Calling Larry Holmes A Greater HW Than Jack Dempsey?

[Wild Blue Yonda]

It's an interesting comparison, IMO, & I ultimately consider their placings in history more or less interchangeable with one another. Dempsey fought & beat the better opposition on the way up, pre-title --- Holmes beat better rivals after they'd lost their title, coming back for a long run after Dempsey had chosen to stay retired. Dempsey defeated better men while holding the crown --- Holmes, many more fighters, however.

Similarly, I could see a case for either man besting the other head-to-head. They are both somewhere between the top-5 & 10 of all-time.

[Wild Blue Yonda]

You are so right man, Jack Dempsey is a true Cruiserweight I have said before that somebody should base all the Marquis of Queensbury Heavyweights in three different Categories, namely, 1.- Cruiserweights where you can have your smallest heavies like Burns, Fitzsimmons, Tunney, Charles, Gibbons, Corbett, Marciano and say,.... Dempsey to go with moderns like a prime Evander, Spinks, Tarver, Green and Qawi etc.,,,,,,, 2nd. - Genuine Heavy.,,,,,,,and a Super Heavy ( or maybe MASTODON WEIGHT ) where you can have guys like the Klitchko's, Lewis, Valuev, Fulton, Carnera, Buddy Baer, Willard and the likes of Nino Valdes. Then if some new genius kid that's Dempsey's weight comes along he can prove the smaller man really can compete by winning all three weight classes AND be undisputed we could really get excited, I'm waiting for the next big thing.

Too bad Dempsey blows a hole in your argument by fighting, beating & --- in some cases --- clobbering big men. Some of whom were of real quality as contenders.

Dempsey would do just fine in a big mans' era.

[Steak]

Longevity: Holmes
Quality of wins: Holmes(win over Norton>any win Dempsey has)
Title Reign: Holmes
Accomplishments past prime: Holmes

Easy decision.

[Wild Blue Yonda]

I think Dempsey definitely has an edge on Holmes in competition --- at least, until Holmes came back in the 90's to tighten it up. Holmes' title opposition doesn't get enough scrutiny (though Dempsey's low number of defenses opens the door).

The Norton win is very over-rated. Granted, Holmes went in injured, but that's countenanced by the fact it was a Norton at the end of the line --- look at the nosedive his career takes immediately after. He was past-it.

[Steak]

I think Dempsey definitely has an edge on Holmes in competition --- at least, until Holmes came back in the 90's to tighten it up. Holmes' title opposition doesn't get enough scrutiny (though Dempsey's low number of defenses opens the door).

The Norton win is very over-rated. Granted, Holmes went in injured, but that's countenanced by the fact it was a Norton at the end of the line --- look at the nosedive his career takes immediately after. He was past-it.

How was Norton 'well past it'? He was coming off a number of good victories and in the fight he preformed VERY well. It was a war. I think that fight had a lot to do with his deterioration.

I dont think I would necessarily call him prime, but even a not prime(but still very good) Norton is better than any legitimate win Dempsey has. You could argue Sharkey, but I dont count that win for Dempsey because he won it completely on low blows.

[#1Assassin]

holmes was way better than dempsey imo. i think dempsey is one of the most overrated fighters ever and holmes one of the most underrated. i rate holmes #3 all time HW and dempsey im not sure, somewhere around #10 i guess.

holmes wouldve boxed circles around him and knocked him out late in a head to head matchup.

[Sam Donald]

Holmes would kill dempsey, dempsey is so wild he fights like an 8 year old

[JAB5239]

Dempsey was an excellent fighter but his resume can be picked apart like any other fighter. The biggest reasons I couldn't rate him above Holmes is because He ducked both Greb and Wills, and he went 1-1-2 with Willie Meehan, who started out as a flyweight, never trained and lost to just about every other top fighter he fought.

Dempsey's lack of title defenses also hurts his all time standing in my opinion. If he had fought Wills or Greb at anytime during his reign he could have very well lost. Instead he chose to fight guys who Greb had already beaten or had ducked him (Carpentier, Brennen and Gibbons), a fighters with Brights disease who would die 3 years later (Miske), a guy who was trounced in sparring by a 45 year old Jack Johnson (Firpo) and had a non title fight with his sparring partner Jimmy Darcy.

[The Surgeon]

I feel like Holmes would have took Dempsey to school H2H and i rate him higher too

[Forza]

If anything I find holmes EXTREMELY overrated

His best wins

38 year old completely washed up ali
ray mercer (c level fighter )
shavers ( c level fighter )
Spinks (crackhead, washed up)
berbick ( c level fighter )
Norton ( c level fighter )

h2h holmes wins
legacy vs legacy dempsey is a better boxer