Why was Dempsey afraid of Negroes?

[Yogi]

That ONLY proves that he never fought a black fighter. That does not mean he was racist. YOu are jumping to conclusions.

That doesn't prove anything except that the comment that "he never fought a black fighter" is factually incorrect. There were a couple of others that Dempsey faced, but John Lester Johnson was definately one black man whom Dempsey had shared the ring with during his fighting career.

[LondonRingRules]

False. He fought Ketchel, but that was just a fight among friends and we all knew who would win that anyway. It's not like he made a living off of them like you imply. And he fought most of the good black fighters before he got the title, and they were in their primes in some cases, and close enough in others. Bottom line: It was a political move for hm to not fight blacks. You should read up on Johnson sometime. If whites had fought blacks when theyheld titles, Johnson would have done the same.

And you're statement that he didn't fight the best white heavies is unsound. Whites were always having contests to determine a fighter that could beat Johnson. No one was considered a threat. That's why they had all the great white hope tournaments. He fought the best to get to the top and he stayed there. He might have a fought a COUPLE more black fighters in his prime while champ, but he was making a poli/social statement. Watch the bio, man.

What bio? The only bios on Johnson I know of are by Ward and Gordon and they don't support what you are saying. I'm not interested in the hype, the endless meaningless platitudes. The record shows he failed to defend the largest crop of black prime heavy contenders in history, and he never met many of the best white prime heavies. He was very similar to Larry Holmes in that regard.

Ketchel was the middleweight champion of the world, not a heavyweight. Ketchel dropped Johnson, hard enough that Johnson fell over trying to get up before he was sucessful. Small wonder he didn't want to face Langford who was blasting out good and great prime heavies like they were china dolls back then.

[RiverCityMike]

let me clarify, I was raised by racist parents, but I'm not at all against **********. heck, I'm a white guy and I directed a Baraka play, Dutchman. In the 60s and 70s Baraka was sort of a radical, but he couldn't have been as racist as he claimed, married a white woman, then divorced her. Sort of what Dutchman was subliminally about.

Baraka was just another one of those wannabe 'black leaders' that never rose above the silliness of the pop culture that produced them. Lee 'Scratch' Perry the same. Like Chris Rock said, everybody's got that racist uncle who married a white woman, but he gets drunk and talks **** like "i love her, but if the revolution breaks out, i'll kill her first and my cracker kids too." Being a fan of Baraka only shows how immature your views on race must be.

[LondonRingRules]

I would just add in that the origin of this ****** thread not only knows squat about Dempsey, but really was just trying to start some racist stuff by making a black/white issue.

Dempsey fought black fighters coming up and employed black sparring partners and one of his good friends was Bill Tate. There are some isolated comments by Dempsey where he does draw the color line for the press reports, but there are many, many more examples of Jack Johnson drawing the color line than Dempsey.

[Super_Lightweight]

hmm

Ken Burns bios are the best source, with many different interviews from people of the time and Johnson's relatives, as well as boxing historians.

Your "I only look at the record" statement is BS. If you see things that black and white then there's no use talking to you. Boxing was way more racially charged back then and times required a political statement in Johnson's eyes. If he's similar to Larry Holmes I guess that makes him pretty damn good.

P.S. It's a joke for you to even bring up the Ketchel fight. Ketchel knew he was supposed to lose to his friend Johnson, but he got a little frisky and popped Johnson with his hardest punch while Johnson had his hands down...I guess you forgot what happened to Ketchel when Jack got up. Ketchel got his face crushed and one punch KO'd.

[SilentButViolent]

because their knee-grows

[LondonRingRules]

========P.S. It's a joke for you to even bring up the Ketchel fight.==========

** You were the first one to bring up Ketchel and thought he was a heavyweight. You just flat out don't know history. They are reported to have an agreement, but Ketchel was fighting strongly throughout the bout with Johnson trying to act like he was toying with Ketchel. Johnson was caught big time and Langford would have knocked him cold for 5 min just like Choynski and Willard did, maybe 15min.

[Yogi]

I've watched that Johnson/Ketchel fight numerous times, and have played that right hand punch of Ketchel's in slo-motion probably twice that many. And I only do that because to me, that punch of Ketchel's doesn't even look like it lands...When you play that in slo-motion, has anyone else noticed that Johnson appears to start his fall while Ketchel's right hand is still in flight and hasn't reached it's target yet?

[LondonRingRules]

I've watched that Johnson/Ketchel fight numerous times, and have played that right hand punch of Ketchel's in slo-motion probably twice that many. And I only do that because to me, that punch of Ketchel's doesn't even look like it lands...When you play that in slo-motion, has anyone else noticed that Johnson appears to start his fall while Ketchel's right hand is still in flight and hasn't reached it's target yet?

Johnson is ducking, unsucessfully. Johnson tries to rise and falls over on his back. The KD is the real deal and had Ketchel been a LH with the same power, Johnson would have been out.

[Mike Tyson Jr.]

Really? And yet it's interesting that you idolize Tyson, who idolized Dempsey and still does, to a certain extent. Tyson patterned himself after Dempsey, 100%. If you watch Dempsey fight, in many instances, it's like watching a skinnier, whiter Tyson fight. And if you think he's gutless, then you've obviously never seen a fight of his in your life.

I know you're just being ****** and trolling, but couldn't resist a chance to make you look like an imbecile...

he refused to fight blacks
that proves he was not willing
to face anybody. he had no guts