History of the Heavyweights part 7 (Jess Willard)

JESS WILLARD The contest between Jack Johnson and Jess Willard was scheduled for 45 rounds, effectively making it a fight to the finish. It was the last championship bout that would be fought under such terms. It was actually setled in the 26th round, and boxing had a new heavyweight champion. It was far from a cut and dried affair, however. The end of the Johnson-Willard had sparked more comment, claim and counter-claim than any in the sports history. It is a controversy that continues to engage boxing fans, though inevitably a present day debate about a fight that took place over 90 years ago is bound to generate more heat than light. The 8th man to try to wrestle the title from Johnson was a 6ft 6in cowboy and a somewhat reluctant fighter. Jess Willard was born in Kansas, on 29th Dec, 1881. He had Welsh blood in him on both his Fathers and his mothers side, but his mid-west upbringing was in the great American outdoors tradition. The sometimes ranch-hand and horse-dealer turned to labouring when his business was adversely affected by the burgeoning car industry. It was while wielding a pick-axe as if it were a matchstick that a fellow worker suggested that he ought to consider boxing. " I have never had a glove on in my life," replied Willard. "I have no inclination to punch others around." His companion undertook to teach him the rudiments of the noble art, and Willard that he could knock men off their feet with consummate ease. He won a number of fairground fights, despite having turned 30, and slowly built a reputation as the man who might reclaim the crown from the reviled negro incumbent. Although he was ponderously slow, Willards right hand could do a lot of damage, It was a punch that cost a boxer named Bill Young his life in 1913. Young got caught with a right from Willard in the 11th round, and died the following day. His neck had been broken. Willard was cleared of blame but vowed never to fight again. In fact the guilt ridden lay-off just lasted a few months, He had a few minor bouts where he took things easy, then drifted off the boxing scene for almost a year. When promoter Jack Curley offered Johnson $30,000 to fight Willard, the champion laughed. He was 37 and out of condition, but seen no danger in meeting a man who had only been boxing for four years, and hadn't stepped into the ring at all in the last 12 months. Willard was tempted by the prospect of fighting for the world title. The fact that the contest was set for 45 rounds convinced him that he could beat Johnson, who was as ring rusty as himself. The odds were 8-5 on Johnson, but it was Willard's analysis which proved correct. For 25 rounds he withstood all of Johnsons efforts to knock him out. The champion was streets ahead on points, but that was never going to be a factor. In the 26th round, after more than an hour and 40 mins under a baking sun, Willards famed right hand caught the champion square on the chin and put him on the canvas. The picture of Johnson being counted out has been reproduced many times, and has become one of the most celebrated and controversial stills in sporting history. The photo shows Johnson holding his hands over his face apparently shielding his eyes from the sun. This is a perfectly natural reaction under normal circumstances- but not for a man who had just been laid out and wasn't supposed to know what day it wa. Conspiracy theorists have used this to support the veiw that Johnson threw the fight. Why would he do such a thing? Years later, Johnson himself fanned the flames by saying he took a dive in exchange for his freedom to return to the United States, with all the charges hanging over his head dropped. In short, he cut a deal. This is by no means universally accepted as a true account of what happened on thatApril day in Havana. Testimony from impartial ringside observers said that the unfit champion had simply been battered to exhaustion by the 26th round. Any limb movements from the beaten man were totally involuntary. The new champion made just one sucsessful defence of his title, against Frank Moran, on 25th March 1916. Moran had been outpointed by Johnson over 20 rounds two years earlier and was no pushover by any means. Willard cannily insisted on a 10 round, no decision contest. He knew he was far too durable for Moran to knock him out over such a short distance, and it proved a comfortable, if tedious, defence. The Moran fight was the only time Willard put his title on the line in four years. He preffered to make easy money with the touring circus he'd formed. When he was finally lured back into the ring, it was against a man five and a quarter inches shorter and four and a half stone lighter. Willard was confident that he could make short work of this obviously smaller man. Unfortunately for him, that man was Jack Dempsey.