Is it feasible to rank Wills over Dempsey in an ATG list?

I think he's still confused as to what is being said.

 

Let's look at expert opinion

Ring Magazine July, 1946, Jack Johnson "A Champ Recalls"

""There is only one man who stands out today, Joe Louis, and in my humble opinion, not only could I have whipped Joe when I was at my best, but I'll name Sam Langford, Jeffries, Corbett, Choynski, Tom Sharkey, Fitz and Tommy Ryan among some of the old timers who would have taken Joe into camp and Jack Dempsey among those who followed me."

Nat Fleischer Ring Magazine April 1959

"There is scarcely an old-timer who would give Robinson a chance against Stanley Ketchel."

Okay, so according to these two experts, the 155 lb Tommy Ryan would be too much for Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson does not even have a chance against Ketchel.

As for film, it you can't see what is happening on a film how do you know anything is happening?

And I wonder why Tunney studied films of Dempsey if it was useless.

 

I have one question for you....

Would the experts of the day diasagree with the fact that Dempsey failed to meet his number 1 contender during his entire title reign?

 

A few points of contention:
1- Harry Wills surely deserved a title shot at Jack Dempsey.Common sense and history shows that...
2- Dempsey and Wills did sign for a match with a Michigan promoter
named Floyd Fitszimmons but the bout was canceled because the
promoter failed to come up with the money...
3- There were legitimate fears those days that race riots might ensue
following a match between a white Dempsey and Wills for a heavyweight
title bout as occured in Reno following the Johnson/Jeffries bout in Reno...
Legitimate fears those days no doubt...
4- The above cannot be denied as tons of writers and columns of the day
wrote about this sad fact...
5- Dempsey by all accounts would have been a favorite over the taller
slower style of Harry Wills...Style makes fights and Wills did not have the
style to whip a bob and weave style of a Tyson or Frazier edition of a Jack
Dempsey.
6- The writers, boxers, trainers of those days, seeing the two men fight
were in a better and more credible position to judge the abilities of Wills ,
Dempsey and other fighters of the 1920s against each other than posters
of today 90 years later...Facts become distorted each decade later...
7- Harry Wills past his peak was beaten by an Uzcudun and Jack Sharkey
after Dempsey retired...
8- Wills was a fine gentleman who in retirement became a successful
real estate businessman who in the 1940s I saw standing a few feet away from me in Stillman's gym watching the fighters sparring.. A tall
distinguished looking man who didn't look like an ex fighter...If I a
youngster then, knew what I know now ,I would have asked him about
the very questions bugging ESB now ? But as Bernard Shaw wrote," it is a shame that youth is wasted on the young ".

 

Firstly, Jim Taylor is the greatest football player of all time.

Secondly, Dempsey shows some glaring flaws on film, tho part of it is mental rather than technique.

Thirdly, Jim Taylor is the greatest athlete of all time.

 

S, why do I think that you are a Green Bay Packer fan ?

 

Only guy to take a rushing title from Jim Brown.

 

When he didn't have that skirt chasing gold domed gambler taking up all the carries...

 

And Brown had a broken arm. But sure I'll blame Hornung. Boo Notre Dame! Hiss! You didn't deserve that Heisman!

 

Experts of the day would be in a better position to know why the fight never came off. However historians since that time have well documented the events that prevented the fight from happening. There is general agreement that Dempsey wanted the fight to occur but Rickard and most of the boxing world did not. There was a growing progressive fraction that wanted black hwts to get title shots that were deserved. However this was a definite minority. There was a long standing American tradition that black hwt fighters would not be given the chance to fight for the title. No wonder that the first hwt champion to give a back a title shot was Burns, a Canadian.

 

Did anyone ever even talk about "number 1 contender" until Ring magazine started it's rankings ?

 

He was not always portrayed as the pre-eminent 'stand-out' contender though.