Why was Dempsey afraid of Negroes?

[winkyisnasty13]

obviously he was just another racist and would have felt worthless if he lost to an african-american

[butterfly1964]

obviously he was just another racist and would have felt worthless if he lost to an african-american

no dempsey fought and beat plenty of blacks when he rose through the ranks, but his manager didn't allow title fights between him and blacks.

[whdempsey]

**Langford was half blind and on the tail end of his career when Dempsey won the title. Sam was in his prime during the Johnson and Willard years. Wills was prime for Jack and true, Jack left his promoter and manager to sign against Wills, a very brave thing since they controlled most of the heavyweight division. Dempsey was unable to make a fight until 3 yrs later when his contract with Kearns expired and he fought Tunney in a Rickard promotion.

Jack had a lot of fondness for Sam and doubtless slipped him some extra money after he retired. He would always say that Sam was too tough for him and woulda whooped him. He was always very generous about other fighters, like saying Louis and Rocky had more power than him, stuff like that.

Very true about Langford. ****** of me to overlook his age. Thanks for correcitng it.

As far as the Wills fight goes, I believe your dates are off. He left Kearns after three years of Vaudeville and exhibitions. He signed for the fight with Wills. It was nixed by New York, and Rickard, and Rickard had him take the Tunney fight instead. It's in both his bios, the one by him and Considine, and the one by Kahn.

I still stand by my prediction for the Wills fight though. And if a Langford-Dempsey fight had ever been made, I believe my prediction would be on the money for that as well.

[whdempsey]

that racist knew his ass would have
been beat down if he would fight a
black man.

This statement is incomprehensible. Besides, since when is the color of your skin also proof that you're a good athlete? Your fooling yourself. Stop.

[Yogi]

Langford, Jeannette, and Wills were offered to Johnson by promoters when he had fled to Europe. He instead fought Moran and Battling Johnson instead for much less money.

This is true.

Johnson apologists like to state that he only fought white challengers because he made more coinage that way, which was the case on some occasions. But there were plenty of offers presented to Johnson by promoters wishing to match him up with those others (Langford, Wills, and Jeannette), including one very generous offer by an English promoter that was to pay Johnson close to 10,000 pounds if he agreed to defend against Langford on British souls. Not too sure how that amount exchanges over to U.S. dollars (I "think" it's a little over 2 to 1), but it would have to be somewhere close to the reported $25,000-30,000 Johnson recieved for his "big money" fight with Jess Willard.

[Yogi]

no dempsey fought and beat plenty of blacks when he rose through the ranks, but his manager didn't allow title fights between him and blacks.

It's funny how Dempsey gets criticized for not fighting Langford when the offer was made to him in the summer of 1916, and is used as fuel in the "Dempsey ducked black fighters" arguments.

But ****, that offer came immediately after Dempsey had fought a tough fight against another black Heavyweight of the day by the name of John Lester Johnson, and Jack had sustained a couple of broken ribs for his effort in that bout. Dempsey was on the mend when that offer was presented to fight Langford, and at that time, he also turned down fights against Gunboat Smith & Frank Moran (was he scared of them too?), cause he wasn't up to snuff and would've been fighting injured.

If he was able to, I'm pretty confident that Dempsey would've taken that fight against Langford. Odds are great that a 1916 fight between Langford & Dempsey, would've resulted in Jack taking a hellacious ****-kicking at the hands of Sam, because of where they were in their respective careers (Langford was just winding down his Heavyweight prime, whereas Dempsey was still a relative novice)...but I'm thinking Jack would've taken it anyways, if he was not injured.

For those who think Dempsey was an outright racist, it might be worth noting that he employed plenty of black Heavyweights in his camp all throughout his career, including the likes of Bill Tate, Larry Gains, George Godfrey, etc., who were all regular (or semi-regular) sparring mates of Jack's during his title run.

[Yogi]

Jack had a lot of fondness for Sam and doubtless slipped him some extra money after he retired. He would always say that Sam was too tough for him and woulda whooped him. He was always very generous about other fighters, like saying Louis and Rocky had more power than him, stuff like that.

That fondness or respect shown by Dempsey towards Langford was also recipricated, as evident by this statement made by Sam;

"Dempsey is the greatest fighter I have ever seen."

[LondonRingRules]

========As far as the Wills fight goes, I believe your dates are off. He left Kearns after three years of Vaudeville and exhibitions. He signed for the fight with Wills. It was nixed by New York, and Rickard, and Rickard had him take the Tunney fight instead. It's in both his bios, the one by him and Considine, and the one by Kahn.============

** According to CBZ records, his contract with Kearns expired 9/1/26 and he met Tunney in 9/23/26. He signed to meet Wills 9/6/24, but the fight fell through because of finances, maybe because of the difficulty in arranging a site as NY is reported to have refused them as you noted.

It was my understanding that Dempsey left both Rickard and Kearns after the Firpo fight at the close of 1923 which is why he signed to meet Wills. Perhaps some lawyers got to him and told him Kearns exercised options spelled out in the fine print on the contract and he was on the hook until 9/1/26. At any rate, from the end of the Firpo fight until the Tunney fight, he only appeared in movies, theater, and exhibitions and only signed to make one legit fight, the Wills fight.

[whdempsey]

========As far as the Wills fight goes, I believe your dates are off. He left Kearns after three years of Vaudeville and exhibitions. He signed for the fight with Wills. It was nixed by New York, and Rickard, and Rickard had him take the Tunney fight instead. It's in both his bios, the one by him and Considine, and the one by Kahn.============

** According to CBZ records, his contract with Kearns expired 9/1/26 and he met Tunney in 9/23/26. He signed to meet Wills 9/6/24, but the fight fell through because of finances, maybe because of the difficulty in arranging a site as NY is reported to have refused them as you noted.

It was my understanding that Dempsey left both Rickard and Kearns after the Firpo fight at the close of 1923 which is why he signed to meet Wills. Perhaps some lawyers got to him and told him Kearns exercised options spelled out in the fine print on the contract and he was on the hook until 9/1/26. At any rate, from the end of the Firpo fight until the Tunney fight, he only appeared in movies, theater, and exhibitions and only signed to make one legit fight, the Wills fight.

I may be wrong. I don't have either biography in front of me, and lack the inclination to look it up on the Net, but if I recollect correctly, the Tunney fight was made to replace the Wills fight. Dempsey left Kearns because Kearns was keeping him out of the ring. He went back to Rickard because he trusted him, and to spite Kearns (who never liked Rickard very much).

As I said, I believe I remember correctly, and I'm sure the information can be found in either "Jack Dempsey: On Himself" ghostwritten by George Considine, or "A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring 20's" by Roger Kahn.

Also, what's CBZ? Cyber boxing zone?

[whdempsey]

obviously he was just another racist and would have felt worthless if he lost to an african-american

Oh, hey guys. Here it is. I found our answer. No need to discuss it any longer. No need to ask questions and find answers. winkyisnasty13 has broken down the motivation of a great fighter, good man, and a complex individual with what is basically three words: "He was racist."

Please, everyone note the ease with which winkyisnasty has found our answer. He needed no "information" no "knowledge" of the subject. All he needed to hear was that Jack Dempsey didn't defend against black fighters, and from there quite handily deduced that he would have lost to any black fighter he fought. This is the type of post that I find terrifically distracting.

Do everyone a favor and shut up winkyisnasty. You obviously don't know enough about the subject, and are not interested in learning. Find another thread. There are literally thousands. I'm sure at least on of them is about Mike Tyson, whom I'm sure you simply adore.