Jack Dempsey drew the color line?

Question

Someone asked this question earlier but for some reason that question was deleted so I felt I should ask again, why do people elevate Jack Dempsey above several other boxers (lennox lewis,evander holyfield,mike tyson,joe frazier etc) when he in fact used the color line to avoid facing all the black contenders of his era?

Answer 1

I noticed that this question was deleted earlier (I wonder why) but anyway I will answer yours. The truth is, that ever since Jack Johnson shattered the myth of white superiority in boxing there haven't been that many great white heavy weight champions,we have had a few guys here and there (baer,braddock and the rest of them) but with the exception of Rocky Marciano there hasn't been any truly dominant white heavy weight champion and this is something that is very difficult to accept for a lot of people because they want to have someone who they could identify themselves with. For example in the early 20th century Jack London who was one of the greatest political minds of the era refused to accept the fact that Jack Johnson was the true legitimate champion and constantly searched for a great white hope to relcaim that spot even though logic dictated that Jack Johnson was simply the better boxer, this goes to show you that sometimes racial bias can over shadow logic and affect someone's opinion of a boxer, this is why a lot of white today feel the need to elevate rocy marciano and jack dempsey to statuses that are well above their actual ring capabilty and say that Dempsey would beat Lennox Lewis or that rocky marciano would beat Larry Holmes (even though when you compare them statistically Holmes is always the superior boxer).......The thing is,if you take away Dempsey and Marciano, they are not really left with any white boxing heroes to look up to(gene tunney and jim jeffires were good but were overshadowed by johnson and dempsey in their eras) and thus they perpetuate this behavior. I usually call it the jack london syndrome.

Answer 2

A lot of people have a mythical assessment of dempsey and refuse to accpet the fact that he is often over rated. thumbs up to ericktravel.

Answer 3

He was a racist but then again 99% of the population was racist back then. However, he would do well against black fighters back then because if Jess Willard can stop Jack Johnson and Jack Johnson was the best of the black heavyweights and Jack Dempsey stopped Jess Willard. How would he does against Evander Holyfield? Evander use to be a cruiser weight too, so who know???