Lennox Lewis vs Jack Dempsey

My point is that the best finishers tent to be short whether they are 185 lbs or 220 lbs. There must be a reason.

If you compared the tale of the tape of the best punchers in history then you would see little change apart from weight.

 

You saved me typing anyway :good

 

janitor thinks he can, as well as Michael Spinks and Tex Cobb and certainly Mike McCallum.

:rofl

 

Jeez, i'll look it up right after work mate, forgot already atsch

 

Well, in case you didn't get it, every poster in this thread who said Dempsey was too small was refering to his weight, not his height.

Sure, giving up 5 inches in height is not exactly easy, but it's easier to overcome than 60 (!) pounds in weight.

 

I agree John.

If you look at marcianos fights in the 1950s on boxrec, you will see when he was taking on some of those bums his weight was often around 192-193lb. but his best fighting weight when spartan training was high 180s


Did you know Dempsey really weighed in the high 170s vs willard, but he put weights in his pocket so that he would weigh 185lb even vs willard?

 

Sounds like an urban legend to me to enhance the David vs Goliath picture, and a pretty laughable one at that.


About as believable as when he described Willard as that big skilled giant that was in tremendous shape.


99,9% of the people of that time had no way of knowing that he hadn't been below 180lbs for several years and that Willard was 37 years old, 15 pounds overweight, inactive for several years as well as a horrible boxer.

 

I think Dempsey said 180, and it could well be true. Good fighters tend to train extra hard for the big shot at the championship, and it was awful hot at that time of year, and Dempsey trained in the midday sun, hence that famous tan he sported in Toledo.

Never heard he'd put weights in his pockets though, just that his weight was announced as 187.

I think Willard was in better shape than people make out. Sure he looked a bit soft, but he always had done, and 15 extra pounds at age 37 for a man his size isn't anything serious. Lennox Lewis fluctuated between 240 and 256 in his later years. I'm guessing him and Willard walked around at far greater weight.

Admittedly, Willard's rust was severe, and he wasn't a skillful boxer.

 

I know Ketchel once got on the scales with weights and large clothes or some such, didn't know Dempsey did it too.

 

Henry Cooper said he trained so hard for the Cassius Clay fight in 1963 that he was down to 175, he carried two 5lb weights on to the scales because the promoter was already worried that the fight was being viewed as a mismatch. It didn't look much like a mismatch in the 4th round.

Then there's the same story about Billy Conn weighing 169 but being announced as 174 against Joe Louis. Again at the promoter's bequest, and for the same reason.

We dont know whether these stories are true, or if some are and some aren't. I guess it must have been done at least once or twice in the long history of boxing.

It is fairly consistently stated that Tex Rickard was at first apprehensive about putting someone as small as Dempsey in with Willard, at least when first approached by Kearns about it, before Dempsey had iced 6'5" Fred Fulton.

And like I said, good fighters sometimes train themselves down to unusually light body weight for their big shot at the title.

The stories dont seem outlandish but they could be complete fabrications or embellishments. Could be true though.

Judging from discussion on this thread over the "significance" of whether a guy is 206 or 197, or 197 or 190 (something I personally find laughable), I gather the promoters are right to tinker with the weights because to the paying fans those few pounds can make all the difference between "mismatch" and "competitive".

 

not really. he looked real soft

 

Well, if you read my next sentence after the one you quoted you'll see that I say

Willard had never looked anything other than "soft", but he also had a massive strong frame under that, and natural girth. He was a big strong hulking farmer. You could see he had strength and muscle. Hence why Dempsey was impressed with him.

Muhammad Ali was 224 and looked soft in Manila but it would be ridiculous to go on about how "out-of-shape" he was.