Would Cleveland Williams Be Dempsey s Downfall?

I think Williams had all the ingredients to make a great fighter, except his shaky chin. Not sure I fancy that chin against Dempsey

 

For sure Williams could do a lot of damage. If he fought smart and led Dempsey onto his straight punches it could get ugly. But, I didn't like what I saw against Liston. The first few good ones Sonny got in on him and he crumpled.

 

Dempsey possessed similar savage power as Liston but was also much more elusive in both foot and defensive movement, and was a master of punching at various angles. Williams is outmatched here.

 

I honestly doubt it. Sure Williams had enough power to have a puncher’s chance against a lot of people. But Dempsey was very quick of both hand and foot with a ferocious punching technique and that spells bad news for Williams’ shaky defense and chin

 

Considering Williams wasnt even consistent against fringe contenders Id say no but then the fight would never happen anyway because Williams was a big black guy and Dempsey wanted no part that.

 

Let's ask Choklab?

 

He's Baaaaack!

 

That's not really true. Williams actually took a lot of hard punches from Liston, and at times gave better than he got.

 

I’ll meet your stake Rich and say: Let’s ask Swag.

Ah, no need, Swag has already opined on this.

I actually agree with Swag (no fee involved).

Williams’ chin gets an unfair neg. rating. KO’d by Satterfield early career but then went years before being KO’d by a proven power puncher in Liston who KO’d a lot of people.

The same Liston who was the only man to 1) KD and 2) stop durable Wayne Bethea in less than one round.

Otherwise, later came the permanently impairing gun shot wound and past prime stoppages/KO losses.

Even at age 38, Big Cat showed a very respectable beard against Chuvalo over 10 tough rounds. And he was still able to mark up and set the iron chinned Chuvalo back on his heels.

If Big Cat nailed JD with some of the punches he caught Liston with it would be very interesting-

 

It's hard to take a lot of punches in such a short time.

 

Dempsey's power...speed and vicious attack vs William's chin...gee...I dunno...

 

Here is the fight's highlights

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