Full credit to the skilful Gibbons, but I suspect Dempsey might have been losing his edge a little here. The once hungry young tank town slugger was now living the soft life. That, added to the increasingly long gaps between fights can't have helped an instinctive fighter like Dempsey to maintain the hunger and the killer instinct that he brought to Toledo.
Commentary is simply wrong. Fight was a "gag", publicity stunt ?? Idiots !. Gibbons was one of the best of the era. He was ranked #2,not #1. He was 6ft, not 5'9" as basic examples of the BS of the commentary. Gibbons was a respected boxer by all. One of the best ring records in boxing history.
The descriptions of "gag" and "publicity stunt" had nothing to do with the fighters' records or reputation. In fact, the commentator mentions' how well-respected Gibbons is in the boxing community. Rather, those descriptions are used to describe the fact that Shelby, Montana, a blip in the midwestern prairie with a population of the time of around 1,000, hosted the fight. The only distinguishing feature that town had was that it was a stop on the Northern Pacific railroad. The businessmen of the day were trying to draw attention to it by encouraging the promoters to have the fight there. As mentioned in the film, the fight did not sell out, many were able to watch the fight free of charge from a neighboring hill, and the fight crew had no interest in assisting the town any further.
