Pontius debates Sonny - Jack Dempsey

In the top10, according to who. You?

I guess Lester must have really impressed you when losing to Steamboat Bill Scott, Harry Wills and having wins only against losing records fighters.

 

i said among the top 10 black fighters.

Can u name me ten better black fighters in 1916? Clearly you have Wills, Jeannette, McVea and Langford but Lester was probably a notch below. After all he holds wins over some decent fighters like Norfolk, Tate and was good enough to go the distance with guys like Jeannette.

 

Banana Sam.

 

Banana Sam, Joe Jack, Henry Johnson, John Jackson, Kid Beaver, 'Cocoa' Willie... There are others. Lester Johnson was alright, but there were plenty others who were as good or better.

 

problem with these debates is that a good 80% of the posters posing their opinions, solely base, their arguments on what Boxrec tells them

 

Where do you get your information from?

 

books, documetaries and most importantly fight film. I absolutely detest Boxrec as it has spawned a generation full of 'know-it-all' boxing fans, look at the general forum as an example

 

True. Funny how people seem to think that they can click on a thread about a fighter, minimize the forum, then open up another page and do a quick internet search and within five minutes, debate that fighter's whole career. When I was between 13-16 years old back in the late 80's slash early 90's, I could conduct a pretty serious conversation about boxing with just about anyone. Without the internet at my disposal, I got most of my knowledge through mags like the Ring, KO and boxing times. I also watched a lot of ESPN and other networks.

 

Quoted for correctitude.

 

Yep.

No other reason for people to say PBF has brutal knockout power because he "stopped alot of guys".

 

Just out of curiosity has anyone read the book written by Dempsey called "Championship fighting - Explosive punching and aggresive defence". I've been meaning to read it but I only have it in PDF format.

It looks an interesting read, somebody on this site uploaded the PDF version here, I forget who...

 

I haven't. Is it an instructional book?

 

of sorts, from first glance it appears to be very insightful, I might upload it if it doesnt get me in trouble, of course.

 

I have it as well and it is excellent. Dempsey really understood the biomechanics of punching and it is surprising to see such a comprehensive analysis of the punch from a fighter born in the 19th century. I don't doubt that many of the old bare-knucklers had their own in-depth understanding of punching technique but Dempsey's descriptions could be used as a tutorial of ballistic biomechanics for engineering students (and I say this as someone who has published papers in biomedical engineering journals).

I wish I'd had access to this book back when I took up boxing as a lad. I never developed the power I thought I should have given my size, and in retrospect this was at least partially due to very subtle mistakes in my mechanics and approach.

 

I agree.