BoxRec

i made a comment long ago about the ezzard charles/rex layne fight that took place in utah with charles fighting a mormon, layne and the soul judge and referee being jack dempsey, who was a mormon,the decision, surprise... went to layne ., someone questioned dempsey's being a mormon and i never got back with a reply.

dempsey was born intro a normon family and was therefore a normon. but he never paid much attention to the religion, and mormon's like this were called JackNormons...similar to lapsed Catholics, i'd say. when dempsey got so hugely famous the term was then switched by many to JackDempseyNormon.

oh yes, the notorious decision was layne, two rounds, charles one....and eight even. i think dempsey was also a lapsed referee.

Hi Jaclem. How did Dempsey's personality come across in interviews etc? I've seen little footage of him outside the ring.

From what I've heard Dempsey's religion was scotch on the rocks.

His parents were Mormons anyway.
I think they converted when they moved to Colorado from West Virginia or just before.

Jack Dempsey scored it

rounds 3 and 7 for Rex Layne
round 9 for Charles

and the other seven even

observers at ringside had it
four rounds for Charles
three rounds for Layne
and three rounds even

carac...your scoring is correct3 and thanks for the correction.

as a rule when dempsey signed legal papers he checked mormon for his religion.

he was a quiet guy and uncomfortable with interviews but he loosened up as time went by, and in his restaurant days he was friendly with the many customers who asked for his autograph or just wanted to talk to him.

People of any religion rarely live up to the demands of their faith.. This goes for Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Scientologists, or whatever.. Most often you're indoctrinated with your parents religion from birth.. You hold fast to that faith until you die.. Is God going to blame you for believing something wrong in that case??? Dempsey was no different than most---maybe a little skeptical.. You either believe in God or you don't.. You're either a good person or you're not.. You're not judged on your beliefs, but on your behavior.. How you treat others and what you accomplish in life that has positive value for the human race and the world in general.. Dempsey entertained a lot of people and probably did better than most.

After Dempsey stopped Firpo in 2 rounds he took 3 years off to party and tour... He made as much money by being Jack Dempsey and touring the world as he could have made training and fighting.. Dempsey was similar to Willard in this sense. He was more interested in making money than he was in Boxing.. He fought an exhibition with Tommy Loughran and looked terrible.. He got angry a couple times and tried to get rid of Loughran, but it didn't work. Loughran was interviewed. Although he was a LHW he wanted a shot at Dempsey. "He had no reply to my jab."

Dempsey insisted his fights with Tunney be limited to 10 rounds... Despite this demand, those were the 2 most financially successful fights for many decades in pure dollar terms.. Although money keeps depreciating in value no fight surpassed those 2 for well over 40 years.. Dempsey's drawing power was unreal.

Jack Dempsey newly opened resturant can be seen in this clip at 1:45.
It was located in the Brill Building on the NW corner of Broadway and West 49th street.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dm7C-vrtOk