We tested Jack Dempsey’s “How to Fight Tough” World War II Combatives

Ramsey Dewey and Jourdan Chow test out the military hand to hand fighting techniques from Jack Dempsey’s OTHER book “How to Fight Tough”.

Jack Dempsey was the reigning World Heavyweight Boxing Champion from 1919 to 1926. His explosive and aggressive style changed the history of boxing forever. Jack Dempsey is also known for his excellent book on the sweet science of boxing “Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense”

As a Lieutenant in the United States Coast Guard during World War II, Jack Dempsey was commissioned by the US government to train military personnel and author the combatives manual that is now known as “How to Fight Tough”.

The book contains a few dozen hand to hand fighting techniques derived from judo, jiu-jitsu, Catch Wrestling, boxing, and “alley fighting” (aka: street fighting) There are a few close range weapon disarm and bayonet techniques that we did not test out in this video since we decided to focus mostly on the hand to hand techniques.

How much of this stuff holds up today? How many of these old school military combatives are applicable to modern combat sports like MMA or BJJ? Can you use these techniques for self defense?

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Ramsey Dewey is an MMA coach and fight commentator, and occasional musician based in Shanghai, China.

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