[burgos86]

my all time favorite boxer

[StillinKansas]

Originally Posted by bradlee180

The prime "Manassa Mauler" Jack Dempsey circa 1918 to 1921, fits your description to a tee.

Very clear film of Dempsey-Willard (can download preview clip.)
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Jack Dempsey: To Victory.
YouTube - Jack Dempsey: To Victory

RE: The opening 90 seconds of Dempsey/Willard with Dempsey circling his prey before the carnage begins, and the sparring session with 6′6½″ Big Bill Tate as Dempsey prepared for Willard:
By God, that man could MOVE.

Ray Arcel trained Roberto Duran for a while (and Barney Ross, Tony Zale, Ezzard Charles, and Larry Holmes), and Arcel considered Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali to be the 3 Greatest Heavyweights of All-Time.

Gene Tunney,1952- "Jack was no wild slugger.He was an extremely clever fusion of fighter and boxer..Gibbons was one of the all-time great boxers.Yet Gibbons could not outscore Dempsey..Unable to reach this clever opponent with a knockout punch,he(Dempsey) was still a fine enough combination of fighter and boxer to outscore him all the way."

Unfortunately, Dempsey's most destructive year, 1918 as a contender, went unfilmed.

Folks often wrongfully chalk Dempsey up as a 1-dimensional slugger nowadays based on a handful of films, most of them when he was past his prime.

Dempsey was more like a Heavyweight Roberto Duran.

It's interesting how you manage to insert Dempsey into so many threads....

Justifying it at the end by calling him a HW Roberto Duran...how 'bout calling Duran a LW Dempsey...

JK

[Toujourpret]

Originally Posted by Ivan Moser

One of my favorite fighters ever. Him beating Barkley at his age was unreal. That was before todays fighters fighting into their 40s with Mackie Shilstone training techniques etc.

That was a great fight. I was shocked he pulled it off.

A friend of mine who used to fight told me Duran was a bit of a racist. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this?

[CEROVFC]

YouTube - Roberto Duran beats up Davey Moore

Check out the crowd just going wild!

Re: being a racist. It's possible. I'd say probably everyone is a BIT racist.

As an aside, I remember hearing Sugar Ray Leonard say every year on his birthday he gets a video tape for Duran wishing him a happy birthday.

[Tam-Tam]

You go through what kids like Duran go through as kids. Live their lives. Grow up being taught what they're taught, before you judge another man as a racist.

[CEROVFC]

I see where you're coming from. My parents I consider to be quasi-racist.

They're certainly willing to talk and be friendly to every group of people, but when it comes to say marriage, they'd have disowned me had I married a black girl.

But they're old school, from a very homogeneous society. If I had the same upbringing, I'd probably be racist too. But that doesn't change the fact that they are racist. I thought Duran was some sort of a mix. It'd probably be harder to be some kind of a racist if you're a mix.

[Tam-Tam]

Call Duran Mexican and see what happens.

[CEROVFC]

Originally Posted by Tam-Tam

Call Duran Mexican and see what happens.

Fill me in. Does he get all pissed off? If so, is that because of a personal issue or does he hate all Mexicans. And if he hates Mexicans, wouldn't that me more of a nationalist thing than a race thing?

[Tam-Tam]

Im not sure where the line between this new age term of "nationalism" and "racism" really begins and ends. Im not interested in it to be honest. It's all hate. Sometimes hate is justified within the individual, IMO.

But he has Mexican blood, but has in the past, got a little irate if its suggested that he's Mexican, not Panamanian.

[CEROVFC]

Yeah, it's a mess I really don't care to get into myself. I think the line of thinking of judging someone by their ethnicity or what boundary they live in belongs to the past century, not this one.

Plus, it's fucking hijacking my thread!