Is Dempsey/Willard the Most Overrated Victory Ever?

When i said that he's overrated i meant his H2H capabilities against much bigger heavyweights in our time. These comparisons are often made here in classical forum.

If i made a thread here about hypothetical fight between Jack Dempsey and Lennox Lewis then you can bet that many posters here would pick 50 pounds heavier Lewis to lose to Dempsey. That's absurd and that's why he's overrated. As great fighter as Dempsey is he isn't that great.

Overrated doesn't necessarily mean that he's ****.

But like you said he's a historical figure and i'm just an unknown poster in boxing site.

 

it is not really overrated. the heavyweight championship had never before changed hands in such a brutal and devastating and one-sided and spectacular manner, and has rarely done so since.
you can probably count the number of comparable HW title-winning performances on one hand even now

 

C, true what you say. I believe some posters have such an aversion to Jack Dempsey, that their minds are closed to what transpired July 4,1919...
Jess Willard at about 6ft6' and weighing about 260 pounds was considered a powerful giant who once killed a man in the ring named Bull Young,
out toughed and kod the great albeit 37 year old Jack Johnson, after 26 rounds in the blazing afternoon sun in Havana in 1919, after soaking up whatever Jack Johnson dished out for 25 rounds. Furthermore this giant
Willard was never on the floor in his life.
Along comes a young 187 pound Westerner from Colorado, and outweighed by about SEVENTY pounds, proceeds to drop the Pottowatamie Giant in the first round with ONE left-hook. The shocked Willard got up and was then dropped 6 more times,absorbing by all accounts the worst beating any heavyweight ever took. In any other fight Dempsey would have won on a tko after 3 knockdowns. The crowd of 100,000 was stunned by the power and savergry of this 187 pound former hobo, alongst with hardened boxing writers and fighters of those much crueler times, and yet some of today's gurus, remark, "big deal". The great Joe Louis needed 13 rounds to tko
the large punching bag Abe Simon, and yet no one criticizes Joe Louis for
hitting big Abe with every punch in the book for thirteen rounds, before the ref stopped the bout. Ali, who hit Oscar Bonavena and George Chuvalo with everything for 12 and 15 rounds is never criticized for not koing them. So why does Dempsey, who did the job in 1 round against a Big Jess Willard, not a great fighter, but a giant with an iron jaw, not given credit for what he did to a man 70 pounds heavier than him who was never on the canvas before ? Why was the 100,000 or so fans stunned by this savage Dempsey,
whilst today's naysayers 90 years later are not impressed ?
.Would they be impressed today if a 187 pound heavyweight ,crucified Klitschko in one round ? You bet your darn life they would. Unless his second name was Dempsey....Cheers C. Happy New Year....

 

dont worry the point of the thread is clear enough.
my answer is, no, its not really overrated victory. its rated highly because its proven to be a rare occurence to see a heavyweight title ripped from the champion in such vicious fashion.

happy new year

 

I get the point and yes his win is overrated. I was never impressed with it. Dempsey also nearly wore himself out in the first round and if Willard had more guts he could've won if he had pressed on after first and second round.

Many modern heavyweights would take Willard out in first round.

 

The bottom line is that if there are parameters to a performence that nobody has ever matched, then it has to be rated verry highly indeed.

In this case there are two or perhaps three parameters that set this win in a small group, or a class by itself.

 

Probably not if Klitschko had already been beaten several times in his prime by other journeymen who also weighed 180lbs

Like what exactly? If achieving a much more dominant win than others have managed over an average fighter, then it has been matched 10,000s of times

 

Lets start with the obvious.

How many fighters have achieved a dominant win over a reigning lineal champion, who they did not have a size advantage over, let alone one that they were giving up 60lbs to?

 

Firstly let's not forget a Prime Willard v the 180lb bums who beat him, Dempsey beat a 37yo inactive Willard, a lesser Willard than those bums beat

Define 'dominant win of lineal champion', most of the wins over lineal champions are pretty dominant

Win's over much bigger top HWs? Well I thought size didn't count over 180lbs at HW, according to fans favouring smaller men, you can't have it both ways, but there are countless wins of small men over bigger men at HW

 

Ridiculous.

You don't even have to beat anybody world class to get into the top 10 today.

Getting Willard into the top 10 would probably bea easier today than it when the rankings were first introduced.