The Great Trainers and Fighters on Dempsey: Simply The Best

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

I got into it big time the other night with a good and valued buddy of mine from White Plains, NY. I have dropped the name of Mike Hunnicut here before and do so again unashamedly. Mike knows his boxing backwards and yet doesn’t, if you’ll forgive my peculiar slice of Irish logic. [details]

[mokele]

colorful article

That's a good, colorful article. Dempsey was of course a fantastic fighter, very hard on bigger men, but he could also be hit, staggered, hurt etc. He could also be outboxed.

Luis Firpo nearly beat him, and if you watch the film of the Dempsey-Firpo fight, you can see that Luis Firpo wasn't much more than a big, strong and aggressive man. He lacked overall boxing skills, threw wild, looping punches and didn't defend himself that well. His punching technique was poor. A good modern heavyweight would have made minced meat out of Firpo. Dempsey beat him but a smart boxer of modern times (like Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes) would have chopped up Firpo without ever taking any punishment.

How would a modern, big heavyweight have done against the Jack Sharkey that fought Dempsey? Sharkey was a fine boxer who was outboxing Dempsey in that fight before he was knocked out, but he was really only a big cruiserweight or small heavyweight by today's standards. He could beat most of today's heavyweights with superior speed and boxing skills, but not the best modern ones such as Ali, Holmes, Lewis, Tyson, Liston, etc. I also am doubtful that Dempsey was a better fighter than Joe Louis.

Anyway, when you consider all the evidence I can't put Dempsey at the top of the historical list of great heavyweights. For sure he is top 20, maybe even top 10, but I can think of several that I would have to put ahead of him.

[antihero]

Go Dempsey and Tunney! Real boxers.

[Kid Achilles]

That's a GREAT article by Mike Casey. One of the best reads I've seen posted here in a long time.

[jabsRstiff]

Total bull****, truthfully.

[hemichromis]

i am dempseys biggest fan i think the book championship boxing is the best book on boxing BUT i dont believe he was as amazing as ppeople think he is

He could out match sluggers very easily and impressively but he had real trouble with boxers

[jabsRstiff]

Seeing an article like this, & seeing many gush overtime like they do....
one can make a good case that Jack Dempsey is the most overrated fighter of all time.

There is no way, shape, or form that Jack Dempsey is the best fighter/heavyweight ever.

Ray Arcel was a great, great trainer....but he's human. He's human & he's wrong here.

[Kid Achilles]

All of the great heavyweights were flawed, more so than the great champions of any other weight class. I don't think Dempsey was the greatest fighter of all time but I can see a strong argument for him in the top five at heavyweight, or even at #1. You can pretty much attack any of the great heavyweights from Joe Louis on down, but to consider Dempsey at #1 is no more rubbish than say putting Ali in that position IMO.

This is an essay with an opinion, and that is understood throughout. I could listen to a similar essay spouting off how great Ali was and call it trash as well. At least this essay includes transcripted quotes taken from interviews of men like Ray Arcel and Jack Sharkey, people who's opinions have some considerable weight seeing as these men were alive during Dempsey's era and the modern era.

I can see you disagreeing with it, but it is well researched, well written, and includes some rare quotes I have not seen anywhere else. I don't know how you could call it a bull**** essay.

[Jenks88]

It really irks me how old fighters get glorified and modern fighters get disparaged and dismissed. Dempsey was a great fighter, but he was human, with two arms and two legs. There is no one so endowed with talent that they would be able to walk through anyone, esp. when they have such tangible physical disadvantages as being outweighed by 60+ lbs. Just because Wlad Klitchko got KO'd by two huge punchers doesn't mean he isn't a good fighter. If I remember correctly, Dempsey got KO'd by Fireman Jim Flynn at least once.
I just hate how some fighters get glorified to the point that they would easily defeat any other fighter ever. Every fighter is human, every fighter can and WILL be beat if he fights enough people, even if he is in his prime. Some people think that once a fighter is labelled "great," he will automatically beat any modern fighter. Let's not forget that old fighters were human too.

[wmute]

All of the great heavyweights were flawed, more so than the great champions of any other weight class. I don't think Dempsey was the greatest fighter of all time but I can see a strong argument for him in the top five at heavyweight, or even at #1. You can pretty much attack any of the great heavyweights from Joe Louis on down, but to consider Dempsey at #1 is no more rubbish than say putting Ali in that position IMO.

This is an essay with an opinion, and that is understood throughout. I could listen to a similar essay spouting off how great Ali was and call it trash as well. At least this essay includes transcripted quotes taken from interviews of men like Ray Arcel and Jack Sharkey, people who's opinions have some considerable weight seeing as these men were alive during Dempsey's era and the modern era.

I can see you disagreeing with it, but it is well researched, well written, and includes some rare quotes I have not seen anywhere else. I don't know how you could call it a bull**** essay.

I enjoyed the article but I strongly disagree with what you say in bold: dempsey was small and showed more difficulties in dealing with some style than Ali has ever shown. Ali managed (with smarts and chin, more than anything else, if you look at the latest part of his career) to avenge all his losses until 38, this is what separates him from dempsey