Jack Dempsey: In Summary

For the record, Dempsey skipped 1922, '24, and '25 entirely.
Johnson skipped only 1911 entirely.
You can quibble with both of them equally about the quality of their opposition, IMO.

Do you really think Dempsey deserves extra points vis a vis Johnson because he was courteous and helped his opponents up after he knocked them out? Given that Johnson was an unpopular Black man fighting in front of almost exclusively white audiences, do you think helping his opponent up would have been well received by either his opponent's handlers or the audience? Given the likely hostility of the crowds in say the Burns, Jeffries, Ketchel, and Flynn fights, I doubt that it would have been prudent for Johnson to hang around afterward. It is likely that helping his opponent might have been interpreted as "rubbing it in" by those in attendance. The situations of Johnson and Dempsey were as different as apples and oranges.

 

Interesting fact about one of the Meehan fights. Apparently it was a friendly 4 rounder for a Navy charity and Dempsey lost a decision despite dominating. I remember reading a newspaper article about it though i no longer have the link for it.

 

True but Miske won something like 20 fights after losing to Dempsey. I doubt his health was that poor. It seems his health badly deteriorated in the last few months prior to his tragic passing.

 

Bright's disease, as it was called then, is episodic, it comes and goes but is on a downward trajectory. Miske was so sick for the championship bout with Jack that he couldn't even train much the final two weeks. It's all in Moyle's excellent book on Billy Miske.

 

thanks for the info, i didn't know Miske had trouble training. I assumed he was doing ok as he won so many fights afterwards.

 

Yeah, it's weird how that disease progresses. Moyle's book on Miske is highly recommended.

 

Will make sure to check it out.