What was so bad with Dempsey vs Gibbons?

Unforgiven · Nov 16, 2014

janitor said: ↑

Towards the end of Wills run at the top, Gibbons and later Tunney seem to have viewed him as a potential steppingstone to the title.
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Sharkey viewed him as such, and backed it up by fighting him and beating him.

mcvey · Nov 16, 2014

PowerPuncher said: ↑

Your intellectually dishonest hate of Wills to protect your hero is never ending McVey. Langford was prime or near prime when Wills started beating him easily, yes he also dominated him when Langford was older. Norfolk is a bigger man than Gibbons and was completely destroyed.

It's well documented all the white contenders were afraid to face Wills. Research it a bit if you're interest, which I doubt you are. Wills had his mandatory position and was gunning for the title, fighting eliminators, which is why the Godfrey fight didn't happen. Dempsey said he'd never fight Wills and retired to avoid the fight until the commission let him cheat the system.

You are talking out of your arse.
Norfolk was 5'8".Gibbons 6' 1/2"
When they fought Gibbons scaled 174.75lbs ,Norfolk 171lbs.
I think its you who needs to do some research.
I posted Wills best wins during Dempsey's title tenure.

Did I leave anyone out? Did I post any inaccuracies?
No!
So what's dishonest about that?

Langford was NOT PRIME when Wills first beat him in December 1915 .He was 32 years old and had won just 2 of his last 8 fights.
It is generally accepted that Langford declined after 1914

Wills and Langford fought 15 times , Wills won 12, 7 of those defeats of Langford were after Sam had been badly beaten by Fulton and his eyesight was damaged.
Likewise Wills never beat Jeannette until Jeanette was 40 years old.

"Harry Takes the High Road in Low Country
Though Wills was black, he was not without means, money and popularity. Suing your way into a fight without promoters may have been like suing the stock market for not going up, but it got Wills case on record. In the meantime, there were many other fighters other than Wills in competition for Dempseys title, and the contenders battled one another for position. But Wills and his manager Paddy Mullins choose not to fight and thus eliminate any of his leading rivals including Tommy Gibbons, Billy Miske, Georges Carpentier, Jim Maloney, Harry Greb, Young Stribling, and Jack Delaney, none of whom drew the color line. Even Gene Tunney offered in 1925. Rickard may not have wanted to take chances, but Wills didnt want to take chances either. By helping to keep Dempsey in court instead of the ringWills also sued to stop both the Dempsey-Firpo and Tunney fightsWills may further have dimmed his own prospects. "

Dempsey never said he would not fight Wills ,he went into several newspapers saying he would fight who the public wanted.
Wills was not fighting eliminators he turned down Renault,Godfrey and Tunney, to fight second raters , half blind 38 years old Langford and undersized lightheavies on losing streaks

As to why he never fought Miske , Gibbons or Greb I don't know,and nor do you.

Did you even read that link.

Here are a couple extracts.

"n 1923 Wills started a campaign for a Dempsey match. Some of the most reamrkable set-ups ever brought to NY and advertised as dangerous fighters were matched with him.
The fiascos resulting with Wills holding and mauling these poor dummies around the ring had an unexpected effect .They spoiled any chance Wills had to go in with Dempsey."

Here is another.
" Harry Wills is being eased into a match with Dempsey in September.
Championship contenders usually have to work their way up.Wills hasn't done any real fighting or met any dangerous opponents for years He has been challenged by two or three heavyweights who could give him a real fight Jack Renault and George Godfrey but has picked easier opponents.
Last year Wills eased through bouts with Homer Smith,Jack Thompson,,and Jack Townsend, men who couldn't stay in Dempsey's camp as sparring partners .
Perhaps Wills is advised that it is best not to take any risk at all when there is a possibility of getting a big money championship match, but no real fighter ever showed such extreme caution before.
Dempsey himself working up to a point where Jess Willard could no longer refuse hima right to a championship battle fought the best heavyeights inthe country and knocked them out one after the other".
This was all written in May 1924 by Bob Edgren, heard of him?
Here is a little about him.

"Known for truthfulness"[edit]
Edgren gained a reputation among his readers and his colleagues as being a straight shooter. As The New York Times opined at the time of his death:

Even-tempered always, well-informed in all sports and particularly in boxing, to which he paid much notice, he was known the world over as an authority who always told the truth as he saw the events he watched.

It is a testimony to his integrity that in those days in New York, when the law did not permit the giving of decisions in fights, the wide world was willing to accept the judgment of Bob Edgren in deciding wagers made. When Bob Edgren, in his Evening World column, said so-and-so was the winner nobody complained.[2]"

What it boils down to is for the seven years Dempsey was champion Wills fed on a diet of well chewed meat.
You need to research this more before coming out with anymore silly statements.
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What was so bad with Dempsey vs Gibbons?

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