Was Jack Dempsey The Dirtiest Heavyweight Champion?

Was Jack Dempsey the dirtiest heavyweight champion? Certainly one of them. You be the judge:

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This is an interesting comment because while I was watching the complete film of Dempsey-Brennan II where Brennan gives Dempsey hell for 12 rounds you can see two very interesting things going on this fight: 1. Brennan wrote the blueprint for Tunney's strategy on beating Dempsey. Brennan fights an almost identical fight as Tunney with the difference being that hes not as agile as Tunney and as such he has to trade more with Dempsey where Tunney could use his wheels to create a little more room to punish Dempsey. Brennan punishes Dempsey on the way in but has less success taking those half steps back that create distance. This allows Dempsey to fight on the inside more. However, this brings me to my next point: 2. When you watch Dempsey against Carpentier, Gibbons, Sharkey, etc. He's doing all of the dirty stuff inside that I highlighted in the film above (and to be clear there was a lot more of that stuff I just had to cut it short at some point). But, against Brennan he got paid back when he started that stuff which was really interesting (and what pros are taught to do rather than complain to the ref). Dempsey would start to rabbit punch and then Brennan would follow suit and Dempsey would cool it. Then Dempsey would hit low on the inside and Brennan would follow suit and Dempsey would stop. Then Dempsey would throw a kidney punch in the clinches and Brennan would do the same. Every time Brennan manned up it kept Dempsey honest for a while whereas against most of those other guys he would just keep fouling as he saw fit or until a referee made him stop.

Its easy to say that Dempsey didnt need to resort to fouls to beat these guys but how different would the Willard fight be if Dempsey had been forced to a corner when Willard was down? I dont think he needed dirty tactics to beat Carpentier but he fought dirty throughout that fight and was really rocked hard in the second. He needed a foul combo to stave Carpentier off a bit. Without all of those rabbit punches and kidney punches, you never know. You all know Im no big Carpentier fan and I think that fight was a necessary mismatch to begin with. I also dont think he needed fouls to beat Gibbons but supposedly he used a litany of low blows and rabbit punches to slow Gibbons up, its admittedly hard to tell because much of the film was shot from distance. The Firpo fight is another that Dempsey benefited from breaking the corner rule. Dempsey was down two or three times in that fight himself so it wasnt a one sided fight by any means. The one thing Firpo had was size and strength and those two assets are taken away when a guy stand over you and hit you as you rise. Had Willard been alloted the time to recover, or even regain his footing, on some of those knockdowns we might have seen a different fight. I do firmly believe that he needed to foul to beat Sharkey. Sharkey was giving Dempsey a shellacking and the only thing keeping Dempsey in that fight was his skill at pocket pool. Had he not been using Sharkey's balls as a speedbag (with a healthy dose of headwork) I think Sharkey was on his way to a stoppage win. Dempsey wasnt beating Tunney, fouls or not. You cant watch the complete version of those films and come away with any other impression than that Dempsey was suffering a paintjob in those fights. When he got in close where he could hit low, kidney punch, or rabbit punch Tunney usually tied him up like an octopus or jabbed off of him.

 

You could definately do one of these Marciano.

 

I think the punch at 10:00 is the worst. You arent even looking at the point of impact and you can see the ripples go through Willards body from the opposite side when the punch lands.

In all honesty I think Holyfield is the dirtiest heavyweight champion of all time both inside and outside the ring. Dempsey, Tyson, and Marciano all give him a run for his money though. Ali's worst crime was excessive holding I cant really rate that with what the other guys did. Robinson is interesting because most dont credit him as being dirty but he threw kidney punches like they were going out of style. Hed throw those long looping right hands that snaked around the back and if you turned into that punch he could break you in two. The problem is he hit so hard that hed throw that punch and a guy would turn to avoid making it hard to decide where the fault lay. Thats kind of my take on Gerhardt Hecht. Robinson was throwing those looping punches but Hecht was turning into them so its kind of hard to fault Robinson on that one.

 

Absolutely, I dont doubt it at all. I dont think it excuses it but I think thats where most dirty fighters get it from. Thats always been my take on the ear biting incident with Tyson. Its vogue to say he was quitting but I really felt like he was just taking it to the next level. I always felt like instinctively he snapped and a situation occurred in his mind where he felt like "ok, we are going to go there with the headbutts lets go all the way." I think it was stupid and animalistic but I think thats just how some of these guys, particularly these brawling types, fight. They control it for the most part but some times they lose it and the will to win or lash out and hurt the other guy if hes hurting you just takes over. Kind of like Marciano clipping Walcott while Walcott was clearly down and unconcious. Absolutely unnecessary and there was even a moments delay before he did it but I just think it was instinct, the guy was beating him, it was tough, and if one more shot puts a finisher to all that you take it. You dont back off and wait for a guy to regain his feet in the street and I think thats where some of these guys take it.

Other guys just cant seem to even go there when they should. It was strange watching the Brennan fight and then watching Carpentier back to back. Where Brennan gave it back to Dempsey every time he started to get cute, Carpentier seemed to almost be refusing to go there. I mean Dempsey really went to town on him with kidney punches and rabbit punches. It was nuts. And Carpentier did nothing, I dont know if he even looked at the ref. He just keep trying to unload those right hands, over and over and over. At what point to you realize that the ref isnt stepping in and fighting like the gentleman boxer isnt doing you any favors, its time give him some of his own medicine?