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Paul's Boxing Commentary
All-Time Greats (part 3)
Posted: October 20, 2000
Whoa, that was a long break. I was busy working on 'Windtalkers,' a new Nick Cage, Christian Slater movie, directed by John Woo. It's due out next year some time, but anyways on to boxing.
The next all-time great I will discuss is Jack Dempsey. I really like him for some reason. I think he had a lot of power and a lot of heart, but he was not a great pure boxer.
Dempsey had great power. This is something evident in a lot of his fights and he has the KO's to back it up. His punches were very open and that is the reason he had so much behind it. On the flip-side of that though it also left him very open to counter-punching.
Dempsey did have a lot of heart. He got knocked out of the ring during one of his fights and still managed to get a KO. Gene Tunney was Dempsey's 'Joe Frasier.' They fought hard together and really made some great fight. Unfortunately for Dempsey, he couldn't figure out Tunney.
As for opponents, there weren't too many quality opponents around when Dempsey was in his prime. The reason for Dempsey's greatness though comes from what he did for the sport of boxing and not so much his ablity. He was the first true superstar of the sport. He brought in the most money and set record after record for his paychecks. He took the sport to a new level by beating anyone who would step into the ring with him. Yeah, he did have a few losses later in his career, but his reputation was so huge that nothing could derail it.
And the next point I'll talk about is just my opinion, but I think he had one of the coolest haircuts. He gets bonus points from me for that. I know it was the style at the time, but it's so different and crazy looking that you just gotta love it...(well, maybe not love it but...)
OK, so I don't think he would beat an Evander Holyfield or Muhammad Ali in their primes, but neither of them did as much for boxing as Demsey did. Ali, brought it to the masses with television, but it's strong base was already set and Dempsey was one of the people who help to set up that base. Well that's all for now. I should be posting my comments more regularly.
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