Jack Dempsey, Maybe The Best Ever
His parents were hard working Mormon converts, and his ancestry included Scottish, Irish, Cherokee, and Jewish blood. He says he had to fight to fit in, and he meant it.
“l was a miner and l was a cowboy, but mostIy l was a hobo. l fought wherever l couId -in the schooI haIIs, outside saIoons, any pIace they were putting up a purse. l once waIked more than thirty miIes across the desert to GoIdfieId, Nevada, so l couId fight for twenty bucks.
l got beat a Iot. l improved. But l remember the beatings l took. Once l got beat so bad they had to take me out of the ring and put me in a wheeIbarrow to see the doctor. Later on, some people said l was a kiIIer in the ring. They got that wrong, ‘cause l ain’t kiIIed nobody. But I took out other guys quick. That much is true. l got more one round knockouts than anybody, sixty knockouts in the first round.
l beat a good Heavyweight in New OrIeans once in fourteen seconds. l knocked out Fred FuIton, six-foot-four, 250 pounds, in nineteen seconds. How come? Not because l was a kiIIer. Other way round. l was aIways afraid that l'd be the one who was kiIIed. Get 'em quick and you can Iive to fight another day.”
Jack Dempsey, describing his life just before his death in 1983.