Boxing History Sim - The Heavyweight Weight Class

[Critch]

I was looking through the saved email on my old AOL address and I stumbled across an elicense receipt from 2008 for Title Bout Championship Boxing 2.5. The install package was still on OOTP's website and surprisingly the elicense licensing worked (better than the 2008 experience) and I'm now the proud owner of Title Bout 2.5 again. It even starts when I click the shortcut.

It's a Federal Holiday weekend and my wife is out of town until Tuesday so I'm stuck home alone, home-bound because I'm one of the few people in the US who can't drive and I cant be bothered walking anywhere. I've got nothing pressing to do, there's no soccer worth watching on tv (stupid international break), so other than occasionally checking my work email, watching youtube, and hopefully remembering to feed the cats, my diary is empty. So why not spend the time simulating the history of boxing? It's better than wasting the time.

Title Bout Championship Boxing
Title Bout was originally a board game, all cards and ratings and dice, a very 1970's kind of thing. That spawned the original computer based version in the 90s (I think), then 2.0 in 2005. OOTP then bought the title from the original developers and released a more polished and patched 2.5 updated version in 2008 before selling the game onto PISD who released Title Bout 2013 in 2013. Unfortunately that version was an absolute mess, it just didn't work and was never patched. An absolute rip off, it used to annoy me when PISD's logo showed up on the OOTP start menu screen. The money-stealing bastards.

So 2.5 is the last half-decent version. It's a bit clunky and it's a simulator not a real game. But it's not bad. I think just simming, watching along and not managing works for boxing.

The Plan
Originally I was going to try simulating multiple weight-classes but that was all a bit too complicated and bound to get messed up either through bugs or basic user-error, I'm still learning how to run this sim. So the plan became one weight class only from 1920-ish onwards. It was going to be 1920 but I changed plans midstream and the first World Champion will now be in 1919. Rather than a 1920 start we'll call it "Post World War I".

I'm not a boxing fan, the history is interesting but I wouldn't sit down and watch a fight. One of my old friends was a big boxing fan and he used to drone on and on about how real boxing fans like the lighter weight-classes as they're based around boxing skill, defense and speed, and casual fans like the heavyweights because it's just big guys punching each other. Being a casual fan, it's the heavyweights whose names I recognize so I guess that's what I'm going with.

The 1920's with the heayweights is a good time to start though, a few all-time greats are active (Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Billy Miske), and a few more are on the horizon (Max Schmelling, Jersey Joe Walcott, Joe Louis). A real golden period for the heavyweights.

The first steps were zooming through a few years to get the universe started, a few years of the upcoming big names beating on complete (game-generated) nobodies to pad their records before we get to the actual World Championships. In this universe there are not multiple associations, no multiple World Champions, there will always just be one. And there are no continental or regional champions. It's World Champion or nothing.

The Schedule
Most of the scheduling will be done by me assigning boxers to groups (Challengers>Contenders>Journeymen>Rookies>Elite TCs>TCs) and using the autoscheduler to pair groups off against each other. The only thing I'll be hand-scheduling is the championship fights, everything else is autoscheduler. (nb Elite TCs and TCs are game-generated no-marks who will generally lose. I cant remember what TC stands for, I got it from the Title Bout website years ago. Maybe Trash Cans? Tomato Cans? And it's only generally lose because one of these nobodies knocked out Jack Dempsey in the first round in the setup simming).

When a boxer gets to his Career Start Date in the Title Bout database he becomes active in the game in the "Rookie" group with his career stage set to "Beginning". He'll fight every two months against game-generated TCs for the first two years padding his record and updating his career stage from "Beginning" to "Pre-Prime" and then graduate to "Journeyman" or "Contender" groups where he'll fight 4 times a year against a variety of levels of opponent. With this experience he'll go from Pre-Prime to Prime and be at the top of his game in time to be a challenger. All the aging is game controlled and slightly randomized, all fighters wont age at the same rate. If he is good enough to get to a Title fight he'll drop down to only 1 fight in a 6 months period. Thank goodness for excel to keep this all controlled.

Going with this schedule a regular fighter with a 12 year career will have just over 50 fights on his record. A little low for this period, one of the original fighters in this run (Bartley Madden) finished with 200 fights on his record in real life and his main ability was "taking a punch", but he was "punchy" when he died at 40 so he'd have been better with off this scheduling.

The Set Up
Starting with 1916 I've simmed the Rookies early years, added in new fighters as they hit their career start in the database, and after three years the original guys have 16 fights on their records. It's now January 1919 and the only unbeaten fighter is Billy Miske with 16 wins, 6 by KO, Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney are both at 15-1-0 (Dempsey has 14 KOs in 15 wins), then Bill Brennan and Charley Weinert at 12-4-0, followed by John Lester Johnson (11-4-1). Biggest drop off was Chuck "The Hoosier Playboy" Wiggins (9-6-1), he was right at the top of the rankings but has gone over a year without a win and fallen away. There's also Argentinian Luis Firpo at 11-1-0, he started a year after everybody else but is ranked in the top 4. I haven't decided if a newbie should be eligible.

As of January 1st 1919 we've got 19 fighters in the Journeyman group (I'm not moving anybody to Contenders until after their next fight) and 6 in the Rookies group, and 60 game-generated TCs. It's all a bit thin back in the 1920s, only 25 real life fighters, but as it moves forward there will be more and more fighters rated for the game so it'll fill out.

The plan for 1919 is that the Real fighters will face each other in January and after that the top four in the rankings will face off in June in a pair of World Championship elimination bouts with the two winners fighting a World Championship bout in December. And then we'll be set to run through Dempsey, Tunney, Louis, Marciano, Liston, Ali, Tyson right up to whoever the champion is nowadays, some Ukrainian guy probably. Or until the game crashes and wrecks the save.

[Critch]

1919 First half.

New Talent
In the game each fighter has a page of rating, style settings, punch %ages, it's a complicated set up but they also have a single number "Overall" rating. The Overall rating range from 0 (the TCs) up to 15 (Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson). From the current batch when they reach their prime we'll have Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney at 13 and Billy Miske at 10. Double figures is a championship contender, twelve-ish is generally "all-time great" level. From the rookies this year there is one who'll eventually be a 10-level, Godfrey George "The Leiperville Shadow". 6'4'' and 240lbs, apparently massive for a heavyweight then, he was Jack Dempsey's training partner and also the World Colored Heavyweight Champion. That won't be a title in my improved and unified universe, he'll be a contender in a few years time.

As I've been simming this I've been reading about the fighters on wiki and boxrec.com, a number of them died young in real life. So far Billy Miske (died in 1924 from liver disease, apparently knew he was terminally ill but kept on fighting to leave money for his family), Bill Brennan (died in 1924, retired and bought a bar in New York, was shot to death by gangsters for not buying their beer), Chuck Wiggins (retired to alcohol and petty crime in Indiana and died at 42 after falling down a flight of stairs. Allegedly may have been murdered by the police because he kept on knocking them out when they tried to arrest him.), and Bartley Madden (fell down the stairs at the DC Dept of Treasury building.)

January 1919
After three years of beating up on 0-rated TCs (or being beaten up by, Bud Gorman is 2-14, not sure what happened there), it's time for the real fighters to face off against each other. A kind of elimination round before the real eliminations in June. There are no real surprises, Billy Miske beat Ireland's Bartley Madden with a unanimous decision, Gene Tunney beat Albert Lloyd also by unanimous decision and Jack Dempsey came back from being knocked down in the first to knock out Ken Lenard in the 3rd. (There are only 19 real fighters in the contenders group so one TC had to be added, Ken Lenard was TC with the best record and Jack Dempsey got him by luck of the draw.)

The final place in the elimination four went down to the winner of #4 Luis Firpo (11-1-0 (4 kos)) v #6 Bill Brennan (12-4-0 (10 kos)). It goes to a majority decision, two going for Brennan and the other calling a draw, so Bill Brennan leapfrogs into the elimination 4. In June it will be #1 Billy Miske v #4 Bill Brennan and #2 Jack Dempsey v #3 Gene Tunney.

June 1919
It's elimination time for the December's World Championship bout.

06-04-1919 #2 Jack Dempsey (16-1-0(15)) v #3 Gene Tunney (16-1-0(11)) Jersey City, NJ
In real life Jack Dempsey didnt fight Gene Tunney until 1927 and 1928 (Tunney won both), this time it's 1919. Gene Tunney is 22 years old and not in his prime yet while Jack Dempsey is 24 and in his prime, that difference makes Dempsey the heavy favorite. The early rounds are pretty evenly split, Dempsey has a slight lead with all three judges by the midway point. In the sixth round Tunney is running out of steam, he gets a warning for holding. He's just getting close and clinching before Dempsey takes control in the seventh and it's even more uneven in the 8th before the ref stops the fight at 2.40 in the 8th with Tunney wobbling and not able to defend himself from Dempsey's jabs. So that's the first spot settled.

06-20-1919 #1 Billy Miske (17-0-0(6)) v #4 Bill Brennan (13-4-0(10)) New York, NY
Is there a less imaginative boxing nickname than Bill "KO" Brennan? It's Chicago's Bill Brennan v St Paul's Billy Miske, if I'd read where they were from first I would have stuck it somewhere more Midwestern but it's The Polo Grounds, New York. Billy Miske should just have to turn up to win and that's how it starts out, he's well ahead on the judges cards after 4 rounds. The fifth is where it turns, with a minute to go Brennan lands a hook to Miske's temple and he's face down on the canvas. He gets up and hangs onto the bell while Brennan tries to finish it. The sixth is much the same, Brennan lands a punch and Miske is down on a knee. Again he holds on til the bell but a pair of 10-8 rounds for Brennan and the scoring has turned. Miske tries to get back into it, he opens a cut on Brennan's eyebrow in the ninth and the doctor is called to check it but the fight goes on. Miske is knocked down again in the 10th (all the fights so far have been 10 rounds), this time he's slower to get back up but hangs on to the end. The three knockdowns make the difference, Bill Brennan wins a unanimous decicion, the judges scoring it 96-91, 95-92, 95-92 for Brennan.

So December 1919 it'll be Jack Dempsey v Bill Brennan for the inaugural Heavyweight World Championship. Gene Tunney v Billy Miske is also scheduled, the winner will be the first challenger in June 1920 for World Champion Dempsey. Or Brennan. I suppose it could be Brennan.

[Critch]

1919 Second half

Other Things
Obviously it's not just the championship fights that are going on, all the other unnamed folks are punching each other when scheduled.

Some notables:

• Rookie George Godfrey has finished his first year in the universe and ends with a 6-0-0 record, 4 by knockout. He'll have one more year padding his record and getting experience and then he'll be in with the big boys.
• Another Rookie Fighting Bob Martin is at 6-0-0. He's from West Virginia and he was American Expeditionary Force Heavyweight Champion in France and stayed on after WWI to become Inter-Allied champion. He's got one more year fighting no-names to go too. In real life he flamed out young, had neurological issues and injuries from car accidents and was banned from boxing for his own good. One unmentioned rule for this sim is that whenever a fighter gets to his real life career end he gets shifted to the "Post-Prime" stage of his career so he has to make his mark by 1923.
• Game-generated 0-rated boxer Grant Carter is up to number 6 in the rankings with an 8-3-2 record. The Tomato Cans (I looked it up, TC stands for Tomato Cans) weren't meant to do things like this.
• Charley Weinart has won 5 in a row and is up to number 5 in the rankings so he'll be in with a chance of being a challenger. Despite being called "The Newark Adonis", he's listed as Austrian as he was born in Budapest while it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So going by that he's now European Champion since he's the highest ranked European ahead of England's Joe Beckett at 10 and Ireland's Bartley Madden at 14.

December 1919
By a strange coincidence in real life Jack Dempsey did fight Bill Brennan for the World Championship on 12/14/1920 in New York. In real life Dempsey knocked out Brennan in the 12th.

12-17-1919 #1 Jack Dempsey (17-1-0(16)) v #2 Bill Brennan (14-4-0(10)) New York, NY
Dempsey was strong favorite here, the first round was balanced but after that Dempsey took over. He won the 2nd, 3rd and 4th round comfortable, and knocked Brennan down with a hook in the 5th. In the 6th he put Brennan down again and only the bell saved him. In the 7th he was down again and looked shaken but the ref let him carry on. Dempsey won the 8th on points, then finished the fight in the 9th. He knocked Brennan down twice then knocked him out at 2.04. At the end one of the judges had Dempsey winning all 8 rounds, while the other two had him winning all but the first round. So a bit of a mismatch. The winner and the first Heavyweight World Champion is Jack Dempsey.

In the other elimination Gene Tunney beat Billy Miske on a split decision, two judges giving it to Tunney 97-94 while the other went for Miske 96-95. So Dempsey's first defense of his title will be June 2020 against Gene Tunney.

[Critch]

1920

New Talent
There are no real prospective contenders coming of age this year. Best of the bunch is New Zealander Tom Heeney who will be an overall 7 at his peak, then there's Bearcat Wright who will only be passable but has a cool name (apparently there was a wrestler called Bearcat Wright too, he's this guy's son), and there's Frenchman Paul Journee who is a bit hopeless (he'll struggle against the 0-rated TCs) but he might get a mention if I ever mention the European Champion again. And at the other end of a career, fictional fighter Marty Billings has become the first fighter in the universe to go to "Post Prime". He's got a record of 8-4-0 including a win against Gene Tunney.

06-20-1920 #1 Jack Dempsey (18-1-0(15)) v #2 Gene Tunney (17-2-0(11)) Detroit, MI
The first defense of the world championship is a one-sided event, helped by Dempsey being at career stage "Peak" while Tunney is "Pre-peak". Jack Dempsey is well on top, scoring points and building up a lead. In the third Tunney's eye starts swelling and gets worse as the fight goes on. All three judges have Dempsey winning the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th round to build on his lead, Tunney's eye is swelling shut and his cornermen cant do anything about it. The 8th round is quiet but the 9th is back to Dempsey well on top although he does get a warning for a low blow. 10th round Tunney's other eye starts swelling up, two eyes swollen shut has got to be an issue for a boxer, it may be all over at any minute. Into the 11th and here's the commentary:

0:46 Tunney in on unsteady legs after those punches.
0:50 Tunney's eyes are becoming a complete mess as the swelling under them worsens.
01:02 * Ouch, I felt that one Dempsey is being warned by the referee to watch the low blows.
01:06 * the referee is indicating that foul by Dempsey was blatant. And he is stopping the fight and awarding the victory to Tunney by disqualification!!

So there you have it, the winner and the new World Champion on a DQ, Gene Tunney. Two judges had Dempsey 7-3 ahead on rounds and one had it 8-2 at the disqualification. The ref is on the take.

According to the rankings the next challenger should be Al Reich, he's been on a run of seven wins in a row and is up to number 3 on the ranking, but he's going to have to sit it out. I'm awarding a rematch to Jack Dempsey in December.

Other News
We're down to only one unbeaten fighter in the universe, all the new rookies have lost at least one and George Godfrey lost his first fight of the year and finished the year with an 11-1-0 record. The other one I mentioned, Fighting Bob Martin made it to 11-0-0 with 10 knockouts before losing his final Rookie fight by breaking his hand and having to retire. So the one remaining undefeated is another military man discharged after World War I, Captain Bob Roper at 10-0-2. He was apparently in the US Navy in the Philippines until discharged in 1919.

Billy Minske went 17 fights unbeaten until he lost the World Championship eliminator to Bill Brennan then the challenger eliminator to Gene Tunney. He made it to three defeats in a row losing to Bartley Madden before winning a rematch with Madden to get to 18-3-0. He followed that up with another loss, this time to a zero-rated nobody to make it 4 defeats in 5 fights. He's falling down the rankings, he's down at 17th. There seems to be a recency bias in the rankings, he has a better overall record than most of the fighters above him.

There have been too many disqualifications so far including the last championship fight, so I've gone through the referee list and changed all "Strict" referees to "Normal".

12-12-1920 #1 Gene Tunney (18-2-0(11)) v #2 Jack Dempsey (18-2-0(15)) New York, NY
In the first fight Jack Dempsey came roaring out into a lead, this time it's the other way around. I guess being the defending champion gives you a boost. After 5 rounds the judges have Tunney either 5-0 or 4-1 up on rounds. Dempsey turns it around though, takes the 6th round despite another warning, then the 7th and 8th too. Into the 9th and momentum has turned, Dempsey opens a cut on Tunney's eyebrow, blood trickling down the side of his face but not in his eyes. At the start of the 10th there's a clash of heads and Tunney's eye has started to swell, 30 seconds later Dempsey lands a strong cross and Tunney is down. He's back up but shaky at the count of 6 but Dempsey moves in for the kill, 1.40 Dempsey lands a hard combination and it's all over, Tunney cant get up to beat the count. A knockout.

The winner, and the new Heavyweight World Champion Jack Dempsey.

Early days but still nobody has retained the World Championship. That'll probably change next time around though, Dempsey and Tunney have fought each other in 3 of their last 4 fights so it's time to put that on the shelf for a while, he wont be the next challenger. The next challenger will be a bit more crap.

Incidentally Gene Tunney was a good looking man. If he swept you up in his big strong arms and told you that you were safe, you would believe him.

[Critch]

1921

New Talent
Two new boxers this year:
Young Stribling - from Georgia (in the US, not the country version) he's more of a Light Heavyweight than a Heavyweight but he's got a HW set of ratings in the database and we've only got one weightclass so in he comes. He should be a contender. In real life he died at 28 in a motorbike accident in 1933 and his grandfather was the president of Wesleyan College. He's only 17 in 1921.
Cowboy Billy Owens - he's from Oklahoma, he's a Cherokee and as well as Cowboy Owens he was also known as Indian Billy. In real life he was knocked out in almost half his fights and won less than half so this may well be his only mention.

Unmentioned Rules
There are two rules that have gone unmentioned, one because it didn't need mentioning and one because I've only just made it up.

My rule was the next challenger came from the in-game rankings unless there was a rematch needed. That would mean the next challenger would be #3 Captain Bob Roper (10-0-2) or #4 George Godfrey (11-1-0) but both of them have just come up from the "Rookie" group, two years padding their record against 12 jobbers. So my freshly made up rule is all championship challengers must have 14 career fights. So that's the pair of them out of the championship reckoning until they've fought two real boxers.

And that leads to the next unmentioned rule: a champion will defend his title in his home country. It's not been relevant before as all the championship fighters have been US (Dempsey from Colorado, Tunney from New York, Bill Brennan from Kentucky) but it might matter now because the next challenger is #5 Joe Beckett (15-9-0) from Southampton, England. In real life he never fought outside the UK so if he wins he'll be defending in London. He wont though, Dempsey will kill him, but seven wins in a row has got him up the rankings and everybody above him either doesn't meet the 14 fight threshold or is on a "Gene Tunney" enforced break.

06-25-1921 #1 Jack Dempsey (19-2-0(18)) v #5 Joe Beckett (15-9-0(9)) New York, NY
It's a mismatch from early, Beckett is down in the first and holding on to survive, then down in the second and only just beats the count. It calms down for a few rounds, Beckett actually might sneak a couple of rounds but Dempsey is winning most but not finishing the fight. Not until the 8th. Jabs have Beckett wobbling and a big cross puts him down and he's not getting back up. No champion defending in London yet.

The winner, and still Heavyweight World Champion, Jack Dempsey.

For the next challenger it's nearly the unfancied Bob Devere (13-11-2) but turns out I'd sorted by the wrong column and he's really #11. It should really be Gene Tunney, he's clear #2, but he's already fought Dempsey 3 times so he'll have to wait another year or two. So December's challenger will be "Austrian" Charley Weinert (21-5-0(9)).

12-17-1921 #1 Jack Dempsey (20-2-0(19)) v #4 Charley Weinert (21-5-0(9)) New York, NY
The game says Weinert is Austrian because he was born in Budapest but his hometown is listed as Newark, NJ and his nickname is "The Newark Adonis" so we wont be heading abroad for a championship fight if he wins, it'll be in New Jersey. That was a decision that didn't need to be made. Dempsey comes out throwing punches, Weinert is hurt after 40 seconds, he's staggering after 1 minute 40, he's knocked out after 2.25 of the first.

The winner, and still Heavyweight World Champion, Jack Dempsey.

I think the lack of good challengers is partly due to me limiting the initial pool too much, there were some good quality old guys (Joe Jeannette, Sam Langford, Harry Wills) at the end of their career that would be around making it interesting.

[Critch]

1922

Emergency Talent Influx
When I set up this universe I selected based on career start date (anybody with a start date 1912 to 1920 originally). Looking at the pool of real fighters now it's all a bit shallow, I've blocked out too many good older boxers that would have provided better challengers than Beckett and Weinert. So now they're getting a chance, I'm going to add them into the universe at their prime or beyond prime in some cases. Anybody who's been left out but still has a few years left has been added to a small group, a bit of record padding against the jobbers, a little elimination tournament, and the winner gets to be a challenger, but not straight away.

So welcome to:

• Harry Wills from Louisiana, "The Black Panther", 32 years old and an overall rating of 11. And really the one that made me think "Why is he not in my list? He's active til 1932".
• Canadian Sam Langford "The Boston Tar Baby", 39 years old and 10 overall, he'll be around til 1926 so he's still a challenger. I'm not sure if his nickname is offensive and google didn't help decide, but that was apparently his nickname so I guess it's ok? Better that Joseph "Jewey" Smith, the British Jewish boxer who retired just too early to be in this.
• Carl Morris. 38 years old so reaching the end. "The Oklahoma White Hope" despite being from Kentucky and Cherokee, 6'4'' and 240lbs so a big lad in the days when a heavyweight was anybody over 175lbs. An overall rating of 5
• Willie "Fat Boy" Meehan, 29 years old from San Francisco and described as "a flyweight who literally ate his way to heavyweight", he fought a young Jack Dempsey 5 times and won twice so couldn't have been too bad. A 5 rating again.
• Joe Jeannette, 43 years old from New Jersey, he'd be a 10 rating but he retired in 1922 so he'll be getting set to "post-prime". This will be his last chance to win a title. Apparently fought Sam Langford 14 or 15 times through their careers, the records are sketchy.
• Denver Jack Geyer, 39 years old and rated 3 overall. I'm not sure why he's called Denver Jack, his records say he was born and lived in Ohio.
• Bombardier Billy Wells, 33 year old Londoner and another ex-military man, this time the British Royal Artillery, an overall rating of 2 but I've added him because I've heard of him.
• Fireman Jim Flynn, 42 years old and well past his best but I wanted to get to eight. He fought for the World Title in 1906 and 1912 and was the only boxer to ever knock out Jack Dempsey (in real life, some nobody did it in this universe) so he's in for a couple of years.

Really I've enjoyed reading about the old boxers online on wiki and boxrec.com more than playing the game.

06-10-1922 #1 Jack Dempsey (21-2-0(20)) v #2 George Godfrey (15-1-0(12)) Chicago, IL
Godfrey missed out last year when I changed the universe rules and required at least 14 fights, since then he's gone unbeaten, knocked out "real" fighters Bob Devere and Fighting Bob Martin, and also King of the Fictional Jobbers Grant Carter in the first round. He's 6'3'', 250lbs and was Jack Dempsey's training partner in real life. Maybe he'll be more of a challenge than the last couple? Nope. He's down within the first minute and only just beats the count, Dempsey moves in for the kill and the referee stops the fight at 2.45 of the first, a win with a TKO in the first round.

The winner, and still Heavyweight World Champion, Jack Dempsey.

George Godfrey lasted 20 seconds more than Charley Weinert so at least he's not the quickest loser so far. At the same time in the "returning emergency talent influx eliminator", 43 year old and officially past his prime Joe Jeannette (14-0-0) defeats 32 year old Harry Wills (14-1-0) in a split decision to win the race to be Jack Dempsey's next challenger.

12-09-1922 #1 Jack Dempsey (22-2-0(20)) v #2 Joe Jeannette (15-0-0(13)) New York, NY
It's now or never for Joe Jeannette, he's 43 and his career end date is 1922 so if he loses here he's retired and gone forever. He's from Hoboken so I guess New York is handy for him, I go random for most venues and handpick for the championship fights trying to go indoor in the winter. And no California, boxing matches over 4 rounds were illegal in California until 1924 so I'm leaving it off the list. Historical accuracy, innit. One thing that's not historical accuracy is that Jeannette should be retired by 1922 but here he is, he retired in 1919 but the database has him as active til 1922 so here he is.

The early rounds are back and forward, Dempsey winning most of them. In the 7th Jeannette lands a combination and opens a cut on Dempsey's left eyebrow, through the fight it worsens enough that blood is flowing into Dempsey's eye, at the end of the 9th the ref calls out the doctor to see if he can continue but the doc he says yes. In the 10th things get worse for Dempsey, he's down after Jeannette lands a combination, back up at the count of 6 and hanging on for the bell. Dempsey has to go for it now, wins the 11th and knocks Jeannette down twice in the 12th and he's looking out on his feet, then again late in the 13th but Jeannette manages to make it to the bell. (n.b. title fights are 15 rounds, no worry for Jeannette since he once fought 49 rounds in a fight). Into the 15th and Dempsey is well ahead on points but with a minute to go in the fight Dempsey's cut is wide open and flowing so the ref calls the doctor in again and this time he stops the fight.

The winner, and the new Heavyweight World Champion, Joe Jeannette.

I thought it would have been unusual for a fight to stop for a cut in the olden days so I looked it up on google and it brought up a The Guardian article about it. "Stopping fights on cuts didn't become accepted practice until the Jack Dempsey era." So I guess that's OK then.

The judges had Dempsey well ahead when the fight was stopped (all three at 136-126), I'm vaguely thinking of letting Dempsey get away with a rematch again, I'll let a flip of a coin decide. And Jeannette will drag on one more year, cant have him retiring as world champion.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I've done projects organized similar to this on several different platforms (some computer, some pure tabletop, some hybrids) and generally enjoyed the heck out of them.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I've done projects organized similar to this on several different platforms (some computer, some pure tabletop, some hybrids) and generally enjoyed the heck out of them.

Yeah, it's been working pretty well. I do kind of wish I'd gone for multiple weightclasses though, maybe heavyweight/light heavyweight/welterweight/middleweith from 1960 onwards. Although maybe the cut back universe is why I havent had a crash yet.

1923

Outs and Ins
The first retiree, Bob Devere (19-11-2 with 12 knockout wins). He's 29 years old and I think the only time he got a mention was when he almost became the championship challenger because I sorted by the wrong column. He will be missed.

On the way in are 6 new rookies, the most important being Paolino Uzcudun "The Basque Woodchopper". Apparently Basque Woodchopping is a sport involving standing on wood logs and hitting them with an axe, Paolino Uzcudun was a champion at that before boxing. One day he'll be an overall 9 rating and maybe a challenger. The other new guys are less good.

And stepping up into the big boy's rank is Young Stribling boasting a 12-0-0 record, with the recent influx we're up to 47 real-life boxers. Almost time to add a European and a North American championship too.

There are three times a champion should get a rematch:
1. Losing on a disqualification while comfortably ahead on point
2. A controversial split decision and
3. The referee stops the fight for a cut with only a minute to go.

06-09-1923 #1 Joe Jeannette (16-0-0(13)) v #2 Jack Dempsey (22-3-0(20)) Brooklyn, NY
So it's a rematch. It would have been Gene Tunney's time to shine but he's lost two of his last three fights and fallen out of the top 10 so Dempsey again it is. Again Dempsey is on top winning rounds, helped by Jeannette hurting his hand in the third and not being able to use it for more than jabs. One of Jeannette's eyes is swollen by the 4th and by the 8th he's well behind on rounds and his eye is swollen shut. He hangs on losing rounds heavily and with the doctor checking the swelling in the 10th and 11th but by the 12th the doctor has seen enough and stops the fight, a win for Dempsey with a TKO.

The winner, and the new Heavyweight World Champion, Jack Dempsey.

With his championship lost on his first defense, the 44-year old Joe Jeannette retires with a 16-1-0 record. In real life Jeannette had managed his money well, went onto be a referee and trainer and own a limousine and taxi cab company. So that's what happened here too, but this time round he's a former World Champion too.

12-15-1923 #1 Jack Dempsey (23-3-0(21)) v #5 Captain Bob Roper (19-1-2(6)) Chicago, IL
Captain Bob Roper has been at the top of the rankings for a while, so now's his chance. His main strength is his endurance, he's never been knocked out but he's also not a heavy hitter, most of his wins coming from the judges. He's probably out of his depth against Dempsey but he's from Chicago so I've marked him as a "home town hero", I'm not sure what good that'll do him though.

It's going to take more than being in his hometown to help Roper. This is the commentary from the end of the first round:

02:57 This bout could end up being a bit of a mismatch. There's a difference in the caliber of fighter here.

Dempsey wins every round but Roper's endurance keeps him upright. By the 10th round he hasn't won any rounds and his face is so swollen that the referee stops the fight, it's a win for Dempsey on a TKO.

The winner, and still Heavyweight World Champion, Jack Dempsey.

[Critch]

1924

Outs and Ins
There are a few big names dropping out the game universe as we head into 1924:
Billie Miskie - In real life Billie Miskie died on the 1st of January 1924 from kidney disease, he apparently knew he was dying when he fought Bill Brennan in November 1923 but went ahead with the fight to provide for his family after his death. Despite being so ill he couldn't train he won, knocking out Brennan. In this universe he finished with a 29-4-0 record and 14 KOs, got close to a championship fight getting to 17-0-0 but then lost 4 out of 5 and fell down the rankings. Since then he's won 11 in a row but never got high enough up the rankings to get another chance
Bill Brennan - Bill Brennan retired after his loss to Miskie, bought a bar in New York for retirement and was shot dead in June 1924 by gangsters after refusing to let them supply the beer. In this universe he fought in the first World Championship fight against Jack Dempsey, lost, then fell down the rankings. He finished with a 24-10-1 record and 19 knockouts.
Joe Beckett - Another who lost to Jack Dempsey then fell down the rankings, Dempsey knocked him out in 1921. In real life he retired in 1923, got married, and lived until 1965. So best outcome of the three really.

And at the other end of their career, the pick of the new rookies are Max Schmeling (10 overall rating, future World Champion in real life, and a future German paratrooper during the war. There will be no World War in this universe so that wont be happen), Jack Sharkey (9 overall rating, in real life he fought Dempsey, took a low blow and complained to the ref and while he was distracted talking to the ref, Dempsey knocked him out), and Jack Roper (not a great boxer but brother of Captain Bob Roper and a future actor playing henchman roles in Hollywood)

It's a sign of the golden era for heavyweight boxing that in this span of a few years we've had Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney (both 13 overall), Billie Miskie and Harry Wills (11 overall), Max Schmelling, Joe Jeannette, Sam Langford, George Godfrey (all 10 overall). Looking at the modern day rankings, there are only three 10 or more heavyweight boxers from 1970 until present day (Mike Tyson - 12, Riddick Bowe - 11,Lennox Lewis - 10).

It was either a golden era or the people doing the rankings for Title Bout are strong on nostalgia.

06-14-1924 #1 Jack Dempsey (24-3-0(23)) v #2 Harry Wills (20-1-0(17)) Philadelphia, PA
It doesnt matter what happens, Jack Dempsey isnt getting a rematch if he loses, he's used up his get out of jail cards. And as it turns out that doesnt become a concern. Dempsey comes out fast winning the first round by a margin, round two is quiet and balanced other than Dempsey getting two warnings, one for holding and punching and one for punching below the belt. Incidentally Dempsey has an "often" rating for fouls and his fights are littered with warnings, editing the referees so none of them are strict probably did him a favor. 3rd and 4th are two more close, uneventful rounds. Same script for the 5th, after 5 rounds the judges have Dempsey narrowly ahead. The 6th is the round that changes the history of this universe for ever, maybe a slight exageration. Wills comes out for the 6th taking control, half way through the round he lands a combination and Dempsey is down. He's back up quickly but struggling, Wills moves in for the kill, traps Dempsey in the corner raining blows in, the ref steps in and stops the fight. A TKO at 2:24 in the 6th.

The winner, and the new Heavyweight World Champion, Harry Wills.

It was planned to be 41 year old Sam Langford for the next challenger but he lost to George Godfrey in April. Godfrey (22-2-1) lost in the first round of his last championship fight so he's out too, next would be Fred Fulton (29-8-1) ("The Rochester Plasterer", great nickname) he went to London and beat Bombadier Billy Wells to get into the reckoning, but it's time for Gene Tunney to get another chance. He's waited long enough.

11-13-1924 #1 Harry Wills (21-1-0(18)) v #6 Gene Tunney (30-5-0(21)) New Orleans, LA
Champions get to defend in their hometown, so the championship fight heads south. You can only set a fighter to be "defending champion" or "hometown favorite" so Wills wont get a double benefit, I'm not really sure what the benefit is. Maybe judges a little more favorable? It's a close first round but then Tunney takes over racking up a lead on the judges cards, Wells comes back into it in the middle rounds to make it closer, the last few rounds are pretty even, the fight ends with no knockdowns and it goes to a judges' decision. One judge scores it 145-140, the other two 145-141, it's a unanimous decision.

The winner, and the new Heavyweight World Champion, Gene Tunney.

[Critch]

1925

Outs and Ins
Only a pair of retirements for 1925:
41 year old Carl Morris retires with a 20-4-0 record. If he wasn't 41 he'd probably be in line for a championship challenge
34 year old Al Reich (27-12-1). A record padded with a lot of fights against journeymen, when he fought anybody good he lost. Gene Tunney, Luis Firpo, Bombadier Billy Wells, Fred Fulton, lost to them all. Even the kings of the jobbers Grant Carter and Ken Lenard beat him.

They will both be missed, but not much.

There are no real prospects on the way in, Frankie Campbell probably the pick of them. He's the brother of future MLB all-star Dolph Camilli (Frankie Campbell wasn't his real name). In real life he was a prospect with a good record until he died in the ring in 1930, he told his corner "something feels like it broke in my head" between rounds but kept on fighting. Hopefully he has a happier time of it in this universe.

The in-game rankings still list Jack Dempsey as #1 in the rankings (I thought the champ was automatically #1 but apparently not) but he's on an enforced break so it's down to Sam Langford (22-3-1) or Luis Firpo (28-7-1) to be Tunney's first challenger. Langford has lost two of his last three fights (George Godfrey twice, stung by the random fight scheduler), so it's Luis Firpo's turn, Firpo has nine wins in a row so he's earned a turn as challenger. He's the first challenger from South America, just like he was in real life. A championship fight in Buenos Aires?

06-20-1925 #3 Gene Tunney (31-5-0(22)) v #6 Luis Firpo (28-7-1(16)) New York, NY
Gene Tunney's first defense since 1920, this one goes better. First two rounds are defensive and close, then Tunney opens up in the third and Firpo is down face first after 27 seconds, he's shakily back up after a 9 count but back down at 1:26. Back up again and back down again at 2:04. The referee lets the fight restart, I've turned off the "three knockdowns and you're done" rule, but it only lasts one more Tunney attack before the ref steps in and stops it. A TKO after 2:19 of the third.

The winner, and still the Heavyweight World Champion, Gene Tunney.

Going by the game's ranking next challenger up should be Jack Dempsey, he beat Harry Wills in October 1925 and it top of the rankings, but it cant just be Tunney and Dempsey passing the championship back and forward so he's being snubbed. Next up is Fred Fulton (34-8-1(27)), 34 years old, nicknamed "The Rochester Plasterer". Twenty-one wins in a row, he hasn't lost a fight in over five years, he's earned his chance.

12-12-1925 #2 Gene Tunney (32-5-0(23)) v #4 Fred Fulton (34-8-1(27)) Chicago, IL
According to the rankings it should have been #3 George Godfrey, but he's had a shot so he'll wait and give Fulton his chance. It's a one-sided fight, Tunney racking up round after round to build a commanding lead, going into the late rounds Fulton is so far behind he'd need a knockout to win. In the 12th the doctor checks swelling around Fulton's eye but allows the fight to continue, but in the 13th Tunney finishes the fight, a knockout at 1:17.

The winner, and still the Heavyweight World Champion, Gene Tunney.

[Critch]

1926
It's the beginning of the end, 31 year old Jack Dempsey has aged from "Prime" to "Post-Prime". He's still one of the best around, but in real life he retired in 1927 so his days are numbered. He'll get a championship chance soon, a chance to retire on the top.

Outs and Ins
Fireman Jim Flynn (46 years old, 16-11-1), Denver Jack Geyer (42 years old, 15-12-1), Australian Albert Lloyd (33 years old, 20-21-3), Fighting Bob Martin (28 years old, 25-7-0, seems like he retired in real life for neurological issues that made him dizzy when he fought, became a West Virginia State Trooper), Bombadier Billy Wells (36 years old, 17-10-1). All gone but not forgotten.

(n.b "Australian" is Albert Lloyd's nationality, not his nickname. His nickname was "Kid Lloyd".)

Pick of the new arrivals are:
Otto von Porat - Norwegian 1924 Olympic Heavyweight gold medalist, his father ran a Berlitz language school so he spoke English (with an English accent), Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, French and German fluently and eventually settled and fought out of Chicago. He'll eventually be a overall 6 rating.
James J Braddock - hometown North Bergen, NJ, he'll eventually be called "The Cinderella Man" because he retired with hand injuries then made a comeback and fought for the World Championship. Not sure what that's got to do with Cinderella. Maybe he had ugly sisters. An overall 7, he'd be better as a Light Heavyweight but that's not an option here.
Tommy Farr - The pick of the bunch, Welsh heavyweight "The Tonypandy Terror". Actually he's only 13 in 1926 and still fighting in Welsh boxing clubs, I guess I'll put back his start date til 1930-ish. See you later Tommy. After retiring he ran a pub near where I lived in Brighton England. He was dead before I lived near the pub so he was never behind the bar when I went there, unless he was in an urn. He'll eventually, way down the line, be a 9 overall rating.

George Godfrey is going to be bypassed again, he's got a 30-2-1 record with 25 knockouts and going by the rankings it should be him or Dempsey as challenger, but I'm skipping those two and going to #6 Sam Langford. Langford is 42 years old, his days are numbered and he deserves a turn.

06-26-1926 #1 Gene Tunney (33-5-0(23)) v #6 Sam Langford (24-3-1(23)) Boston, MA
Sam Langford may be Canadian (Weymouth, Nova Scotia) but he fights out of Boston so he's set as hometown favorite. Still not sure how much of a bonus that is. He was in line for a championship for a few years but lost twice in 1924 both to George Godfrey to drop down the rankings. But it's my universe and I make the decisions so now is his chance. In the first Langford comes out flying and knocks down Tunney with a cross, second round it's Langford's turn to be knocked down. After that it settles down into a pattern of no knockdowns, no big punches, but Langford racking up rounds. After 10 rounds it goes to the judges (I forgot to set it to 15 rounds for a championship fight, oops).

The winner by unanimous decision, and the new Heavyweight World Champion, Sam Langford.

Langford won by a mile, all three judges making it 9-1 on rounds. Maybe "hometown favorite" is a bit of a strong bonus, although going by the fight commentary he did seem to win the rounds. Maybe it's more of an all-round boost than a judges adjustment.

12-18-1926 #1 Sam Langford (25-3-1(23)) v #2 Jack Dempsey (31-4-0(30)) New York, NY
It's a match-off of two old men, both at the post-prime stage, trying for a chance to go out on top and retire as champ. Sam Langford is 43 and this will be his last fight, in real life he retired in 1926 and he's a bit too old to try to squeeze out another year. Jack Dempsey is only 31 but retires at the end of 1927 so a win here and two successful defenses next year and he'll retire champ. Dempsey is a strong favorite, Langford popped to "post-prime" after his last fight and the aging process has been quite unkind to him, he's suddenly way past his best (7 overall down from 10). Dempsey comes out flying, easily wins the first round, but Langford settles and scrapes wins in the 2nd and 3rd. The fourth round is the end, 2.20 and Dempsey knocks Langford down with a cross, he stumbles trying to get back up and he cant beat the count.

The victor and new heavyweight champion by knockout at 02:36 of the 4th round...Jack Dempsey.

That's the fourth time Dempsey has claimed the championship, tying Evander Holyfield's real world record. I was planning on 1927's challengers being new guys Young Stribling (25-1-1) followed by Max Schmelling (15-0-0) but they both lost at the end of 1926, Schmelling knocked out by George Godfrey and Stribling DQed against Jack Sharkey. So there goes that plan.