HomicideHenry wrote:The amazing thing about Jack Dempsey is this, that after his losses to Tunney, for a time he considered a serious comeback in the 'era' of the Schmeling's and Baer's, as he had well over 100 exhibition bouts, knocking out such men as Meyers 'KO' Christner and others...he proved in these exhibitions he could still defeat the best bangers in the world, but wasn't able to handle the movers, as Kingfish Levinsky outclassed him in an exhibition.
It was that exhibition there, that stopped Dempsey from making a legit comeback into boxing, though he would later revise his exhibition tours in his 40's against professional wrestlers, much like Archie Moore would do when he was going inbetween light-heavyweight and heavyweight.
Had he made a real comeback, I could see Dempsey getting back up into contention, but would fail miserably against Schmeling, Sharkey, Loughran, etc...*day dreams about a over the hill Dempsey against Primo Carnera*...
Jack Dempsey did get into wrestling, but his forays into that field were wholly different than Archie Moore's. He distinguished himself as a boxing referee, and was the highest paid referee in pro wrestling had ever seen. He fought exhibitions until he was 45 years old, and he was still knocking people out. He fought so many exhibitions that people all over the nation had personally seen him send fighters to the canvas.
I don't see how anyone can question the legitimacy of the Sharkey knockout. The low blow he set it up with would make Andrew Golota cringe, and Sharkey completely wasn't expecting that huge punch. Remember, later that year, Dempsey still had enough power to send Tunney to the canvas with his famed Dempsey Roll. It wasn't one-punch power that made Dempsey the most dangerous heavyweight boxing had ever seen; it was combination punching. By 1927, that combination punching was mostly gone, but he still had enough power to end a fight in a matter of seconds.
