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

Thomas Hauser mentions me and the Dempsey book:

https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-b...mBrAM393KLFGzmyPYKXWMoH_JIm9zynuQ5wTOcLCAB0HE

Adam Pollack is an Iowa attorney who has written biographies of the early gloved heavyweight champions from John L. Sullivan through Jack Johnson. Now he has chosen to skip Jess Willard and go straight to Jack Dempsey with Part One of a projected two-volume work published by Win by KO Publications.

Jack Dempsey: The Making of a Champion follows the familiar Pollack formula of relying heavily on contemporaneous newspaper accounts and other primary sources. It’s 559 pages long and chronicles Dempsey’s life through his 1919 conquest of Jess Willard to claim the heavyweight throne. In terms of content, it’s the most detailed of the Dempsey biographies to date.

Today’s interconnected digital world enables research to be conducted more thoroughly and more quickly than ever before. That’s particularly important for Pollack who relies heavily on documents that are a century old in reconstructing the lives of his subjects. He also benefits from a community of boxing historians and fans who forward information to him.

“Writing these books is a passion for me,” Adam says. “I spend some time on them every day. Right now, I’m having a lot of fun working on Part Two of Dempsey. Once he became champion, things really took off – for Dempsey and for boxing. There’s Dempsey-Firpo, Dempsey-Carpentier, the Dempsey-Tunney fights. But my real job is as a criminal defense attorney. That’s how I pay the bills.”

That leaves open the question of whether Pollack will ever go back and forge the missing link in his chain of books by writing a biography of Willard.

“I can’t say never,” Pollack answers. “But at this point, I don’t see myself doing Willard. These books take an enormous amount of time and effort, and I have to balance that against my personal interest in the fighter. Willard had two fights of historic importance – when he beat Jack Johnson and when he lost to Dempsey. I’ve written about these fights in depth in my Johnson and Dempsey books. And Arly Allen did a pretty good job in his biography of Willard. Maybe someday I’ll change my mind. But right now, I’m at peace with not writing a Willard book.”

 

https://beatsboxingmayhem.com/2020/...minal-new-book-on-the-legendary-jack-dempsey/

 

Most likely sometime in 2022.

 

It is more than likely that the referee, fans, or opposing cornermen would have noticed hardened wraps or a bolt at some point before, during, or after the fight. The wraps were exposed for all to see, touch, and examine before the fight, right there in the ring. Willard shook his wrapped hand. The gloves were put on in the ring, with their seconds observing and having the ability to make an inspection. Willard also shook Dempsey’s gloved hand. On the films, one can see Dempsey’s opened hands at times, particularly when he tries to use a set up for a follow-up punch, and nothing is in his gloves – no bolt. A bolt would have been noted by the referee or reporters, or seconds, at the time. Hardened wraps would have been noticed after the bout as well, for they would be difficult to remove. A photographer who purportedly photographed a bolt would have noticed or made mention of it at the time. Old photos have tons of splotches and marks on them, or one could have been added in. Some spot on some still from decades before proves nothing. Boxing people love to speculate. Many do it for financial reasons, including to garner momentum for a rematch, or sell papers. Some simply could not understand how a 190-pound guy could pulverize a 245-pound man, but the fact is that Dempsey specialized in pulverizing his opponents quickly, regardless of size.