THE 100 GREATEST BOXERS OF ALL TIME #25: JACK DEMPSEY

“THE MANASSA MAULER”

Kenneth Bridgham

4 min readDec 11, 2022

61 WINS (50 BY KO), 6 LOSSES, 9 DRAWS, 6 NO-DECISIONS

World Heavyweight Champion 1919–1926

Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year 1938

International Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee 1990

In the gloved era of boxing, Jack Dempsey was the prototype for the knockout artist. His famously aggressive, bobbing-weaving, swarming style revolutionized the sport. Before Dempsey, most fighters still fought in a defensive posture leftover from the bare-knuckle age, leaning on the back foot, their hands far out in front of them. They punched sparingly, relied heavily on clinching, and focused on outlasting an opponent. Dempsey, by contrast, ripped his way inside on opponents looking for quick knockouts, utilizing speed and concussive punching power to overwhelm opponents and separate them from their senses. Fans loved it, and they turned out to his fights in record numbers.

Dempsey’s rags-to-riches story was also something of a prototype, inspiring an entire generation of fighters that followed him into the ring once the Great Depression hit. He had seen lean times long before the Depression, escaping the drudgery of Colorado farm work and a troubled family life to travel through the West and Midwest as a miner, fruit-picker, and hobo. His days riding the rails underneath box cars to find work swinging pickaxes, digging ditches, and hauling rock became part of the Dempsey legend, and he credited them with building his inordinate fighting strength.

Born William Dempsey, he changed his name to Jack in imitation of one of his childhood heroes, the middleweight champion Nonpareil Jack Dempsey. Calling himself Kid Blackie, he got his start as a fighter in saloons, mines, and hobo camps, fighting an unknown number of unrecorded battles before his first recorded contest in 1914.

Jack’s professional career got off to a mediocre start before he hooked up with manager Doc Kearns, who made sure his fighter was fed and trained properly, and guided Jack’s career well. Between 1914 and 1919, Dempsey scored 25 first-round knockouts, one in only 14 seconds. Among those victims were contenders Carl Morris and Fred Fulton, both of whom were considered giants of their time, standing at least 6’4” tall and outweighing Dempsey by as much as 28 pounds.

“Jack the Giant Killer” quickly became a sensation in the illicit world of boxing, and he was matched with the giant of all giants, the 6’6 ½”, 245-pound heavyweight champion Jess Willard on July 4, 1919, in Toledo, Ohio. Outweighed by 58 pounds, the 6’1” Dempsey fought with a ferocity never before seen in the ring, dealing Willard the worst beating any heavyweight champion has ever received to this day. In the first round alone, Dempsey scored seven knockdowns. He knocked out several of Willard’s teeth, broke his nose, shattered his cheekbone, and smeared his face with blood. Somehow, the brave champion fought on, but could not rise for the fourth round, and the world had a thrilling new kind of idol.

Dempsey was not a very active champion, successfully defending the title just five times in seven years. He avoided worthy challengers like Sam Langford, Harry Wills, and Harry Greb. To his credit, though, four of his six challengers are now in the Hall of Fame (Billy Miske, Georges Carpentier, Tommy Gibbons, and Gene Tunney).

Jack’s September 14, 1923 war with Argentina’s hulking Luis Angel Firpo at New York’s Polo Grounds ranks among the most thrilling in heavyweight history. Firpo scored two knockdowns, once sending Jack through the ropes, but Dempsey climbed back in and scored nine knockdowns of his own to finish the fight. It all happened within two rounds.

Dempsey became a sports celebrity the likes of which America had never known, and he made more money in individual fights than the entire New York Yankees lineup did for multiple seasons put together, Babe Ruth included. His fighting style, rise to wealth, and personality were all practically synonymous with the so-called “Roaring Twenties.” He became a movie star and married a famous actress. His divorce and draft evasion trials were unprecedented public spectacles

Dempsey’s partnership with promoter Tex Rickard changed the fight business. Dempsey’s famous fights with Carpentier and Tunney outdid each other for record gates, with the first Tunney fight attracting 120,557 fans and the second drawing a gate of $2,858,660, both records that would stand for decades. Though he lost both Tunney fights and afterward retired, Dempsey remained an American cultural icon for the rest of his long life. Before the 1920s, boxing existed as a sideshow spectacle on the fringes of legality. By 1927, it was an industry rivaled only by baseball as the nation’s favorite sport. Jack Dempsey did that.