KNOCK the bookies out of the ring at Cheltenhamtoday with a 'Manassa Mauler' like plunge on Dempsey.

The incumbent champ, 37-year-old Jess Willard of Kansas, yielded the most coveted and exalted title in sports to a 24-year-old Coloradan named Jack Dempsey--the "Manassa Mauler."

Dempsey was The Manassa Mauler, Joe Louis: The Brown Bomber, Rocky Marciano: The Brockton Blockbuster.

It was a time of hyperbole and alliteration, of references to Greek heroes, of nicknames like the Iron Horse, the Sultan of Swat, the Manassa Mauler, Big Red.

The Manassa Mauler had a brawling, rough-hewn style learnt from his days as a poverty-stricken hobo.

Gorn, "The Manassa Mauler and the Fighting Marine: An Interpretation of the Dempsey-Tunney Fights," Journal of American Studies 19 (1985): 27-47; and the New York Times, September 24, 1926, 1-9.

Dempsey was known as the Manassa Mauler (he was born in Manassa, Colo.) and earned more money than any previous boxer in history.