The Manassa Mauler - Part Three: Dempsey's Golden Years
The Manassa Mauler
Part Three: Dempsey's Golden Years
Part Three: Dempsey's Golden Years
After WWI ended people turned to a variety of entertainment sources to forget their troubles and try to get back to living again. In fact, so many different star athletes were born during this period that the 1920's are known as the “Golden Age” of sports. Baseball, America's pastime, was recovering from scandal at the time (1919, Black Sox Scandal) and it left the perfect opening for boxing to define itself. People like Jack Dempsey became role models almost instantly; Dempsey was one of the most followed athletes of his time. When Dempsey and Gene Tunney's rematch took place there were 140,000 people in attendance and over a million listening on a newly available device called a “radio.” The sheer scope of Dempsey's possible influence on people and on the sport of boxing is staggering, and frankly a bit tough to nail down. His influence can be summarized in saying he took boxing from a much less strategic, mundane exchange of punches to the aggressive, explosive intensity known today. Summarizing his contributions that way, however, sells Dempsey terribly short in my opinion and we wouldn’t want to do that at all.
Jack Dempsey took what can only be described as a savage approach to boxing, the sport had never seen a style so aggressive before. Pugilists prior to Dempsey went about a very bolt-upright trading of blows, it could really almost be called timid (not bare-knuckles of course, but that’s different ;) compared to the two-fisted ferocity Dempsey came upon the boxing scene with. For a modern day version of Dempsey, think Tyson or Frazier; combine an incredibly passionate spirit, power, hand speed, explosiveness and plenty of bobbing and weaving. Dempsey also boxed from a low crouch that eventually became one of the trademarks of his style which has been, and will be, endlessly imitated.
The exact record of this Heavyweight champ is unknown since he began his boxing career as “Kid Blackie” and continued to fight under that name, at least occasionally, until 1916. By modern standards he would have been a Cruiserweight; Dempsey intentionally and routinely fought men that weighed up to 25 pounds more than himself because he handled bigger, stronger men better than smaller, faster ones. His incredible record of 67-6-11 was achieved from the time he began boxing as occasionally as Jack Dempsey in 1914, until his retirement in 1940; 52 of those wins were knockouts and most were in the first round. Dempsey quickly earned the reputation of a warrior and his exciting fights drew record setting numbers for attendance as well as finances.
Among Dempsey’s most notable opponents is “Fireman Jim Flynn,” whose birth name was Andrew Chiariglione. Flynn was the only one to ever knock out Dempsey and, since Dempsey was very broke at the time and people like to talk, this knockout is tangled in controversy as well. It certainly only adds to the tale of a fixed fight that Dempsey went down in the first round, but nothing has ever been proven. Dempsey did meet Flynn again the following year and returned the favor of a first round knockout, still more fuel for the rumor mill. I would be posting footage here to let you decide for yourselves, of course, if there was any footage on the net to be found but alas there is not….
King Levinsky , a light heavyweight champ himself during that time, was dealt his first ever knockout by The Mauler. Fred Fulton, Homer Smith, Carl Morris and Billy Miske all faced Dempsey and were all beaten. Bill Brennen also lost to Dempsey during this period, footage for that is found below:
Shortly after those matches, in 1919, came the fight with Jess Willard that left Willard so damaged (if you don’t know, you can read about it and/or watch the footage in The Manassa Mauler: Part One). A fact that I just discovered myself recently, is that moments before that famous match, Dempsey’s manager Jack Kearns informed him that he had bet Dempsey’s share of the purse on a knockout against Willard in the first round. Given how broke Dempsey was for most of his fighting days in combination with the general economic hardships of that period, it becomes clear why Willard was beaten so brutally. Dempsey did win the match as most know, but actually received no payment since Willard lasted past the first round. Kearns and Dempsey had a rocky partnership, and they would later have legal battles over large amounts of money. Dempsey’s reputation for ruthlessness that had already sparked went fully ablaze with the beating of Jess Willard and he became very well known as “The Manassa Mauler” thereafter.
We can also credit Jack Dempsey with part of the first million dollar gate in boxing history, he and Georges Carpentier drew an enormous crowd of 91,000 people. Carpentier was favored to win 50 to 1; a French war hero, he was extremely popular all around the globe. It was promoted as “The Fight of the Century” and George Bernard Shaw even touted Carpentier as the “greatest boxer in history,” but the fight was not nearly as close as people assumed it would be. Dempsey triumphed yet again, and you can watch below:
After Carpentier, Dempsey didn’t fight again until his 1923 match with Tommy Gibbons. Gibbons was skilled and went the entire fifteen round with Dempsey, but he was not skilled enough and lost by decision. (There’s footage of that too, five parts worth. Here is part one to start you off, I know you can find your way from there ;)
Dempsey only successfully defended his title one last time before Gene Tunney took it from him when they first met in 1926, the bout was against Luis Angel Firpo. Here is some footage for those that like to see these things for themselves….
Dempsey did win again after his first fight with Tunney; he had contemplated retirement but instead only took a few months off before going up against then future heavyweight champ Jack Sharkey. The Dempsey vs Sharkey fight is yet another controversy for our dear Kid Blackie. In the seventh round of the 1927 bout at Yankee Stadium for the title shot against Tunney, Dempsey had been hitting Sharkey below the belt. Sharkey turned to the ref to complain and BOOM –Dempsey threw a left hook to Sharkey’s chin that knocked him out cold, the ref then counted Sharkey out and the controversy over that particular match was born. Check out the match, here is part one again to start you off:
Beating Sharkey granted Dempsey his rematch with Gene Tunney, but we all know how that turned out…. (and if you don’t, find it here.) Although Dempsey did many exhibition bouts after “The Long Count Fight,” he did retire afterward. During retirement Dempsey did everything from opening a restaurant to developing fitness training programs for the military, he also served in Okinawa in 1945 alongside some men he had trained despite the fact that he was 49 at the time. Dempsey’s legacy does not end there, however, he also continued to contribute to boxing after retirement. Dempsey wrote what many consider to be the first serious study of the sweet science and “the finest treatise on boxing ever written,” it was published in 1950 and the book is called Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense. And that my friends, is a very brief summary of Jack Dempsey’s contributions to our beloved sport. I must confess though: I lost track, were you counting?? How many ways was that? ;)
Sources:
http://www.cmgww.com/sports/dempsey/index.php
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jack_Dempsey
