Piggy backing off of DanDaly's thread. Lets say Dempsey fought the following schedule, fighting twice a year as champion. I'm going to intentionally not include Wills or Greb, as I think those are bigger questions in themselves and would overshadow the question of activity. 1920 Billy Miske Bill Brennan 1921 Fred Fulton Georges Carpentier 1922 Joe Beckett Bill Brennan 1923 Tommy Gibbons Luis Angel Firpo 1924 Jack Renault Quintin Romero Rojas 1925 Charley Weinert Young Stribling 1926 Jim Maloney Gene Tunney That would give him 13 title defences going into the Tunney fight. How much would winning all these improve your rating of Dempsey? Do you think that would improve his chances against Tunney? Any of thse fights you think he could lose?
Sweet, glad I was able to provide some inspiration. After watching the first Tunney fight again I think that Dempsey would have benefited from activity but he still would have faced the decline he did. I think he soundly beats guys until 1925 and shows signs of aging against Stribling. He beats Maloney then still probably loses to Tunney but in a closer fight. Great thought provoking thread. Any specific reason why you chose to pit Dempsey against Brennan a second time?
He'd rate much higher for me. Leapfrogging Bowe and Patterson to be in the Tyson-Marciano-Liston section of my list, so between nine and eleven. Having the most defences of those guys, plus having beaten a really good run of fighters before winning the title, and as champ, means he could really be a top ten heavyweight lock. I feel like it was the inactivity and getting away from his skillset which cost him the fight with Tunney. He was more happy to show up, get reckless and give the fans a brawl, take his check and leave. In a situation where he's more serious about defending the title, he'd likely stick to using his head-movement to set up combos, unlike what he was doing around the time of the Firpo fight. After a fight with Sharkey, he was able to set up a near-KO punch vs Tunney. I'd say a more active Dempsey KOs Tunney, then Tunney retires. It's viewed similarly to Tyson's win over Spinks, albeit not as impressive due to Tunney not having any wins over a Holmes-type figure. Maybe if he gets the rematch he could win that, against a further-removed-from-prime Dempsey. Nah, I don't think he has any real chance of losing against any of those guys.
I wanted to make it closer to his actual reign, just with more activity. I thought it was interesting to think about if he'd fought the same opposition, but with more activity. I think Wills is a bigger question in it's own right, and would have really overshadowed the activity aspect.
Banging starlets sounds more fun to me. But more defenses could not hurt his legacy. Anytime two heavies are in the ring, something can happen. That's always a factor.
Yeah, I've read plenty of articles mentioning the possibility and stating that Willard was training hard.
It would have benefited his legacy, and it would have also benefited him as a fighter. Dempsey was in many ways a victim of his own economic success.
