Ringside Boxing Show: Jack Dempsey, king of sports, even in the time of Babe Ruth

In the era known as “The Golden Years of Sports,” two athletes stood above all others in terms of national popularity — one was Babe Ruth, the legendary Yankees slugger, and the other was Jack Dempsey, the heavyweight champion of the world.

Dempsey not only was adored by sports fans from coast to coast, but also was a darling among the Hollywood crowd, where he was befriended by such superstars of the day as Charlie Chaplin and Myrna Loy.

Our outstanding boxing historian, Christopher James Shelton, paints a vivid portrait of the life and times of Dempsey, who was truly a larger-than-life personality.

Our interview with Chris Shelton is preceded by a conversation with our expert analysts, Travis Hartman, Rizwaan Zahid, and John J. Raspanti, who call BS on the WBC for attaching a weird label to the Danny Garcia-Brandon Rios showdown (which will cost the fighters 3% of their purses), Amir Khan’s return to the ring after a two-year absence, whether Joseph Parker can expose Anthony Joshua’s alleged “glass chin,” how the Haye-Bellew rematch is likely to go, whether Claressa Shields’ Showtime main event advanced the cause of women’s boxing, what to expect from Saturday’s Spence-Peterson collision, and why boxers talk smack — something athletes in most other sports avoid like the plague.

We also get another update on the UK boxing scene from our British correspondent, Paul McLaughlin.

Dennis Taylor is host of The Ringside Boxing Show, editor/publisher of www.ringsideboxingshow.com, and co-author (with John J. Raspanti) of “Intimate Warfare: The True Story of the Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward Boxing Trilogy,” currently on Amazon’s bestseller list.