Was Jack Dempsey a harder puncher than Evander Holyfield

Willard was saved by the bell at the end of the first round.

He got back in the fight, but never really recovered.

 

By your own admission, Willard got back in the fight. He wasn't "gone very quickly" as you put it.

 

Surely you are not going to try to minimize how bad Willard's situation was in the first round?

No fighter would have been allowed to take a beating like that in Holyfield's day.

Even under the rules in place, Willard was very lucky to survive the first round.

Willard had the best chin in the business, and he was gone in three.

 

I am not minimizing anything. Willard took a horrendous beating. Even so, he managed an additional 2 rounds without being dropped in either.

 

Nice to see BF24 starts to understand that.

"What would happen to Willard if Holyfield got 50 free shots against an absolute punch drunk fighter on his knees?"

There is only one way to survive this and getting up that often: Not enough raw force. But thats not Dempseys fault. He was a CW and a quick sharp puncher too. Enough to win many fights in his era.

Put a trimmed 210lb fighter in there, and things get worse. Forget about fighters like Frank Bruno, Morrison, James Smith or Ibeabuchi. If a boxer "gets up" to be punched again in a situation like that one or two times to often (hope he doesn´t make the count) against top HW power, lethal injurys to the head could follow.

 

Would you care name the world class opponents that Holyfield stopped inside two rounds, or even three for that matter.

Testing on pressure sensors shows that the smaller gloves don't make a dimes worth of difference by the way!

 

So he lasted a grand total of three rounds.

 

Willard wouldn't get past 4 round fights today, he'd lose at that level and be out of boxing. The man started boxing in his late 20s, obviously didn't learn much about boxing, had no talent other than being big. Knocking Willard out doesn't look impressive or surprising, what's surprising is that Willard reached the top in that era. Nothing could say more about an era.

Comparing Holyfield to fighters of the Willard era is like comparing the speed of Secretariat to a plow horse.

 

Anybody who questions Dempsey's power based on Willard fight is silly. This fight would have been stopped today after 3rd knockdown at lastest. People don't understand that under 1990s ruleset Willard would not last a second part of the round. So saying that 1990s punchers would stop Willard in one round doesn't mean much, Dempsey would have stopped Willard in one in 1990s too.

 

You base it on what? He waa big, very strong by all accounts, had powerful punch, strong chin, decent quickness for his size and he was very tough. It's true that he started boxing late, but it just shows that he had natural talent but his potential wasn't reached.

He fought against old, out of shape and disinterested Johnson and had 45 rounds to tire out old champion to win it. Willard was never a great fighter, he just faced right opportunity to get the title.

 

He was barely a part-time boxer. Boxing wasn't near his primary endeavor, not by a long shot. He despised training camp and was inactive by choose. He was big at a time when just being big was enough. The field of competition was sparse enough and the people were dumb enough to buy into it. In that regard, Dempsey came along and set things right again. But knocking over Willard was no amazing accomplishment.

 

All these things don't prove that he was untalented.

 

So my point stands. He wasn't "gone very quickly" as you put it.

 

Three rounds is considered pretty quick if the fight happens today.

 

Then why has no fighter since been able to do something similar?

Why has no other fighter overcome that sort of size disparity, in such a dominant manner, at world level?

what Dempsey did was not only impressive, it is actually unique in the history of the sport!