Jack Dempsey vs. King Levinsky: Exhibition

Dempsey was done, but Levinsky didn#t look too special either.Thanks for posting this.

 

The story was Dempsey felt his age based on his performance and knew he was through .. the classic saw the openings but could not meet them .. getting hit by a guy you would have mopped the floors with twelve years earlier ... that said, Kingfish was limited but pretty tough .. was not KO'ed till he fought Louis I think as a pro and fought pretty much everyone .. that aside , this exhibition where he gets crushed by a legitimately angry Max Baer is classic and viscous ..

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Levinsky of course had fought Baer some 19 days previously losing a UD, so King was in shape.

He rarely must have not been in shape at that time having had 9 actual competitive fights in the 12 months that this exhibition was in, littered with names like Baer, Loughran Carnera, Mickey Walker, Risko.

 

Thanks for posting.

Nothing much to add. Dempsey was washed up. Levinsky looked a mediocre mauler, but with surprising quickness.

 

Levinsky looked faster on his feet then I remembered. Wasn’t a boring fight but one way. Dempsey couldn’t pull the trigger.

 

Dempsey seemed to have had a very fast decline for some reason...any theories or thoughts on why?

 

Good post!

 

Me neither, however i do know a Tommy Loughran light heavy champ 1927 -29 and a diminutive guy called Primo Carnera who was Heavyweight champion 1933-34, perhaps those are the pugilists true names

 

Another treat from your locker. Thanks again Billy. Poor Levinsky. It was widely thought that he was the inspiration for Mountain McLoughlin in "Requiem for a Heavyweight". Beaten up and ripped off, he was broke from the day he retired. He ended up selling ties out of a cardboard suitcase following the big fights around the States. George Plimpton wrote about him in the brilliant "Shadow Box".

 

Fame, fortune, pushy wife, and living the Hollywood lifestyle might have had something to do with it, we can't forget that Dempsey only defended title 6 times in 7 yrs and had a 3yr gap between his 5th defence and the 6th where he lost title to Tunney.
Dempsey had lost his raw edge, some would say gone soft, however no way does the name of Jack Dempsey, and phrase gone soft fit together

I think Marvin Hagler summed it up:
“It's tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5am when you've been sleeping in silk pyjamas"