Sam Langford said Dempsey was the greatest fighter he ever seen

[sonnyboyx2]

The Great Sam Langford said Jack Dempsey was the greatest fighter he ever seen.. when asked who he thought would win between Jack Dempsey v Harry Wills he replied...

Sam Langford, when asked how Harry Wills (whom he fought 18 times in his career) would do against Jack Dempsey, said in the June 5, 1922, Atlanta Constitution "Well if he ever fights Dempsey my money will be on the present champion. Dempsey is the greatest fighter I have ever seen. He hits twice as hard as Jim Jeffries and is as fast in the ring as James J. Corbett."

[SBleeder]

Interesting. We've all heard Dempsey's quote about Langford: “The hell I feared no man. There was one man I wouldn’t fight because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford.”

Obviously there was a tremendous amount of respect between the two.

As good and as underrated as Harry Wills was, I think Dempsey (even the declining Dempsey who was slated to fight Wills) would have overwhelmed Wills and won by late knockout. It took a different breed of fighter (Tunney) to shut down Dempsey at that stage of his career.


Dempsey-Langford, prime for prime, and rewriting history so that Langford's prime is at heavyweight (it clearly wasn't): Fight to end all fights. Both men could couple phenomenal technical ability- footwork, counterpunching, head movement, combinations... with deadly power, heart, stamina, and chin.

I've got to give the fight to Langford by decision, with both men leaving with concussions.

[sonnyboyx2]

i think Dempsey would have destroyed Wills very quickly had they fought.. Dempsey used the 2nd 3rd & 4th best rated Black Heavyweights in the world as his sparring partners "George Godfrey, Bill Tate, Jamaica Kid" and slaughtered them easily... everyone to their own opinion yet it is my opinion no fighter in history could have beaten Jack Dempsey

[Joeyzagz]

i think Dempsey would have destroyed Wills very quickly had they fought.. Dempsey used the 2nd 3rd & 4th best rated Black Heavyweights in the world as his sparring partners "George Godfrey, Bill Tate, Jamaica Kid" and slaughtered them easily... everyone to their own opinion yet it is my opinion no fighter in history could have beaten Jack Dempsey

Of course Dempsey was the greatest at that particular time in history, I dont think anyone will dispute that.

But lets not get carried away here. Jack could not even overcome a LHW who Greb handled with ease.....There are quite a few fighters who could beat Dempsey.

[sonnyboyx2]

Of course Dempsey was the greatest at that particular time in history, I dont think anyone will dispute that.

But lets not get carried away here. Jack could not even overcome a LHW who Greb handled with ease.....There are quite a few fighters who could beat Dempsey.

Explain to me what you claim here in your statement:

Jack could not even overcome a LHW who Greb handled with ease..?

There are quite a few fighters who could beat Dempsey.?

[Joeyzagz]

Explain to me what you claim here in your statement:

Jack could not even overcome a LHW who Greb handled with ease..?

There are quite a few fighters who could beat Dempsey.?

Im claiming that Jack could not beat the only ATG on his resume'

They were less than 2 years apart in age...
Jack was actually an inch taller
Jack had more experience at Heavyweight
Jack hit harder
Jack had many advantages over his opponent but still lost.

I think its foolish to say he could beat every ATG in history when he couldnt even beat the one standing in front of him.

[sonnyboyx2]

Im claiming that Jack could not beat the only ATG on his resume'

They were less than 2 years apart in age...
Jack was actually an inch taller
Jack had more experience at Heavyweight
Jack hit harder
Jack had many advantages over his opponent but still lost.

I think its foolish to say he could beat every ATG in history when he couldnt even beat the one standing in front of him.

Dempsey vs Tunney (1) & (2) was Dempsey's final two career fights at the tail-end of his career and both was fantastic fights which drew million dollar gates.. Battle of the Long count is still talked about 90yrs later.. Gene Tunney who you refer to as just another Light-Heavyweight was 2nd only too Muhammad Ali in terms of scientific boxing and lost only one fight 66-1 in his entire career ... Tunney sat ringside watching the fantastic fight between Larry Holmes vs Ken Norton in 1978 just months before he passed away and said,"Jack Dempsey would have licked both of them, Dempsey was the greatest fighter who ever lived"....

Ray Arcel, was one of the greatest trainers in boxing history, he worked with 18 world champions including Barney Ross, Tony Zale, Ezzard Charles, Roberto Duran, and Larry Holmes. He was in the opposite corner from Joe Louis in 14 of his fights, and he also personally knew and learned from the great Benny Leonard. Arcel has stated that he considered Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey to be the three greatest heavyweights in history and hedged on picking between them, but here is what he said about Dempsey, He should been the only heavyweight anybody ever thought of when they thought about the greatest heavyweight champion. I mean he had everything. He could punch, he could box. He was mean and determined he was the best.

i would like to hear who you think he could not beat

[Kid McCoy]

Dempsey is completely overrated.

Won the title from inactive skill-less giant Willard, the worst champion ever
Ducked fighters `at the top of there game` like Wills, Greb, Langford, Jeannette, Norfolk and McVea
KO'd by a shot Fireman Jim Flynn
Out-boxed by Willie Meehan, the fattest contender ever
Went life and death with skill-less caveman Firpo
Gave a title shot to Miske, who had Bright's Disease
Gave a title shot to Brennan who lost every round in 4 fights with Greb
Got a gift against light-heavyweight Gibbons
Beat Sharkey by fouling him
Lost 19 out of 20 rounds to the only prime world class fighter he ever faced
Jack was on roids. I know because some guy on the net said so.

Easy to tear down fighters, isn't it?

[sonnyboyx2]

Dempsey is completely overrated.

Won the title from inactive skill-less giant Willard, the worst champion ever
Ducked fighters `at the top of there game` like Wills, Greb, Langford, Jeannette, Norfolk and McVea
KO'd by a shot Fireman Jim Flynn
Out-boxed by Willie Meehan, the fattest contender ever
Went life and death with skill-less caveman Firpo
Gave a title shot to Miske, who had Bright's Disease
Gave a title shot to Brennan who lost every round in 4 fights with Greb
Got a gift against light-heavyweight Gibbons
Beat Sharkey by fouling him
Lost 19 out of 20 rounds to the only prime world class fighter he ever faced
Jack was on roids. I know because some guy on the net said so.

Easy to tear down fighters, isn't it?

Won the title from Willard.. the same Willard who went 26rds with the great Jack Johnson before knocking out Johnson.. so calling him skill less is incorrect.

Wills, Langford, Jeanette, McVea & Wills was NOT at the Top of their Game during Dempsey's championship reign, they was all on the slide which is why there was no public demand for him to fight any of them.

Dempsey took a dive against Fireman Jim Flynn... here is a link:


Willie Meehan was never a contender.

Louis Angel Firpo was a worthy challenger and fought as such in one of the greatest fights in history.

Bill Brennen never lost every round in 4 fights with Greb

Gibbons was a worthy challenger who Dempsey easily beat.

Dempsey beat Sharkey by KO.. "protect yourself at all times"

Dempsey vs Tunney fights was both highly competitive and close.

Steroids was subsequently synthesized in 1934 by Leopold Ruzicka, a chemist in Zurich.... Jack Dempsey retired 1927

see McCoy it is quite easy for me to quickly address any claims you make about a fighter and we can go on and debate your claims unlike what you do and just dismiss anything you feel harms the legacy of your hero... lol
like shelling peas

[Great John L]

Realistically, Wills and Jeanette would have no chance against Jack. Wills was too big and slow, the fighters Dempsey preyed on. Langford said Jack woulkd win had they fought. Jeanette had a disputed dicision with Carpentier, Sam Langford had lost to Fred Fulton and admitted Jack was the greatest fighter, Greb would not realistically be expected to beat Jack. He's too small and too light.

A sparring session when Greb had the advantage hardly means a victory. Many smaller fighters could outbox big ones, but you just can't realistically expect them to win. Sugar Ray Leonard would box circles around Marciano, Willie Pep would move and evade Jack, and Sugar Ray Robinson could move around and outbox Sullivan, Jeffries, etc . But can you truly expect them to win? Hell no. That's why they have different weight divisions. The public clearly didn't view Greb as a serious threat to Jack's dominance.

Willie Meehan fights were four rounders only. Aside from the fact that several were draws, and Jack won some as well, judging the first for rounds is hardly accurate. Rocky would have lost to Walcott, Ali would have beat Frazier in FOTC, Moorer would have beat Foreman, etc.

Jack never "ducked" anybody. That's junk. You can't expect Jack to fight somebody when no promoter will do it, specifically Rickard, Jack's main promoter. Dempsey frequently destroyed some of the ebst black fighters around in sparring. Even Godfrey, who had fought Wills in tough fights.

Whether he "fouled" Sharkey is debateable. Tunney and others such as Jim Corbett said the punches were fair. It depends on the angle you look at the films Jack was old anyway so it's also less relevant. Either way Jack KO'ed Sharkey.

The Tunney fights are hardly relevant to Jack's fighting ability as Tunney had been fighting regularly while Jack had just come back 3 years off and they were the two last fights of Jack's career. Historians and fight crowds at the time were virtually unanimous in saying young Jack would beat Tunney. Have you ever seen Tunney in top 5 ATG heavyweight lists in the 1950s and 1960s? No, every historian was unanimous in naming prime Jack the best heavyweight. Granted that was years ago, it still shows how Tunney was viewed next to a Prime Jack Dempsey.

Miske was hardly suffering and a shell when Jack fought him. Miske went on to fight and have a very successful record years after the Demspey fight, and Jack had already beaten him several times prior to becomng champion.

Ko'd by Flynn is a moot point. jack most likely threw the fight, as even his wife said he did at the time and beat Flynn in a rematch in one round the next year, so the Flynn point is irrelevant to Jack's true worth. Firpo didn't need to have skills against Jack. It was a slugfest and size and power were needed and Firpo was still compeltely dominated. It wasn't life or death at all. Not even close. Jack knocking down Firpo 11 times for a 2 round KO while Firpo's only real good moment came in briefly knocking a leaning back Dempsey out of the ring is hardly a competitive fight.

Willard was not skilless. He was in great shape and a few years back beat Jack Johnson. Though Johnson was old, it was still an impressive feat. Willard 58 pounds heavier and much taller and Jack showed truly great skill. Jack ahd very sublte skills and techniques many weren't aware of when watching his fights. He wrote several guidebooks on boxing that are still very good today.