Did Jack Johnson fight Jack Dempsey?

Did Jack Johnson fight Jack Dempsey? 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 punishing blows. “Johnson’s right crosses befuddled Dempsey and he couldn’t fight in his usual style. He took more punishment in the third round and more in the fourth and was still on the receiving end of punches in the fifth session. “One of Johnson’s rights cracked Dempsey in the fifth round and the Utah mauler dropped to the canvas. He staggered to his feet at ‘five’ and was still ‘taking it’ when the gong ended that tough session for him. “Dempsey seemed a rejuvenated man when the going started them into action in the sixth, no longer did Dempsey permit the Johnson to take the lead. When he missed his unerring left jab, the Dempsey got ‘inside’ left, right, left went the Dempsey’s fists to Johnson’s midsection. Those crushing blows by Dempsey who now could not be denied, almost doubled up Johnson. “The tide had turned and the Dempsey followers scented victory for their man. Then came the seventh round and the finish. Once more the swaying, dashing Dempsey came catapulting out of his corner. He clashed with Johnson in the centre of the ring. “When he landed the deadly wallops to the body Johnson was forced to clinch. The round was about two and a half minutes old when Dempsey shot a right which landed over Johnson's heart. That blow sickened Johnson and he tried to protect himself. He dropped his guard and over went the knockout punch (a terrific right hook) on Johnson’s jaw.” Strangely this fight has a sort of mirror image to the future Dempsey v Sharkey fight of 1927 when Dempsey was staggered by Sharkey and took a battering, then in round seven a series of punishing body punches caused Sharkey to drop his guard before a thunderous left hook put the ‘Boston Gob’ out for the count. But what are we to make of this newspaper account of the fight? Did it really happen? Let us first consider Jack Johnson’s situation at this time in 1921. By then Johnson was 43 years old and not only was he an ex-champ but had been inactive for over two and a half years. He had also just served a year in prison at Leavenworth federal penitentiary for violating the Mann Act; a dubious charge against Johnson concerning the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes. This was brought about by the American government at the time which reflected deeply ingrained racism prevalent in white society. They hated Johnson’s refusal to do as they dictated, especially concerning his going with white women. Johnson did though box exhibitions in prison. When released he was out of condition and in desperate need of money. He challenged Dempsey publicly and other leading contenders. A fight with Dempsey would solve his problems. Jack Dempsey at this time was in his prime at 27 years of age and Heavyweight Champion. On July 2 1921 Dempsey knocked out George Carpentier. This fight was boxing’s first million dollar gate. He did not box again until March 9 1922 against Packey O’Gatty in New York in a three round exhibition. He continued with a series of uneventful exhibitions in America and then on July 18 1922 he fought Elzear Rioux in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in an exhibition. There were at least four more exhibitions in Canada in that year. Johnson also fought in Montreal in 1923 beginning with an exhibition with Battling Siki in September of that year and a further there more exhibitions there. He also fought a Homer Smith in a 10 round match in Montreal on February 22 1924. There is no apparent record of either fighter being engaged in any other boxing match at that time, or that they were anywhere else on December 11 1921. They both could have met and both had links with fighting in Canada. In Dempsey’s early autobiography “Massacre in the Sun” he says after the Carpentier fight (and a trip to Paris): “ Kearns put me to work right after we got back to pay for the trip. He found tame ones for me in Canada, Boston and Michigan City. I knocked out three of them in one round in one night in Montreal.” No mention of the Johnson fight admittedly, but there may be very good reasons why not. He was in the right place at right time though. Dempsey appears to be reluctant to say much concerning this period of time. We must remember that Dempsey’s manager Jack ‘Doc’ Kearns was a con-man of the first order and an inveterate gambler. For a long time what Kearns said Dempsey did. If a secret fight for gamblers only between Johnson and Dempsey did take place then Kearns was the man to swing it. Such a fight could generate huge revenue for all concerned.