Wills Firpo Report States Wills Has No Chance With Dempsey

Dempsey was tied to Doc Kearns, by contract. Kearns made all the decisions.

-When he split from Kearns (though still under disputed contract and undergoing legal wranglings) he went to Rickard and requested to fight Wills.
-Rickard said no.
-Dempsey signed to fight Wills with Floyd Fitzsimmons, who didn't come up with the money.
-Dempsey went back to Rickard.
Rickard wanted him to fight Tunney, not Wills.
-Dempsey then signed to fight for B.C. Clements of the Chicago Coliseum. The opponent - Wills. At Soldiers' Field, Chicago. Again, the money did not come through in time.

Dempsey wanted to fight desperately by now, he'd been inactive too long and craved a big payday.
Rickard guaranteed the Tunney fight, all set, massive payday, a chunk of money up front.

We can accuse Dempsey of taking bad advice, or being a lousy self-manager.
But to think he had all the power in his hands to make everything come together seems not to based in reality.

 

They were all pragmatists, that's the problem.

 

I don't hold it against Dempsey the man so much that he didn't fight Wills, if you're a boxer why not take easy fights for big money instead of maybe getting a beating?

However not facing the best means he didn't prove himself the best. His record is not particularly impressive, neither are his performances in the ring for me

 

Well, he asked to fight Wills a couple of times, and signed with promoters a couple of times. He had a say, and the thing he said loudest was "where's the money?". That's understandable.

Thing is, managers DID/do treat fighters like 'slaves', if that's the right term.
They took a big chunk of the fighter's earnings .... and for that money they are expected to work.
Deciding when to fight, and who to fight, are what the manager is supposed to be doing - doing that justifies him taking his cut. The fighter is supposed to train, and fight, and leave the rest to the manager.

So, who do you blame ?

I'm perhaps not up to date with the Mayweather-Pacquiao developments but last time I heard, Mayweather was vigorously calling Pac out, but then insisting "no one gets 50-50 when they fight Floyd Mayweather" .... since Mayweather IS one of the "promoters" of such a match, I'd say that is clearly a dispute between two promoters ....

Call it greed. Call it megalomania. Call it BS, and a waste of time. That's all true.
But that's the business.

 

assuming dempsey wins it is unfortunate for his resume that the fight never happened.
on the other hand it is probably the tunney performances that look best on tape (taking opposition quality into account). so our perception of dempseys skill should not be overly affected by the non fight with wills.

 

I don't think so.
Especially not in 1924 or later, when he probably knew he was nearing the end of the line.
Wills was a good businessman, and made good money from the fight game.

Not that he would have needed to take a pay cut.

 

You've stated that. But you are a bit vague on how his will alone would have made this happen.

... I'm not saying Dempsey is blameless, but your position seems to "blaming promoters, managers, etc. is all BS", yet we can put the blame on the lack of will of just one fighter.

If that's the way you look at it, fair enough.
I think it's a little more complicated.

 

Well, that's between him and his manager.
I would hope they'd do better financially than Gibbons did.

 

Well, I believe Dempsey did genuinely ask for the fight, and make efforts to make it. Which is what documents indicate. Too late in the day perhaps (but better late than never), and with the proviso that he got paid what he was promised, some up front.

Maybe not up to the high standards of declaring : "I'll fight him for free, get me Wills, I don't care if I have to sit on the title for another ten years, Wills has to be my next fight. If I don't fight Wills I'll kill myself" etc.
But still ...

Well, they are not entirely helpless, they can begin to wriggle free when they reach that level, but still there is a lot of power in the hands of others, and it's still a tough battle to have complete control over the career.

Look at the way movie stars were treated by the studios and the star system contracts from the 1930s to the 1950s. Look at the music industry. Most of the biggest stars were controlled or coerced or steered one way or another, for years into their fame and success phases. They didn't get to choose.
And successful actors and musicians have a lot more time on their side to wriggle free than championship boxers.

This is my take on it anyway.