Roll Up Roll Up Vote For Dempsey's Next Opponent

wow! is mcgrain aware of this?

 

This was apparently part of a nationwide referendum. The results should be interesting, as was the choice of opponents.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l...ge=13&page=12&page=14&page=12&page=11&index=2

As a side issue, here is a tournament held to find a challenger for Dempsey. Was this like a great white hope search held for Johnson? Apparently Biel didnt go as well as hoped.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l...ge=13&page=12&page=14&page=12&page=11&index=3

It seems that Brennan and Gibbons probably have the early running (interesting, because Dempsey actually fought both).

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l...ge=13&page=12&page=14&page=12&page=11&index=4

 

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l...ge=13&page=12&page=14&page=12&page=11&index=6

Oh oh, looks like it could be more ammunition for the Wills fans!

And also intersting that the others never got a Single vote.

 

great to see the fans did not draw the colour line. brennan was a "close second" in the poll even though he had already had his shot?

 

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l...teFilterType=yearRange&page=2&page=3&index=15

Finally, the result. Wills beats Tommy Gibbons, although it was very close.

 

One of the things i find interesting about this poll, is that it really is about as close as we get to identifying who were the top 6 contenders of the time. So with that being said, one of those contenders - Bob Roper, had already lost a fight to Jack Johnson in Johnson Post willard career. Wouldnt that seem to indicate that Johnson was one of the tope 6 best fighters in the world at the time? And if so, wouldnt this have been the more marketable of all the fights, - JOhnson vs Dempsey? Maybe Dempsey didnt duck just Wills and Greb, maybe johnsons name can be thrown in there?

 

not the land slide i thought it would be, the paper sounded suprised that gibbons had not came top of the referendum. they blamed gibbons manager for saying tommy stood more chance against dempsey next year rather than this year prevented more fans chosing him over wills.

who knows? the press was often in the pocket of the top boxing folk back then..

 

Fans generaly wan't to see the champion face the best challenger in any era, regardless of racial prejudice.

 

One thing you have to remember about these polls vis a vis some of the guys who Dempsey already beat being on here: This was not the information age. The guys who had already faced Dempsey were some of the best known fighters in the country simply by virtue of having faced the champion. That right there gives them a leg up in the polling and accounts for their high number of votes despite having already been beaten by the champion.

In regards to Bob Roper, when he was defeated by Johnson it was very early in his career and he was actually in Mexico being tutored by Johnson. This may have been a legitimate bout but its also possible, if not likely that it was a glorified exhibition. Im not trying to say Johnson couldnt have beaten Roper, he may very well have been able to, especially at this stage in Ropers development. I was just pointing out the circumstances and context within which that bout took place.

 

wasnt bob roper jack roper's brother?

bearcat wright and pat lester were posibly the best opponents johnson faced after willard. I would expect Johnson was off the world title radar fighting in mexico, canada and spain.

 

Another interesting fact:

Within days of this poll Greb had easily beaten the #2 (Gibbons) in a 15 round elimination for Dempsey, he had already beaten the #3 (Brennan) four times, barely losing a round, had defeated the #5 three times in dominant fashion, and both the #4 and #6 fighters had turned down fights with Greb (indeed Carpentier would refuse to even spar with him and a few months after this poll turned down what would likely have been his the second highest payday of his career in favor of facing Siki for a tiny fraction of what he was offered to face Greb). A year lafter this poll Willard picked Greb as the man with the best chance of defeating Dempsey.

 

Yes, Jack Roper was Bob's younger brother. Bob managed and trained Jack for a time. Bob was also the brother of Tom Roper.

 

Have i got this right? We have 2 brothers, 1 fought Johnson, the other fought joe louis? Thats some link between the ATG heavyweight generations

 

And is there another Bob Roper(Captain) that fought Greb and Gibbons or is he the same person?