Jack Dempsey vs Billy Miske

Jack Dempsey made the first defence of his world heavyweight championship on September 6, 1920, when he knocked out Billy Miske in the third round of a scheduled ten-round contest at the Floyd Fitzsimmons Arena in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Dempsey weighed 188 pounds and Miske 187. Jack Dougherty was the referee. The attendance was reported as 11,346, with receipts of $134,904. Under the announced division of the gate, Dempsey was to receive 50 per cent and Miske 25 per cent. The promotion was handled by Floyd Fitzsimmons, not Tex Rickard, who subsequently became closely associated with Dempsey’s championship career.

Dempsey had not fought since taking the title from Jess Willard at Toledo fourteen months earlier. Miske was a familiar opponent, the pair having met twice in 1918, when both contests lasted their scheduled distance. The challenger had once possessed sufficient movement, strength and judgement to make Dempsey work, but his circumstances had altered by the time of their third meeting. He was suffering from Bright’s disease, a serious kidney complaint diagnosed two years earlier, although the public did not generally understand the extent of his illness. Financial difficulties helped persuade him to accept the contest. He had remained active and had won several fights since his previous meeting with Dempsey, but he no longer had the same speed or physical reserve.

Miske began the first round sensibly. Rather than stand directly before the champion, he moved around him and hooked a left to the head. Dempsey followed without wasting punches, looking to shorten the distance and bring his heavier hands into use. He landed with both hands and drove two rights to Miske’s head, although the challenger answered during an exchange of body punches. Miske’s movement and experience carried him through the round without serious damage, but Dempsey was already forcing him to expend strength by giving ground and meeting him at close quarters.

They came together quickly in the second and fell into a clinch. On the break Dempsey struck with a left hook, then found his opening for a right hand that put Miske down. It was reported as the first knockdown of Miske’s long career. The challenger remained on the floor until the count of five and rose with his senses sufficiently clear to continue. He did not collapse under Dempsey’s immediate pressure, but the knockdown established the difference between them. Miske could still place a punch and defend himself, yet he lacked the quickness needed to keep the champion outside for any sustained period.

Dempsey moved more freely at the opening of the third round and hooked a hard right to the body. Miske replied with a left to the jaw, but his success brought him within the champion’s punching range. Dempsey swung a right that sent him down for the second time. Miske waited until the count had reached nine before getting to his feet. Dempsey did not rush unthinkingly. He closed the distance, set himself and drove another right to the chin. Miske went down again and was counted out at one minute and 13 seconds of the round. There were no disputed fouls and no question concerning the finish. The challenger had risen twice, but after the final right hand he was unable to make another effort.

The short contest gave Dempsey the emphatic opening defence expected of him, though Miske’s physical condition placed the performance in a different light from the champion’s destruction of the much larger Willard. Dempsey later recalled that Miske did not offer the resistance he had expected and did not seem the same man he had faced in 1918. Former champion James J. Corbett made a similar observation in later years, pointing out that the earlier Miske had been fast and clever enough to remain with Dempsey over the distance, whereas the man at Benton Harbor had lost much of that speed.

The promotion also occupied a place in the early history of sports broadcasting. Reports and details of the result were transmitted by the Detroit News radio station 8MK shortly after they arrived from Benton Harbor, and the event has consequently often been described as the first prizefight broadcast by radio. It was not a complete ringside commentary of the sort given for Dempsey’s contest with Georges Carpentier the following year, but it showed how quickly boxing news could be carried beyond the arena.

Miske continued boxing after the defeat and remained capable of beating useful heavyweights. In November 1923 he knocked out Bill Brennan, another former Dempsey challenger, in what proved to be his last contest. He died on January 1, 1924, still only twenty-nine years old. The Benton Harbor defeat was the sole knockout loss of a career extending beyond 100 recorded contests. For Dempsey, the victory marked the start of a championship programme that would take him into contests of far greater size and public attention, but against Miske, his task was completed in little more than seven minutes of fighting.

Dempsey against Miske can't be seen as a true measure of the champion. Dempsey was making his first defence after wrecking Jess Willard, while Miske was suffering from Bright’s disease and fighting because he needed the money. They had gone the distance twice before, but this was not the same Billy Miske.

You can still appreciate Dempsey’s work. He crowded Miske without wasting punches, used the left hook to bring the guard across, then drove the right through the opening. Miske went down for the first time in his career in the second round. In the third, Dempsey dropped him for nine before finishing matters with another right to the chin at 1:13.

The result was legitimate, but there was nothing even about the contest. Dempsey did what a heavyweight champion had to do, quickly and without sentiment. Miske deserves the greater respect. He continued fighting despite a fatal illness and was never knocked out by anybody else in more than 100 contests. That tells you how capable he had been, and how formidable Dempsey was once he had a weakened man hurt.