Jack Dempsey and The Color Line...

In Randy Robert's book, on Joe Louis, pg 132.
"In the end, Mike Jacobs made him the one offer he could not refuse 50% of the gate and 20% of the net profits from
Jacob's HW championship fight promotions for the next ten yrs"
And wasn't Gould, Braddocks manager, hmmmmm??

 

This 'unwritten rule' was meaningless from 1927 to 1937 anyway because between Wills and Louis no black heavyweight was #1 contender and thus in a position to test it.

I don't know where you got the idea that the colour line and the stigma attached to mixed bouts didn't apply in the lower divisions. I suppose it was just an accident that Flowers was the first black middleweight to get a title shot in years.

Unless you're going to tell me that these nameless individuals who came up with this unwritten rule had no problem with a black middleweight potentially beating a white middleweight but thought a black heavyweight potentially beating a white heavyweight was Armageddon. Right.

 

OK, so if Dempsey was as wicked and mercenary as you say, wouldn’t he just have cashed out against Wills in his last fight, win or lose?

 

I am shocked at the lack of boxing history knowledge. Even something very well known has to be explained in baby steps. And they still don't get it!

America is and surely was a prejudice nation. In ALL aspects blacks were given the short stick. So OF COURSE they were held back at different times through history in all occupations. This would include the various weight divisions of boxing. The issue we are talking about is the hwt division. Being the worlds hwt champion in effect means you have physical superiority over all others. Since the white man strived to keep blacks in their place they did not want to give them the opportunity to be thought of as their physical superior. The fear was deep that if this were to occur it would embolden the black race. The rein of Jack Johnson in the mind of the white race.....those that controlled boxing....was a real life manifestation of their fears. Boxing 101 and you know nothing of it? My God man.

 

A white champion refusing to fight his black challenger implies that he actually isn't confident of his superiority over all others, so taking that stance is really counter-productive and damages his credibility.

SOME whites at the time held the viewpoint you mentioned above. Plenty didn't and called Dempsey out on it and sympathised with Wills. Hence Wills topping numerous public polls to name Dempsey's top challenger, even though, according to you, no one wanted to see him get his chance.

Of course were Dempsey really confident, he'd have taken the Wills fight, KO'd him, confirmed the superiority of the white race and then headed of to Hollywood to bask in it. That he took a different route tells its own story.

 

Berlenbach. Your lost. Give it up.

 

Buy a book and read it.

 

You aren't even consistent. You simply blame everyone and anyone for Dempsey-Wills not happening... except Jack Dempsey.

I suggest you take the advice you keep giving everyone else, and actually do some reading.

 

To understand Dempsey Wills you need to understand boxing history and a bit of American history. Unfortunately you are a bit short in this area. Are you from the states?

 

The Dempsey Wills debate doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Let’s ask what we can literally constrain to be true, then take it from there.

 

Before trying to understand Dempsey-Wills, one should first figure out whether every historian exonerated him or just 50% of them. Keep plugging away and you'll get there...

 

The issue with Wills not getting a title shot is really an American problem. It's called racism. As the American populous over decades became better educated and less inherently racist this opened doors for blacks in all areas. Unfortunately the timeframe in question was just too early on. Those that were in power still had remnants of pre civil war mentality. No black was getting a title shot during that time period no matter who was the (white) champion.

 

Berl.....You are completely lost. Give it up please you are embarrassing yourself already.