Interesting article on Dempsey's next opponent post Toledo

I love Dempsey as a historical figure and as the older gent and rep he became for the sport but it is hard for me to find another fighter as untested , who simply did not fight the other great fighter of his era and who has endured the test of time so that most simply forget how protected he was as champion ... it is one of boxing's all time fabrications ... I am reading the excellent Beyond Glory right now and it routinely mentions how the black newspapers of that era laughed Dempsey off as a phony palooka who ducked the best black fighters of that era ... I'm not saying Dempsey did not have the goods but I will forever say I really don't know if he was an all time great or an extremely well promoted Arturo Gatti of his day ...

 

Jack Johnson's reign was just as long as Dempsey's, and I believe his opposition was just as hand-picked or as weak or undeserving. Maybe worse.

 

he, hya. I know I'm in the minority on ESB when the subject {pardon the name] Jack Dempsey is bandied about. Maybe as a youngster ,my dad and other boxing men of Dempsey's and Louis's era, instilled in me the HIGH regard the prime Dempsey had as a FIGHTER,and today many decades later
I fervently believe that these people were closer to the truth than any of today's naysayers. I am talking about his unique qualities ,rare for a heavyweight, that made him the winner in a poll taken in the 1950s.
Yes, he signed but never hooked up with Harry Wills for reasons I will not regurgitate now. Yes he did not fight my HERO Harry Greb, for understandable reasons by his braintrust...Yes he defended his title about 5 times before he went Hollywood, fornicated with the flappers of silent screen. All this I know, but Dempsey was at that time not thinking of pleasing some ESB posters,eighty years later. He was pleasing himself then, and who can blame him ? I can't.
Did Dempsey have the greatest title reign ? NAY. Was he the only great fighter that did not tackle ALL the best of his era ? No sir. Was he a Harry Greb,fighting everyone, everywhere. No. But Greb had to fight so often as
his much smaller profits after his bouts,made it necessary to fight so often.
The name of the game is money, and Dempsey after the Willard slaughter was rolling in it. Hence, La Dolce Vita.
I go along with the likes of a Sam Langford, Gene Tunney, Mickey Walker,
Jack Sharkey, Max Schmeling, Damon Runyon, Bob Edgren, Ray Arcel, each who saw him ringside and proclaimed Dempsey as the best HW, they ever saw as a FIGHTER...They may very well be right...Cheers :hi:

 

As opposed to what we have NOW?

 

What's your point ?
That Bowe, VK, WK, Holyfield, Tyson and Lewis wouldn't lose a 4-rounder to Meehan ? Yeah, ok, but so what.
It's possible (likely) that they could lose 4-rounders to certain, otherwise unremarkable, smaller men than them, who although outgunned happen to have an awkward style for them.
Fighters they would almost certainly beat in a 10-round fight.

Is it a bad mark on Dempsey's record ? YES.
But it doesn't really deserve to be his defining fight ... or does it ?

 

On this we agree.

 

Questionable as I'd put Flynn, Burns and Moran with anone Dempsey defended against ... however my point is pre title competition it is no comparison ... Johnson fought much better men far more often ...