It was ruled a No Contest because neither man was doing enough. Back in 1923. Does anyone have an article on this fight? Or anything on Renault in general? I don't know much about him. His record looks very well; certainly one of the top contenders in '24-25, though rarely mentioned at all. Maybe because he was Canadian? Or because he had a boring style? He certainly wasn't a knockout artist and the Tunney NC doesn't speak well for him either, but that was only one fight and i'd like to know more.
Good luck on finding anything much out about Renault. He was pretty old, older than Dempsey, born in Jan of 1895 and his youth seems lost in myth. He is reputed to have been a mountie before going into boxing in 1918. He was 28 when he really began moving into the big time in 1923, with ko's of George Godfrey, Fred Fulton, and Floyd Johnson, while building a winning streak which carried through most of 1924. He would certainly seem to have been as worthy of a title shot as Bill Brennan had been, but never got one. I know Rickard listed him with Wills, Tunney, and Godfrey as one of the four top contenders in 1925. He stayed near the top until he started to lose pretty regularly in 1927 & 1928 and continued as a journeyman until 1932. He then seems to have basically drifted into obscurity in his later years. I would be interested if someone has any additional info. Chris--there is an entry on the cyberboxing zone about Renault you might want to check out. It's one big "revelation" is that Renault fought an exhibition with Dempsey in July of 1922, after which Dempsey and/or his handlers supposedly wanted no part of Renault in a championship contest.
Interesting. It seems Renault wasn't really that well known. For instance, in this 1925 drawing, he is not mentioned while Stribling, Slattery and Delaney are: This content is protected Renault was the #6 Ring contender in 1924 and #4 in 1925. According to Boxrec, he had a controversial loss to Sharkey that year.
I think he was. This is a quote from Time Magazine 7-27-1925 "Jack Dempsey reached an agreement to fight whomever Tex Rickard selects---one bout this year, one next. His first opponent will be Gene Tunney, George Godfrey, or Jack Renault. Then, if not defeated, he will face Harry Wills." Renault seems to have been viewed at this time as one of the top four contenders. At the end of 1924, the ratings were thus 1. Champion Jack Dempsey 2. Harry Wills 3. Tommy Gibbon 4. Charley Weinert 5. Quinton Romero-Rojas 6. Jack Renault At the end of 1925, the ratings were thus 1. Champion Jack Dempsey 2. Harry Wills 3. Gene Tunney 4. Jack Renault 5. Bud Gorman So he was in fact the #5 contender in 1924 and then the #3 contender in 1925. He was still the #6 contender in 1926 and the #11 contender in 1927, with the first position then taken by the champion. I would point out his loss to Romero-Rojas in December of 1924 probably dropped him a notch or two from where he would have been if the ratings had been in the summer. I also think that he would have been very close to the top of the 1923 ratings, if there had been any, with his strong series of victories that year.
I also find it odd that the very young Slattery was considered as an opponent for Dempsey on the drawing you posted, given his knockout defeats in 1925 to Shade and Berlenbach.
Renault was hired by Jack Kearns in 1921 to be Dempsey's chief sparring partner, and he was one of the few able to keep getting back in with the Mauler day after day. It is probable that this relationship had something to do with Renault never getting his shot at the title. Jack Renault was described as a smooth boxer with a nice left jab, but not much power in his right. Still, he managed to knock out a few top-notchers.
Slatterey seems to have been heavily hyped at his peak. He had poor training habits and fell short of his potential, but much had been expected of him. He was a fighter with god given talent who could get away with things that would get most world class fighters killed.
