise though for klompton2 to purchase the book and read it first and so to thus be able to differentiate better between Adam and some of Adam's readers.

 

I differentiated between Adam and his readers perfectly by repeatedly telling Grant that my issue was with HIS statement and that if Adam's book made the same assertion he was making then the book was wrong too, but I never categorically ascribed that position to the book. I figured it was just another example of Grant taking something he read without considering all of the other context and making an ignorant statement as a result. Hence my example of his post on Johnson-Flynn which was the exact same situation. He read a minority report stating Flynn was doing better than he actually was and extrapolated that Flynn might have been on his way to winning when we have the complete fight on film and a vast majority of first hand accounts, all of which fly in the face of such an assertion.

 

Good information, but winning the title is cause for celebration, not let's run out of the ring. An make no mistake Dempsey wasn't walking out of it.

 

That has been explained ad nauseum in every book, article, film, etc by Kearns 1st rd bet and Kearns telling Dempsey to out of there to win the bet before Ollie found out the bell rang.

 

Lots of misinformation about Dempsey out there. Today, he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Will the book cover the here times Dempsey agreed by contract to fight Wills, only for the advance never to be delivered as per his conditions? How Wills and his people played him right out of his shot.

Will it also cover how Dempsey was cleared of any plaster of Paris accusations against Williard? The loaded gloves myth? Regardless, I just ordered my copy.

 

Talk about misinformation...

 

Pollacks Jeffries book is one of my alltime fav bios.