Jack Dempsey vs Joe Frazier

For a man knocking on death's door it was probably one of the most impressive streaks of all time. He was even one of the few (maybe the only) to stop Renault.

 

Good post

 

I agree

 

NOBODY knows for certain how long J.D. could've remained in peak form had he remained focused and maintained an active schedule inside the ropes after 1923........ This **** of running amuck with Estelle Taylor to Hollywood in the mid-20s played a factor in the midst of Dempsey's friggin' prime boxing years....... However, boxing was still disorganized and disfunctional to the maxi-pad during the roaring twenties....... In truth, you cannot remain sidelined cuz your manager says we ain't got anyone out there to fight..... That's bull****......... And, if it is indeed a fact that nobody is or was available for a fight, well then, it just shows how sad the division was in at that time........

Come the modern world of boxing, only Mike Weaver was allowed by the WBA to sit on the title forever and a day after he KO'd John Tate in March of '80 to become "Paper" champ of the world, and merely facing "Coetzee and Tillis" in the meanwhile before getting butt-reamed by Joey Curtis against Michael Dokes in Dec. 1982.......

MR.BILL

 

Seamus is confusing talent and wasted talent. Dempsey was an exceptional talent that peaked with the Willard fight. After that he was never the same because he became a monster celebrity and stopped fighting. Inactivity ruined him. He looked terrific againt Miske, was not focused for Brennan who he had previously defeated and was almost upset. He destroyed Carpentier who was far more hype than anything else ... after that it was pretty much over ...

A huge wasted talent, an unknown commodity as far as how great he might have been and I feel extremely great. However, we will never know.

 

I just checked over Louie Firpo's record at Boxrec......... I'm not impressed with Firpo's credentials at all...... He fought from '17 to 1936 and lost basically every fight that really mattered for Christ sake.......... His last fight was a KO loss to Arty Godoy when Firpo was 40 friggin' years old.......

MR.BILL

 

I agree, Its got to be remembered what a big star Dempsey became, there was never a premier puncher like him until that point in time and Dempsey had quite a run until Willard but then became inactive after Firpo. I guess everyone has to learn from others mistakes but Dempsey did not have an example that was as large as him. In Dempsey's time he was the end all but he should have learned from Willard, who was also off for 3 years before fighting Dempsey and Jack was off 3 before fighting Tunney. Ali was off 3 but he was young enough to come back and do damage. Dempsey was a real talent though.

 

This is a curious observation.

Would you not say that his fights against Brennan, Willard, Weinert and Spalla were key fights?

 

i think this is a coin flip i love dempsey and he would start bloody quick and i think he would have frazier in trouble but i think joe would get past a shaky first and would start smokin around from the third and stop dempsey in one of the best fights at any weight around the 12th with both fighters touching down

 

Regardless of both "Brennan and Willard" being capable guys, they were either aging or fading by the 1920............ I don't know enough about Weinert or Spalla to actually comment there....... I've never even seen clips of their action.......
:hey

MR.BILL

 

Weinert and Spalla were both in the annual rankings in the year that Firpo beat them. They were significant wins at the time.

Willard was of course a spent force but he did post a win over Floyd Johnson after Dempsey beat him.

 

janitor just a question how do we know the rankings of yesteryear were any better than the rankings of today and that the fighters you mentioned were just not well connected

 

A fair question.

I think the Ring Rankings were flawed but sincere while Nat Fleisher was at the helm.

I think that even Fleisher's critics acknowledge that he was a man of integrity and took a verry firm line against any funny business.

Having said that, the coruption in the sport itself made that today look trivial. This would have impacted on the rankings in anumber of ways.

 

janitor another question for you and sorry it is off topic ,do you think with the emergence of a few jewish boxers fighting for world tittles do you think or have you heard of any heavys that could be the first jewish heavyweight champion