Muhammad Ali gives a very interesting analysis on Jack Dempsey

Tunney was the first "scientific" boxer who could pull it off, Dempsey outweighed him and Tunney outboxed him still...what do you think Ali would do?

Anyone with half a brain can see the difference in skill, but some "historians" will try to claim from their high horse all the "subtle" skills they used for their time, so subtle its non-existant.

 

Sir Axeman, loving your avatar.

 

I got to also say you just don't see too many fighters with that type of rare power. When Dempsey landed that first left hook on Willard he knocked out six of Willards teeth and broke his cheek bone, and he went on to break his nose and ribs. And say what you want about Willard he was still 6' 6" 250lbs and by the end of the fight his face looked like hamburger. It really didn't matter who prime Dempsey was in there with, he was causing some damage if his punches were landing.

 

I think Ali's wrong. Dempsey could very well give Ali a good fight if he swarms into him like he swarmed into willard. Ali was always vulnerable to that left hook and Dempsey's speed and aggression would've made it hard for Ali.
I could see Dempsey at least flooring Ali, but I think Ali would win.

 

Prime Ali would have smoked him.

He also wouldn't have had SRR to show him the way, but the truth is the truth.

 

Ali would have smoked Dempsey and in general, he was right about old time fighters lacking skills, there were exceptions like Tunney and Johnson, but a lot of the fighters were just very crude back then. Consistent good boxing form I think became the mainstream more around the mid-to-late 1940s.

 

Question: What if Ali had been born in 1895 like Dempsey and learned how to box the same as all the other old timers did? How would he have done?

(exluding the racial implications of the time)

 

That part alone is ridiculous, fighters were vastly better conditioned way back when. There are not many fighters who can sustain a pace for twelve rounds these days let alone fifteen.

Depends on how far back you go, I certainly wouldn't call Joe Louis "sloppy" and you have to remember the early fighters were fighting under a very different set of rules. Put RJJ or Mayweather in a time machine and make them fight with tiny gloves for 40 rounds against guys who know how to wrestle and are allowed to and I don't think they'd do too well.

I don't think Dempsey would beat Ali either but that's not much of a knock on him. On the other hand, look at all the shite that Ali said about frazier and Frazier thrashed Ali in tfotc and was battering him in Manilla too until his eye closed. This is a guy with one eye and one and a half arms.
Some old boxers were great and some were shite. Same as it is today. Willard was just the Valuev of his time.
I laugh at the suggestions some people make that we have somehow greatly evolved in a few generations. It's silly and shows a real ignorance of the theory. I think Jack Johnson would trounce Ali if they fought under the old fashioned rules and I think Ali would trounce Jack Johnson under more modern rules. It was simply a different game.

Edit: Another thing to consider when we talk about "sloppy" old timers is the gloves. Modern fighters gloves are huge in comparison. There was a lot of inside work, grappling, short punching, body work in the old style which people sneer at these days but with much smaller gloves head hunting and hayemakers add up to broken hands as does a lot of parrying which is one reason they were more inclined to lean away from punches.

 

Ali is accurate. His level of talent make Dempsey look amateurish. The fight against Willard is a bar room beating with not a single sign of boxing skill.

People hold Dempsey up as royalty because he's a former world champion but the bottom line is Louis, Marciano, Patterson, Liston, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Holmes, Tyson, Lewis and either of the Kiltschko's would knock his ass clean out!

Good for his day but that's it and weaping Bert Sugar tears like a little nostalgic ***** won't convince me otherwise!

 

****in exactly

 

todays boxers might have more skill as the art has developed. But i can assure you that the old timers were in much better shape and much tougher then today's boxers. In Dempseys days boxing matches were scheduled for 25 rounds and if you knocked your opponent down you can start punching when he was about to get up.

 

***That's hear say and you have no evidence that this is the case.

***Yeah and they also stood and looked at each other for minutes with **** all happening.

 

wdf!!!

 

Frazier and Tyson, on any given day, would roll Dempsey in to a ball, place him inside a left Reyes glove, put the glove on and SMASH IT INTO A ****IN WALL!