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

Big difference between the two. I know of no one during that time who felt Wills would beat Dempsey. Big slow moving hwts were Dempseys meat.

 

Try Dempsey's management and probably Dempsey himself, amongst commentators of the time. And since when was Wills slow?

 

Good lists but I'd add

Dempsey

Sharkey
Carl Morris


Wills

Bill Tate
Weinert
Denver Ed Martin
John Lester Johnson

 

Could you.. based on resume alone, sure, would I, no.

 

Once again...there is a huge difference between speculating that Wills could beat Dempsey but quite another that experts at that time actually felt Wills had a chance. Arcel did not think so, Fleischer did not think so, Tunney did not think so, Sharkey did not think so, Greb did not think so. One man who knew Wills better than anyone in the ring was Langford. Langford did not think Wills could beat Dempsey either. Langford stated that Dempsey was the greatest hwt he had ever seen. Anyway the list is endless of the experts of that time who felt Wills had little chance. Now you can all speculate that he could and that's fine but as mentioned there is a huge difference in this case between speculating he could win vs what the general expert opinion was at that time.

 

* Dempsey thought Wills would beat him though

 

I've already seen people place Wills in their top 10, while completely omitting Dempsey. Is it rightful? I honestly don't know. I think Wills arguably beat a larger array of men who had world class ability for the day, than Dempsey did. No he was never officially the heavyweight champ of the world, and held the sanctioned belt known as the " colored title.", which I guess would be comparable to an alphabet strap today. But he did ride right alongside Dempsey as the second best heavyweight of the era for as long as Jack reigned and was even taking care of a lot of Jack's would be challengers for him.

 

Untrue. Dempsey signed to fight Wills at least once, possibly twice. No evidence whatsoever that Dempsey did not want to fight Wills in fact he opening said he wanted to fight him.

Dempseys style and skill were ground breaking in boxing history. He was the hwt champion of the world for 7 years and was renowned as one of the greatest hwt champions of all time. You cannot say any of this concerning Wills. Anyone rating Wills and not Dempsey does not know what they are talking about.

 

Do you know of any black people's opinions during the time?

 

Yes. Sam Langford who fought Wills more than anyone stated Dempsey would beat Wills. He also stated Dempsey was the greatest hwt he had ever seen.

 

And he might've had some personal bias, considering that Wills got the best of him, basically. I'll wait. He doesn't represent the opinions of blacks.

 

YES...Sam Langford...

 

Look up at my post. Larry Holmes says Tyson doesn't hit hard.