Excerpts from: Jack Sharkey, “Defeated by Low Blow, Says Sharkey," Boston Globe, July 22, 1927 “I know I had him in bad shape and that his blows didn’t mean ta thing to me until he had me weakened by a lifting right to the groin. By the pain from this blow was so fierce that I doubled up and as I turned to the referee, thinking he would step in and disqualify Dempsey, Jack stepped in and swung a left to my jaw with everything he had left. It was not his shot to the jaw that kept me down, however, but the pain of that right below the belt line that had me so weakened by legs wouldn’t straighten out.” […] “Dempsey’s blows didn’t mean a thing to me at any time, and I guess the world will admit that I did my best to make it a fight and give Dempsey every chance in the world to show how much there really was to his deadly blows. […] His drives to the body, which he kept pumping in at close quarters, didn’t mean a thing to me, and I had him marked up and bleeding from the eyes an mouth early in the fight. […] I still insist that none of Dempsey’s blows hurt me, or at least had me in trouble at any time. As soon as the pain of the last foul blow wore off I was just as strong as ever and could have fought on for any number of rounds.”
Sharkey is being disingenuous here. He stated the following after fighting Dempsey: Dempsey hit harder than Joe Louis. Never thought anyone could hit as hard as Dempsey. When Dempsey hit you to the body it felt as if his fist was coming out your back. If you watch the fight you can see Sharkey bending real low at the waist doing everything he could not to be hit to the body in rounds 6 and 7 especially. Sharkey had a long history of trying to claim foul. It’s what concerned Dempsey’s corner more than anything going into the fight. Finally if you watch the fight there is zero evidence that any of those final three body blows was to the groin. You do know where your groin is right? Add this to the referee who stated none if those three blows were low (he called them “three right uppercuts” which is exactly what they were so he did see them).
Sharkey definitely had more flattering things to say about Dempsey and his power decades later, when he was reminiscing about the glory years of the past and trashing more recent heavyweights. Arguably even more self-serving for him to praise Dempsey then than it had been for him to badmouth Dempsey after their fight though... And I know he later favored Dempsey over Louis (unless Louis caught him first). But can you please provide specific sources for those exact quotes? Is it possible that you are misremembering them?
There is an interview on YouTube where Sharkey expresses a few of these quotes. Originally they come from an interview with Sharkey in the 1950’s.
Rex Layne said something similar about Marciano. How Rocky never hurt him until the final punch. Both are full of crap
None were to the groin. They were at hip bone level which was and I believe still is the demarcation point of a fair vs low blow. On the belt line, an imaginary line that joins the hip bones, is fair. They were fair and the ref stated so as well.
Things i learned today... Some Sharkey quotes are true. Some Sharkey quotes are viciously false. As to which you qualify as which there is no better arbiter than some slack jawed internet board posters in the following century.
Don’t forget Sam Langford who was quoted in an Georgia newspaper article as follows: “Jack Dempsey is the greatest fighter I have ever seen.”
Evening star, September 15, 1923, Page 10, Image 10 By Luis Firpo "The crushing blows of Dempsey that beat with such fearful force upon my face and body finally beat me to the canvas in such a state of agony that I could not rise. If you will ask any man who sat near and saw he will tell you that I strove to rise and fight on as I had promised. Nothing of flesh and blood could have risen after the punishment that I received. I admit that the blows of Dempsey were harder than I thought any man could deliver, but I believe also that Dempsey will admit that the blows of Luis Firpo were harder than he thought any man could deliver".
