The path of return is a path well traveled by professional boxers. Former champions, contenders and club fighters alike are tempted to return to the ring for one last payday. This was indeed the case with Jack Dempsey, who returned forgotten to the ring in 1931, four years after his famous “Long Count” loss to Gene Tunney. Indeed, Dempsey drew record crowds and amassed a small fortune on a whirlwind tour across the United States, fighting some one hundred opponents in a long series of “exhibition” bouts. In the astonishing story of a man who went from drifter to world champion, from a despised “draft dodger” to one of America’s most popular figures, the return of Jack Dempsey is a largely forgotten but essential chapter.
Dempsey had held the world heavyweight championship for more than six years, winning it on Independence Day in 1919 by administering a severe beating to the gigantic Jess Willard, before defending it in famous bouts against Georges Carpentier, Tommy Gibbons and Luis Firpo. . A formidable champion, he was a great hitter, fast, tough and absolutely ruthless. A former passenger, miner and arm wrestler, Dempsey eventually became one of the country’s most popular athletes during the era dubbed “The Golden Age of Sports.” His reign ended in 1926 with a one-sided loss to Gene Tunney.
A knockout of Jack Sharkey earned Jack a return fight with Tunney which took place on September 22, 1927 at Soldiers Field in Chicago. For six rounds, Tunney outclassed Dempsey, but in the seventh “The Manassa Mauler” he floored Gene with a brutal combination. As Jack loomed over the fallen champion and did not head to the neutral corner, the referee delayed the count. After about 14 seconds had passed (the infamous long count), “The Fighting Marine” recovered and managed to avoid Dempsey’s attack for the rest of the round. Recovered from the knockdown, Tunney knocked down Jack in the eighth round and went the rest of the way to another decision victory.
In retirement, Dempsey invested in real estate and other business ventures and pursued boxing promotions with his friend and promoter Tex Rickard, who died in 1929. But the stock market crash that year wiped out a considerable portion of the profits. of Dempsey in the ring and had to fight. to make money in business and boxing. As one of the biggest names in the sport, Jack was in high demand to act as a referee and announcer. He traveled constantly and there were claims in the newspapers that he earned up to $20,000 a week as a referee.
However, in mid-1931, Dempsey still needed money. His real estate investments were substantially reduced and reduced. His hotel was losing money and the value of his trust fund was also going down. His promotional ventures were also a waste, including the fight between Max Baer and Paulino Uzcudun in 1931, which cost Jack about ten thousand dollars out of his pocket. The financial headaches also included a long-delayed lawsuit by Chicago promoters over the contract Dempsey had signed for a fight against Harry Wills that never took place and which found him potentially liable for $100,000.
On top of all this, Dempsey’s high-profile marriage to Hollywood actress Estelle Taylor was in ruins and their respective lawyers had been fighting for months over the financial settlement in the inevitable divorce. It was a bitter fight, and Estelle at one point obtained an injunction against Jack’s trust fund and business interests. Despite everything, Dempsey’s expenses remained high. He was always a big spender and continued to accumulate gambling debts in the casinos of Agua Caliente, the Mexican resort.
Having covered as much ground as he could as a referee, Dempsey began to think about returning. It was the fastest way to make money. As he considered his chances against the top heavyweights (Max Schmeling, Jack Sharkey, Young Stribling, Primo Carnera and Tommy Loughran), Jack felt confident. Of the top five, he was only worried about Loughran, as he had never liked skilled counter-attackers. Although in March 1931 he had said that he would never box again, Dempsey finally decided that he had to come out of retirement. Encouraged by the sycophants around him, his goal was to eventually fight Schmeling and regain the world heavyweight championship.
In April 1931, Dempsey began light training in Reno. He was 36 years old and fifteen pounds heavier than his fighting weight and had not trained or boxed in almost four years. Accompanied by his former trainer Jerry Luvadis, he began daily walks of five miles for two weeks, followed by ten miles for the next two weeks. He then started jogging instead of walking and after two weeks he started running. Getting in shape was harder than he had thought: “[E]Every step was difficult,” he would later relate. He also suffered setbacks that he had never experienced when he was a young wrestler. After feeling in top shape for a few days, he would suddenly become exhausted after walking or running.
After seven weeks, he felt in good shape to begin full training with sparring, shadow boxing and heavy bag work at Frankie Neal’s gym in Reno, Nevada, and quickly found his groove. By mid-July he was ready and told his business manager, Leonard Sachs, to organize a series of exhibition bouts. The offers came in and a tour of the western United States was organized. His opponents, however, were handpicked and were generally only ranked third and fourth.
Dempsey went through the ropes for the first time in four years in an exhibition fight in Reno on August 19, 1931. Although the bouts were called exhibitions, Dempsey did not hold back. They were only nominal exhibitions. However, he insisted on using sixteen-ounce gloves and limiting each bout to between one and four rounds, as he admitted that he was not prepared to last ten rounds at full speed.
The comeback was launched with barely a word of warning in the newspapers or boxing magazines. With only a few brief reports in the press, Dempsey suddenly returned. In Reno, before a crowd of two thousand spectators, Jack was noticeably anxious when he entered the ring and danced a jig in the ring’s corner. He later admitted: “I was very nervous, the worst I had ever been in my life. “I didn’t know what the next few minutes had in store for me.”
His opponent was Jack Beasley of Oakland, who had a record of 32-18-5 and who made it easy for Jack by approaching him directly. Dempsey dropped Beasley with a left hook for the eight count and then sent him to the floor again for the nine count. The former champion dropped Beasley in the second round with a ferocious series of body shots followed by a short left finish that sent him to the ground.
Over the next month, Dempsey rampaged through the American West, fighting in twelve different cities. The next stop after Reno was Multnomah Civic Stadium in Portland, Oregon, where he fought four opponents, knocking out two and the others lasting the scheduled two rounds. Dempsey would fight at least four rounds at each tour stop and promoters had boxers ready to fight, one after another, to ensure that the crowd would see at least four rounds of action.
In Seattle, the third stop, there were six boxers waiting, but only three entered the ring while Dempsey gave each of them “boxing lessons” but did not achieve any knockouts. The remainder of the first leg of the tour took Dempsey to Vancouver, Spokane, Aberdeen, Washington, Eugene, Reno for the second time, Tacoma, Rock Springs, Wyoming, Salt Lake City and Logan, Utah, before ending in Boise, Idaho. . on September 17.
This first part of the tour had shown that Dempsey still had strength, but he was concerned about his timing and conditioning. The exhibitions would end up showing him that his four years of retirement had robbed him of his reflexes. He saw an opportunity to punch him, but when he reacted, he was gone.
He was also concerned about his stamina. All of Logan’s fights had gone down to the wire and he was exhausted after he finished, his legs feeling “like rubber”. After a show in which he felt he had not performed well, Dempsey felt discouraged, but was too far along to quit; Contracts had been signed and he was drawing crowds. He waited for the slowness to pass and when he gave a good performance he thought: “I’m back.” The tour also showed that Dempsey was still boxing’s biggest attraction. At all times he drew large crowds, breaking attendance and gate receipts at most stops. (To be continued…) – Thomas Dade
