Joe Louis vs Jack Dempsey Bare knuckle 20 rounds.

Maybe because it happened in 1917 and 1918 when Langford was aging, had become grossely overweight, eye sight failure, and was consistently losing to journeyman level fighters at this point.

Oh, and Langford was 5'6". He was giving up one foot in height to fulton. Thats outrageous.

 

Wills didn't have to fight Tunney or Godfrey. He had already established himself as the leading contender for Dempseys crown for 7 straight years. He had won multiple title eliminators. Their was no need for Wills to have to fight another one at age 36.

 

Wills was NOT the number 1 contender for 7 straight years he fought pretty soft opposition during Dempsey'r reign as a matter of fact.

 

Aging but still good enough to beat Jeannette and stop Norfolk in2 rds.Oh and draw with Wills!
After the fight Langford stated Fulton would be the next champ
.BTW It was Fulton that ruined his eyesight.

 

Wills also beat Langford about 15 times so langford had enough shots to do well against him

I really don't know what you're trying to argue here wills absolutely destroyed Fulton. Wills humiliated him outclassed him embarrassed him

If you're pumping up Fulton this much then you should give wills huge credit and Declare Dempsey should have thought wills

 

Looks like Langford was wrong lol. Harry wills was Fultons daddy

 

Wills started to beat Langford as he aged, similarly he beat an old Jeannette.
I'm not pumping Fulton at all, all I said was he was a good boxer and reports of his fights confirm it, you say he wasn't because you don't want it to be so simply because you can't stand Dempsey at any price ,and have a long history of disparaging him at every opportunity.It's silly
Bottom line Wills 2 best wins during Dempsey's reign were over men Dempsey had wrecked in a combined total of less than5 minutes..

 

I have issues with injustice and misstruths. Outside of your favouritism to Dempsey and consequently character assassination of Wills, I do find you a good poster though.

This issue is more complex than you make out. Firstly at this time Wills had a contract with NYSAC stating Dempsey must fight him next and he and Mullims was pushing for that. Contractually Wills must receive his mandatory from NYSAC and no fighter could legally face Dempsey before Wills got this. Muldoon however wanted Dempsey 'to prove his fitness' to fight Wills against Tunney.

HOWEVER, Wills manager Mullins claimed Rickard tried to get Wills to throw a fight with Gene Tunney, see the following:

"Promoter Rickard, in his talk, was bitterly opposed to giving Harry Wills, negro challenger, a chance at the heavyweight title, and provided the most startling development of the entire demonstration when he advocated the elimination of Wills" manager, Paddy Mullins, from the boxing sport.
"We don't want men like Wills' manager in boxing," said Rickard. "There is no room for such in boxing. He tried to say that he was offered a bout with Tunney last year only on the condition that he lay down. I know I never discussed such a thing with him and I know also that neither Tunney or Gibson ever made any such suggestion. Such claims as that is what has re****ed the progress of boxing in the past."


Later, we had this odd bit from William Muldoon:

"William Muldoon, member of the State Athletic Commission, whose advocacy of a Dempsey-Tunney bout in preference to a Dempsey-Wills bout deadlocked the commission, sent the following telegram in response to his invitation to attend:

"I cannot accept your invitation for the Tunney luncheon today. I thank you very much. Five months ago I suggested that Dempsey be given a trial with some man near his own weight and size, to see if he was still the fighting Dempsey, of which I had grave doubt, and said it would be unfair to the public to put him against Wills without our having some proof of his condition. I named as his opponent Gene Tunney."


1. The denial of attempting to fix the cuffs on Wills is interesting. Rickard's response is to blackball Wills, the top contender for years. If I had been Rickard, I would have rebutted the charge by giving Wills an up and up shot at the title. That would have proved I wasn't trying to cuff him. There is no proof of course, and this sort of thing would probably never have positive proof, but my take is that Rickard's reaction points to the charges of an attempted fix as probably being true.

2. Muldoon--Muldoon twice skuttled a Wills fight, once by complaining about the pricing of the tickets, and this time because Dempsey's condition would have meant that a match with Wills was "unfair" to the public. Somehow a match with Tunney was not. Follow this logic if you can. My take is that Wills was just getting the run-around.

Thanks to Old Fogey for this http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=218617

 

Fulton was on a winning run between Dempsey and Wills and in the newspaper reports of the times Fulton claimed he not Wills should be number 1 challenger and was confident of beating Wills.

He was also outjabbing Wills and doing well before having his ribs smashed to pieces. Wills claimed he let Fulton come forward so he could counter him.

 

been thinking on this 4 a couple days, lots of unkowns and variables. the ruleset favours jack significantly, but joe is still going to catch him a lot, especially coming in. so while dempsey may score a lot of rounds through throws and kd's i'm gonna take joe to do the more serious damage and be the last man standing.

 

He was the mandatory who'd fought final eliminators against Fulton, Norfolk and Firpo. His opposition during Dempsey's included Dempsey's best wins, so I suppose it was a tad weak opposition :roll:

There was no other contender with a better resume over those 7 years

But as it is he should have been number 1 contender since as early as 1914.

 

No, Dempsey was!:good

 

Wills also claimed Dempsey was not at fault for their fight never materializing.The fact that Fulton was outjabbing Wills just reinforces my statement that he was a good boxer.

 

Muldoon did not want a Dempsey v Wills fight, whatever public posturing he made. Behind the scenes he did his best to circumvent it.

 

Wills was no mandatory, there weren't even ratings then. Norfolk was a 5''8" lightheavy whom Wills outweighed by 36lbs. he had been beating middles and journeymen heavies for a couple of years. Wills body of work during Dempsey's reign was average his rep rests on his wins before Dempsey won the title.
Beating a 35 years old half blind Langford who was fat as a pig 2 years after Fulton had turned the trick twice ,a 40 years old Jeannette,a 33 years old Clark who was a small light heavy,a 5'8" lhvy in Norfolk, and a fat Firpo.and Fulton who had not managed to last 5minutes between them with Dempsey.
Gibbons had a pretty good run duringDempsey's time as champ 61 fights lost 4, 1 to Dempsey 1 to Tunney 1 to Greb and a dq to Miske. he beat Greb,Norfolk,Miske,Carpentier,Miske,Flynn,and Bloomfield. including 38 kos.