Hey guys, Made this video on Dempsey using some pretty good footage. Hope you enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bttvv9QnvQc
Great job Reznick. Dempsey on ESB is so sorely underrated as a great heavyweight along with Joe Louis, it is almost blasphemy...cheers.
I had a young nephew of mine read Dempsey's "Championship Fighting," before ever viewing any of Jack's footage, and it really did the trick, as he understood exactly what he was looking for and at.
Thank you Burt. One thing that hurts Jacks case is the lack of good footage. Being a huge boxing fan, and also a film editor, I take great interest in the effects film quality has on our perception of old school fighters. I look out for this stuff all the time. When you don't see the muscles tensing up, the sweat, the facial expressions, the bruises, the speed, the sound, and other qualities; the footage ends up looking like two figurines attacking each other with pitty pat punches. However, when you have good quality footage of the same fighters, it tells an entirely different story. The physics look more accurate, the punches look more powerful, the distance they keep between themselves makes more sense because you can perceive the danger. For example, at 1:31 of this video, you can see probably the clearest footage of Dempsey vs Willard. You can see Jacks muscles and facial expressions. You can even see his head reacting to being pushed by Willards forearm. These punches from Jack were average compared to the rest of the fight. But the footage makes them look powerful. Also, Jacks fist knockdown of Willard I think is the best knockdown in history. It's savage, and beautiful. I've also gained way more respect for Willard. He was definitely landing some big punches against Dempsey. And he had more courage in that ring than anyone else. He was bleeding profusely, getting knocked left and right, and yet he was STILL trying to put up a fight, and keep Dempsey away with his jab, and getting lost of good uppercuts in the clinch. Willard was an absolute animal. A dangerous, frightening animal. Don't let any boxing history pop culture tell you different.
Excellent summation R. Some posters on ESB have no idea of the true force that was Jack Dempsey. They look at a few old films of him made from men cranking a camera by hand making movements not in true rhythm, looking somewhat like a Charley Chaplin film, thinking that Dempsey and other fighters of those times actually walked like Chaplin and threw punches so clumsily..Garbage I say. My dad who was about Dempsey's age, walked, talked, ran and threw punches just as these misguided posters do today, and led a helluva tougher life...They in their vast ego think that the vast numbers of tough and hardened fighters, sports writers, boxing trainers who saw Dempsey and Greb and Benny Leonard to name but a few, came from a primitive age skill wise and all of a sudden television produced in a flash the superior fighters we see today...Well I don't go back to the 1920s like my dad did, but I vividly remember the 1940s where I saw such "primitive" oldtimers like Ray Robinson, Willie Pep, Ike Williams, Archie Moore, Kid Gavilan, Billy Graham, Jimmie Bivins, Sandy Saddler, Beau Jack, Emile Griffith, Jake LaMotta, Elmer Ray, Jersey Joe Walcott and tons of other fighters each with more than 100 bouts by and large, and rest assured ESB doubters that they were a helluva lot more experienced and more skillful than your "superior" fighters of today...Yessiree...cheers again R...
