Where Do You Rank Dempsey, In A List Of Hardest Hitting Hvywt Champs?

Tough to say. He was a great puncher and great finisher even more so in a p4p sense. He hit with tremendous leverage and got his body weight into every punch. He threw short fast impact blows. He was great at ending fights early. He was way ahead of his time as a puncher

However at 185-190lb, I doubt on sheer size alone he hit as hard as some of the modern athletic big men 1970s onward who weigh considerably more. If you’ve ever sparred in the ring you know getting hit by a 240lb powerful man (who knew how to punch) hurts a lot.

Now competition wise Dempsey fought a lot of durable men and bigger men and was impressive knocking them out. However he never fought the best big man of his era (Wills) and never fought the most talented man of his era (Greb) which would have really showed us his true pedigree. In fairness to Dempsey, he was able to land once on Tunney in two fights and put him down for first time in his career with terrific left hook (although since Tunney never fought big powerful men we don’t know how good his chin was) which proves his impact as a puncher when he lands


I’d say top 10 is fair, in a p4p sense he’s near the very top

 

P4P he's right up there. But in absolute terms? He's a small dude by modern heavyweight standards and there have been some huge guys with crushing power to hold belts.

 

Yeah like no way does he hit as hard as 235lb Razor Ruddock’s smash. Again on a p4p scale Dempsey rates at or near the top

 

He has the record for 1st round knockouts so he obviously hit pretty hard. Even took down a few very large men over 220. I think it was mainly his speed, combinations, odd angles, and ferocious intensity that produced his power. I seriously doubt a guy who was usually between 186-194 soaking wet hits harder with individual shots than behemoths like Foreman, Lewis, Wladmir, etc. I bet Baer hit harder than Dempsey with his best individual shot. There probably isn't room for Dempsey on a top 10 list for sheer power if we include more recent modern guys.

 

Tough to rank really, he obviously hit very hard but I think it was coupled with a speed and savagery that made him so dangerous. I'd say he hit harder than Holyfield and his power may be around Frazier level. Which is nothing to sneeze at.

 

Some of t

With two hands and with compact punches he sure does hit harder. Razor loaded up on his left all the time and any heavyweight amatuer can hit hard doing so. Fred Fulton said Dempsey hit twice as hard as Willard with either hand, its compact puches that bring home the bacon as Dempsey, Louis, many others demonstrated countless times

 

Baer hit harder than anyone but ask Baer to shorted the punch and hed never have the 10 inch power of a Louis or Dempsey. Some of you all here have gotten too use to sloppy imprecise punching.

 

I agree ... P4P terrific ..

 

He's smaller than Bivol, so I'm sure he had good pound for pound power as he put out much larger men, but he wouldn't even be top 100 today in terms of pure punching power. There are 300 pound fighters in alright shape like Willis Meehan and 280 pound fighters with Olympic pedigree like Zhilei Zhang.

 

Nowhere near the top 10, even though I like him.

 

Completely agree.

 

He wasnt smaller than Bivol, he was 6´1 and Bivol is 6 feet. Dempsey was taller than Frazier, Marciano, Tyson and other heavyweights that were contenders or better.
In terms of pure power Dempsey is way up there. Remember Mike Tyson was modeled after him. Some of these much larger heavyweights couldnt hit in the same league as Jack.