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David Putland explores the history of what may have been one of the biggest heavyweight fights in history
Some years ago someone in America placed on eBay a newspaper called The Brooklyn “Daily Eagle” dated December 11 1921. What was remarkable about this newspaper was that it purported to have an account of a secret fight between Jack Johnson the fabled “Galveston Giant” and Jack Dempsey, the menacing “Manassa Mauler”, who was the Heavyweight Champion at the time. This article apparently was sold on eBay and disappeared from the minds of interested observers alongside the thousands of other items sold on a daily basis. Yet for a student of boxing history this newspaper may have reported the most stupendous undiscovered event in the history of the sport.
For over nine decades there have been occasional rumours about a secret match between Johnson and Dempsey. Rumours? Chinese whispers? A hoax story to amuse and entertain created in the fun-loving crazy 20’s? Maybe – but maybe not.
Twenty five years ago a great American boxing friend of mine called John Peterson sent me a whole pile of boxing material including newspapers and magazines, some of which had been scanned. There was so much that I placed it to one side and only occasionally dipped into it. John knew his boxing and had met nearly all the great champions going back to the forties. I came across a scanned article from the long departed and short-lived American boxing magazine “Fight Beat” from 1985. It contains an article by the late Lew Eskin, a renowned boxing historian in the 70’s and 80’s. Eskin was a former editor of the fight magazine “Boxing Illustrated”. He provides strong evidence that Johnson and Dempsey may have fought in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada reported in a Brooklyn newspaper (The Daily Eagle) dated December 11 1921.
Eskin had purchased a newspaper (possibly in the late 70’s or early 80’s) and within its contents had discovered this startling account of the fight in the aforementioned Brooklyn newspaper. The fight was only for a private audience. It tells of a hard fight between the 43-year-old Johnson and the 27-year-old Dempsey, who was in his prime. Dempsey wins by a KO in round seven after recovering from a fifth round knockdown. The report of the fight for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was written by one Ray Pearson. In brief it tells of a hard contest with Johnson getting the upper hand in the early rounds and then failing to stop a Dempsey rush in round seven.
Pearson writes, “As early as the second Dempsey’s adherents were standing on their toes, white faced and fearful, as they saw Johnson snapping left jabs to Dempsey’s nose and mouth, blows which straightened Dempsey out of his crouch, then with the speed of machine–gun fire ripping over right crosses which landed squarely on the jaw of the Utah mauler. They saw something happened to Dempsey that never had happened before, a punch-intoxicated Dempsey reeling and staggering and trying to protect himself from the Negro’s punishing blows.
Some years ago someone in America placed on eBay a newspaper called The Brooklyn “Daily Eagle” dated December 11 1921. What was remarkable about this newspaper was that it purported to have an account of a secret fight between Jack Johnson the fabled “Galveston Giant” and Jack Dempsey, the menacing “Manassa Mauler”, who was the Heavyweight Champion at the time. This article apparently was sold on eBay and disappeared from the minds of interested observers alongside the thousands of other items sold on a daily basis. Yet for a student of boxing history this newspaper may have reported the most stupendous undiscovered event in the history of the sport.
For over nine decades there have been occasional rumours about a secret match between Johnson and Dempsey. Rumours? Chinese whispers? A hoax story to amuse and entertain created in the fun-loving crazy 20’s? Maybe – but maybe not.
Twenty five years ago a great American boxing friend of mine called John Peterson sent me a whole pile of boxing material including newspapers and magazines, some of which had been scanned. There was so much that I placed it to one side and only occasionally dipped into it. John knew his boxing and had met nearly all the great champions going back to the forties. I came across a scanned article from the long departed and short-lived American boxing magazine “Fight Beat” from 1985. It contains an article by the late Lew Eskin, a renowned boxing historian in the 70’s and 80’s. Eskin was a former editor of the fight magazine “Boxing Illustrated”. He provides strong evidence that Johnson and Dempsey may have fought in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada reported in a Brooklyn newspaper (The Daily Eagle) dated December 11 1921.
Eskin had purchased a newspaper (possibly in the late 70’s or early 80’s) and within its contents had discovered this startling account of the fight in the aforementioned Brooklyn newspaper. The fight was only for a private audience. It tells of a hard fight between the 43-year-old Johnson and the 27-year-old Dempsey, who was in his prime. Dempsey wins by a KO in round seven after recovering from a fifth round knockdown. The report of the fight for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was written by one Ray Pearson. In brief it tells of a hard contest with Johnson getting the upper hand in the early rounds and then failing to stop a Dempsey rush in round seven.
Pearson writes, “As early as the second Dempsey’s adherents were standing on their toes, white faced and fearful, as they saw Johnson snapping left jabs to Dempsey’s nose and mouth, blows which straightened Dempsey out of his crouch, then with the speed of machine–gun fire ripping over right crosses which landed squarely on the jaw of the Utah mauler. They saw something happened to Dempsey that never had happened before, a punch-intoxicated Dempsey reeling and staggering and trying to protect himself from the Negro’s punishing blows.
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