Jack Dempsey vs Lennox Lewis in their prime

[mickey malone]

There was only 1 championship belt up for grabs in those days not the huge amount that is on offer today.. Those big men whom Dempsey fought all fought Hall of Fame fighters, so they are NOT tomato cans like you seem to insinuate..Those fighters would no-doubt be champions or `live contenders` today with all the title on offer just like Nicolay Valuev.
Dempsey defended his title 7 times in 7yrs but that was because a Dempsey fight was a World event and a far greater and bigger sporting event than anything Lennox Lewis has ever taken part in.

Yes a huge amount, & Lewis won the lot..

Had Dempsey been around in the 90's, he'd have probably been 2nd tier.. In other words, beating the likes of Hyde, Bent, Morrison etc for the WBO title, but Lewis would be a bridge too far..
The guys Jack fought were'nt tomato cans, just fringe contenders.. When you compare the quality of the 90's to the barron spell of the 20's, it should hit home...

[RightCross94]

There was only 1 championship belt up for grabs in those days not the huge amount that is on offer today.. Those big men whom Dempsey fought all fought Hall of Fame fighters, so they are NOT tomato cans like you seem to insinuate..Those fighters would no-doubt be champions or `live contenders` today with all the title on offer just like Nicolay Valuev.
Dempsey defended his title 7 times in 7yrs but that was because a Dempsey fight was a World event and a far greater and bigger sporting event than anything Lennox Lewis has ever taken part in.

Look, Dempsey was a great fighter, but Lennox would absolutely destroy him. not only does he have a big advantage in the technical skills department, but he also possesses a 50-60 odd lb weight advantage, and a height and reach advantage I'm not going to bother calculating. Dempsey may have a slight chance of a freak knockout, (he did hit very hard) but honestly Lewis was undermotivated for the Rahman loss and I think he was a touch green when McCall knocked him out, and he learned and grew from those losses. I think Dempsey bravely comes out doing the only thing he knows how to do, and Lennox sticks him and pushes him back with hard jabs, and pulverizes him with a big right. Dempsey gets up, and is promptly lined up and dropped again, as i said, complete mismatch.

[sonnyboyx2]

Look, Dempsey was a great fighter, but Lennox would absolutely destroy him. not only does he have a big advantage in the technical skills department, but he also possesses a 50-60 odd lb weight advantage, and a height and reach advantage I'm not going to bother calculating. Dempsey may have a slight chance of a freak knockout, (he did hit very hard) but honestly Lewis was undermotivated for the Rahman loss and I think he was a touch green when McCall knocked him out, and he learned and grew from those losses. I think Dempsey bravely comes out doing the only thing he knows how to do, and Lennox sticks him and pushes him back with hard jabs, and pulverizes him with a big right. Dempsey gets up, and is promptly lined up and dropped again, as i said, complete mismatch.

yeah.. Then Lennox runs up Mount Everest, scores 6 goal for United in the Manchester derby, swims the English channel doing backstroke and lowers the world 100m record to 0.01

[mickey malone]

Look, Dempsey was a great fighter, but Lennox would absolutely destroy him. not only does he have a big advantage in the technical skills department, but he also possesses a 50-60 odd lb weight advantage, and a height and reach advantage I'm not going to bother calculating. Dempsey may have a slight chance of a freak knockout, (he did hit very hard) but honestly Lewis was undermotivated for the Rahman loss and I think he was a touch green when McCall knocked him out, and he learned and grew from those losses. I think Dempsey bravely comes out doing the only thing he knows how to do, and Lennox sticks him and pushes him back with hard jabs, and pulverizes him with a big right. Dempsey gets up, and is promptly lined up and dropped again, as i said, complete mismatch.

Good analysis! My thoughts entirely...

[Kid McCoy]

Sonnyboy, when was the last time a Dempsey-sized heavyweight dominated the division?

[sonnyboyx2]

Sonnyboy, when was the last time a Dempsey-sized heavyweight dominated the division?

Tyson, Holyfield,

[sonnyboyx2]

Look, Dempsey was a great fighter, but Lennox would absolutely destroy him. not only does he have a big advantage in the technical skills department, but he also possesses a 50-60 odd lb weight advantage, and a height and reach advantage I'm not going to bother calculating. Dempsey may have a slight chance of a freak knockout, (he did hit very hard) but honestly Lewis was undermotivated for the Rahman loss and I think he was a touch green when McCall knocked him out, and he learned and grew from those losses. I think Dempsey bravely comes out doing the only thing he knows how to do, and Lennox sticks him and pushes him back with hard jabs, and pulverizes him with a big right. Dempsey gets up, and is promptly lined up and dropped again, as i said, complete mismatch.

Jess Willard held greater height and weight advantages.. Lewis also held huge height and weight advantages over Rahman & McCall

[mickey malone]

yeah.. Then Lennox runs up Mount Everest, scores 6 goal for United in the Manchester derby, swims the English channel doing backstroke and lowers the world 100m record to 0.01

Well on a humorous note, perhaps if Jack Dempsey had ever fought a 240lb BLACK fighter, it would have been like when Manchester United once wore Grey as their away strip.. The players wern't used to it, got confused, & ended up conceeding a hat full!

[StarshipTrooper]

I have a lot respect for old school fighters. But some people on here tend to like old school fighter so much that they make them sound like invincible gods.

There are plenty of people who make the current crop of fighters sound like invincible gods. Why is that ok?

The fact is boxing has evolved. The technique, the rules, the equipment and the training has evolved. Emphasis on technique. Some old school fighters had great technique for their time and would still be considered to have good technique nowadays. I'm thinking of guys like Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis.

While a case can be made regarding technique and the turn of the century fighters even then a blanket statement is inaccurate. The truth is there hasn't been any huge breakthrough in boxing technique in decades. You can see fighters from the 40s fighting exactly the same way people do in this era. Some (Jersey Joe Walcott comes to mind) were more technichally proficient than anyone from today.

There is kind of a cult of "progress" around today that assumes that everyting improves exponentially with each generation. They've been misled by technological advancement and mistakenly extend it to every aspect of life. The truth is not everything improves with the passing years. Some things (boxing included) came to their fullest extent of significant knowledge long ago and there isn't anything major to discover left. Others have had knowledge regress as those fields became less and less important to mankind over the passing years (combat with swords for example is irrelivant in the modern world). Also bear in mind that just because people do something differently today doesn't mean they do it better ie. Wlad's way of fighting may be different from Ali's but that doesn't make it a better way of fighting.

But Jack Dempsey wasn't one of those guy, he won with pure aggression. Wide swinging hooks, he kept his hands low and didn't have much in terms of defense.

So all in all, i think Lewis would mop the floor with Dempsey.

Mike Tyson patterned his own style of fighting after Dempsey's. Are you one of those that think Lennox "mops the floor" with a prime Tyson? I certainly don't. I think it's a competive matchup and the idea that Lewis steamrolls Tyson is absurd.

I know some of you guys are going to not agree, but unlike you i don't live in the past, i live in the real world.

The past is part of the real world ie. it's different from fiction/fantasy. The past actually happened and had real human beings participating in it. You may say you live in the "now" but if that's the case how does that differentiate you from the lower species? Animals live in the "now" having no concept of the past and lacking the ability to conceive of the future. Aren't you limiting yourself? Unless man lives in the past, present, AND future he isn't fulfilling his intellectual potential and can't be said to be any different from the wild beasts.

Poet

[sonnyboyx2]

There are plenty of people who make the current crop of fighters sound like invincible gods. Why is that ok?



While a case can be made regarding technique and the turn of the century fighters even then a blanket statement is inaccurate. The truth is there hasn't been any huge breakthrough in boxing technique in decades. You can see fighters from the 40s fighting exactly the same way people do in this era. Some (Jersey Joe Walcott comes to mind) were more technichally proficient than anyone from today.

There is kind of a cult of "progress" around today that assumes that everyting improves exponentially with each generation. They've been misled by technological advancement and mistakenly extend it to every aspect of life. The truth is not everything improves with the passing years. Some things (boxing included) came to their fullest extent of significant knowledge long ago and there isn't anything major to discover left. Others have had knowledge regress as those fields became less and less important to mankind over the passing years (combat with swords for example is irrelivant in the modern world). Also bear in mind that just because people do something differently today doesn't mean they do it better ie. Wlad's way of fighting may be different from Ali's but that doesn't make it a better way of fighting.



Mike Tyson patterned his own style of fighting after Dempsey's. Are you one of those that think Lennox "mops the floor" with a prime Tyson? I certainly don't. I think it's a competive matchup and the idea that Lewis steamrolls Tyson is absurd.



The past is part of the real world ie. it's different from fiction/fantasy. The past actually happened and had real human beings participating in it. You may say you live in the "now" but if that's the case how does that differentiate you from the lower species? Animals live in the "now" having no concept of the past and lacking the ability to conceive of the future. Aren't you limiting yourself? Unless man lives in the past, present, AND future he isn't fulfilling his intellectual potential and can't be said to be any different from the wild beasts.

Poet

well documented post with excellent and accurate points made throughout