Jack Dempsey footage: what do you see?

Don't the spoil the ending. I'm only half way through.

 

Based off the HD footage I've been watching, he had the perfect form of a fighter. No superfluous fat or muscle. We all know he was fast and ferocious, but what strikes me is his elegance.

In some training footage, you can see mere mortals in the background skipping rope, and the movement of those fighters looks normal, or realistic if you will. Their bodies feel weighted, as they should. At the same time, Dempsey is moving in the foreground and his movement is so fluid and elegant like a feather. He could move in any direction perfectly, could pivot, bob and weave, and side step with crazy fluidity.

Unlike most people, I'm way more impressed with his fight against Willard than anything else. Willard was no chump. Willard was huge, he was powerful, and he was a good boxer. He landed vicious uppercuts against Dempsey, and knocked him back a few times. Dempsey's ability to take complete control of the fight, and dismantle a man who seemed indestructible after taking punch after punch from Johnson for 26 rounds is nothing short of incredible.

The "Dempsey Roll" knockdown of Willard is his best moment. With set up hooks, he forces a giant like Willard to take 3 steps back in a row! And the KD punch we can still feel almost 100 years later.

Dempsey is easily one of the greatest of all times.

 

R,beware you are going to get flack for your observation...
P.S. R, what has struck me time and again is that first left hook that
shattered Willard's chin and dropped him for the very first time in his career, had to be thrown UPWARDS by Dempsey to even reach
Jess's jaw...Amazing I say. What strength and torque Dempsey had to possess ...

 

I just give my opinions based on my observations!

And yes, that was an absolutely epic left hook. One of the greatest punches in history.

 

If he looks so damn good on film, how in the hell does a guy like Firpo, the likes of whom wouldn't qualify for a walk-on bout today, take him out?

Why pick on worthless heavyweight fighters like Carpentier and a sick Miske and a used-up Brennan? Why avoid the best contender to your throne and sit on your *ss for 3 years?

Something smells fishy in Denmark.

 

History is full of guys who didn't perform optimally as often as they should have. Dempsey was give or take a few handfuls of effort removed in either direction from climbing a few spaces further up the ATG list l, or going down as the first half of the century's answer to Buster Douglas.

 

I think "Championship Fighting" is essential reading for anybody evaluating Dempsey footage. Jack wrote that it took him 25 years to successfully break down and articulate how he did what he did.

So far as critiquing him goes, I'd refer to Tunney's breakdown of him prior to his title winning effort in Philly. Greb knew what Gene was going to do to him, tried to convince others like Walker to bet all they had on Tunney, and Harry may have died a very wealthy man from his winnings on that one.

 

Outstanding read, yeah. :good

Should be mandatory for new fans. It really holds up well even with the passage of time, something rarely true of most volumes on the sport (and that includes those penned by ACTUAL professiona writers-by-trade!)

 

More about the observers than the fighters, to be honest.

The people who are most dismissive of fighters from earlier eras, based in film, are consistently the worst at ****ysing fighters based on film!

If you show them footage of an early fighter, they will literally miss every crucial detail, while visualising every modern fighter as being technically perfect.

They are basically bad at evaluating footage!

 

Yeah but Dempsey destroyed Firpo.

Ali got knocked down by Cooper. Louis by Galento. Johnson by Ketchel, etc etc etc.

I blame the inactivity on Doc Kearns. Dempsey was the first superstar boxer. He was charting new territory, and they completely missed the mark on how to capitalize. A real shame.

 

This

 

Is a rocky patch with Firpo (antecedent to a savage triumphant finish) really worse than a tight squeeze past Doug Jones? Dropping a few rounds to Alonzo Johnson? A bad scare at the hands of 'Enry? :conf