Nor did Fury get coldcocked by a midget heavy on a losing streak. Dempsey never faced a guy like Fury, who was the farthest thing from Willard and even Fulton. The simpleton approach of "Oh well, he's tall" is so shallow it is self-disqualifying.
So it doesn't matter when your champion gets cold cocked in the first by a small opponent on a huge slide but when the other fighter gets up to dominate after a KD from a guy who would be considered a giant in earlier days that is a huge discredit. I see. Kudos for your balanced application of criteria in judging this one.
None of them proofed themself in an 200+ environment. What does it mean? Environment: Rocks and Dempseys opponents also fought other opponents, with all of them together building a class distinct from another class. If I remember correct, the median for all of those combinated fighters weights in Rockys era was 185lb. The truth is, thats hardly significantly distinct from trimmed down LHWs. In other words: None of these guys had the chance to show up in a game consisting of true HWs all around, with everybody fighting everybody, because it did not exist.
I guess all you can say is they were the best of their respective eras...including all those that weighed over 200.
At their best I think Fury by decision is the most likely scenerio. Not likely either guy winning by KO Highly unlikely Dempsey by decision
I didn't see the fight no. However I don't see any elbow here either. Forcibly picking somebody's head up isn't illegal.