Little story I heard recently.
Jack Johnson spent some time in Leavenworth Pennitentiary where I believe he still took part in about half a dozen fights.
The question is, on his release did he ever fight Dempsey.
Both fighters have had fights that were never recorded, but did they meet each other.
I know his record states he was inactive between 1921-1923 then fought 2 contests in Cuba during 1923.
Is it possible he may have met Dempsey, in the period between Dempsey's defence against Carpentier to his defence against Firpo.
Dempsey fought Carpentier, 12 months later he fought Jimmy Darcy, then 12 months again before he fought Tommy Gibbons.
Could there have been a fight between the pair that was never recorded.
Or was it just a sparring session and someone has started a rumour that they actually met in a bout.
Any old historians in here help on this as its got me stumped.
Jack Dempsey v Jack Johnson
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No...they never fought unless it was in sparring, which I'm not aware of even that. There was a new boxing mag that came out in the middle 1980s which claimed to have a newspaper account from a Dempsey-Johnson bout that took place in Canada sometime around 1917 to 1923 and they ran the supposed article which Dempsey won by knockout in something like 11 rounds, but the article wasn't true...at least not to my knowledge and Dempsey is a fighter that has been researched very, very thouroughly after 1915, by several top historians.
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I don't recall off the top of my head, but it was a new venture brought out by former Ring editor John Ort, or I am pretty sure that it was the one that Ort came out with. The mag was very, very nice in appearance as it had glossy, color photo's, but it did not last too long and folded after a year, or two. I don't have the mag anymore, but I'll track down the title.
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I'm pretty sure that it was "Fight Beat." It was the very first issue of the magazine in a circulation run that turned out to be very short, so no doubt the article was stratigically placed in the mag in hopes of giving the new publication a bit of solid ground to stand on, but it didn't work. There was another glossy mag out at the same time that was very similar in style called "Boxing Beat," but that isn't the one with the Johnson-Dempsey article and "Boxing Beat" was a little more successful than "Fight Beat" as they lasted around four years whereas "Fight Beat" folded rather quickly.
re
>>>I can't imagine a fight between Johnson and Dempsey not being one of the major sporting events of the year.<<<
It would have been. It wouldn't have mattered if it took place in Tibet, every boxing writer in the country would have been there and not just the reporter from the supposed Canadian newspaper. That would have been a can't miss bout even if it happened in 1918.
It would have been. It wouldn't have mattered if it took place in Tibet, every boxing writer in the country would have been there and not just the reporter from the supposed Canadian newspaper. That would have been a can't miss bout even if it happened in 1918.
If I'm not mistaken, the magazine in question was "Boxing Digest" and the editor was Lew Eskin. I recall the article. Supposedly someone at the magazine stumbled across it while looking through old issues of a Winnipeg newspaper. Most Canadian newspapers were pretty stodgy back then with small rural circulations, and even smaller sports sections. If the match took place it would've been an exhibition, and it may be that the local correspondent, being unfamiliar with prize fighters, got the name of Dempsey's opponent wrong. It could well have been Battling Jim Johnson or John Lester Johnson. Winnipeg was the kind of place Dempsey would have stopped at on a barnstorming tour.
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