Essay On 1920s Boxing

Nathan Kramr

Mrs. Parnell

English AAC

February 8, 2023

Boxing in the Roaring Twenties

During the 1920s, or rather the roaring twenties, the sport of boxing had significant growth and experienced a surge in popularity, and it became one of the most popular sports in America. Boxing had a positive impact on the nation’s economy and boxing made its top fighters very rich. Among them were Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney who had some of the best and most controversial fights of the twenties. Boxing positively benefited the nation, the economy, and its boxers.

Boxing matches became very popular events that thousands of people attended. In the early 1900s boxing was banned in the United States until “In 1920 New York passed Walker Law, this law permitted

One of the reasons boxing became so popular is because, like other sports, spectators can gamble and place bets on fighters. With many people attending professional fights, the industry was able to make lots of profits, and boxers themselves were able to walk away with enormous paychecks for their time. For example, Jack Dempsey was one of the most famous fighters of his time so he regularly was able to draw large crowds to his fights which brought large amounts of money, this can be seen in the quote, “Jack Dempsey earned about $300,000 for winning his title in 1921” (Zermeno). Compared to the money made by professional athletes today, 300,000 dollars might not seem very impressive, but compared to the other top athletes of the 1920s, 300,000 dollars is a massive amount. Later in the twenties, when Gene Tunney won his rematch against Jack Dempsey in 1927, he “earned one million for the fight” (Edwards). Today, 300,000 dollars is equivalent to over four million dollars, and that was just from one

The controversy in this fight was created when “Dempsey forfeited his chance for a seventh-round knockout by standing over the fallen Tunney rather than going to a neutral corner of the ring” ("Jack Dempsey."). Because Dempsey had not moved to a neutral corner, Tunney had over ten seconds before he had to get back up, and this cost Dempsey the win. This event became known as, “the long count.” Many people think that Dempsey should have been given the win but in all fairness, Tunney knew the rules so he waited before he “rose on the count of nine and completed the 10-round fight, again winning by decision.” (“Gene Tunney”). Even though many people argue that Dempsey should’ve won because Tunney was down for more than ten seconds, I believe that Tunney rightfully won the fight, and he did not deserve the hate and backlash he received from the