Jack Dempsey vs Jess Willard

[TheGreatA]

From newspaper accounts I would say that destinction goes to Ad Wolgast stopping Battling Nelson in 40 brutal rounds.

There's film of it too. They say Nelson averaged 80 punches thrown a round, which is incredible for a 40 round fight.

[BattlingNelson]

There's film of it too. They say Nelson averaged 80 punches thrown a round, which is incredible for a 40 round fight.

Yeah I know about the film. Years after the fight as Nelson was turned near insane, a theater showed the fight. Nelson was in attendance and stole the film! He was then arrested but later released because of mental condition I believe.

I'd love to see the footage for sure. LondonRingRules (or was it Threadstealer) has some 15-20 minutes of the fight and said it was like Pryor-Arguello just 40 rounds instead of 13.

[StarshipTrooper]

The only doubt of mine stems from the sheer damage that Willard sustained.....a smashed eye socket! Foreman, Shavers and Tyson never did that to a man! Plus Dempsey never damaged a man's features quite like that again!

Look where Dempsey's throwing those punches from though. He's hauling all the way and letting fly.

The thing is, from everything I've read Dempsey was told right before the fight that his entire purse was bet on him being able to get Willard out of their in 1. So Jack didn't lack for incentive. He wanted Jess gone and gone quick.

In a way it reminds me of Ray Robinson in the second Turpin fight: Throwing the same kind of punches because he had to get rid of his opponent quick. The big difference is Turpin was awkward and very difficult to hit cleanly while Willard was clumsy, had a big strike zone, and couldn't spell defense he you spotted him the d-e-f-e-n

Poet

[StarshipTrooper]

Jess said that being hit by the left was much harder than the right.

Dunno, looks like the right was ****ing him up pretty good too.

Poet

[StarshipTrooper]

There's film of it too. They say Nelson averaged 80 punches thrown a round, which is incredible for a 40 round fight.

Yeah I know about the film. Years after the fight as Nelson was turned near insane, a theater showed the fight. Nelson was in attendance and stole the film! He was then arrested but later released because of mental condition I believe.

And people claim today's fighters are better conditioned than the old-timers

Poet

[Sugarj]

Hi Mickey, Hi Poet..........good stuff, I heard the tale about the first round too! $10,000 at 10-1. You'd have to be super confident to bet that on your charge with a 1919 bookie when your man was outweighed by 65 pounds!

I actually dug out that book at lunchtime 'Champions of the Ring' by Gerald Suster.

It turns out that in addition to the smashed eye socket poor Jess also suffered broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken jaw, two black eyes and urinated blood for a week!!!!

After the three rounds he sat crying on his stool muttering 'I have $100,000 and a farm in Kansas' repeatedly.

He refused to shake Dempsey's hand for years afterwards (even for money!) citing that Jack had this iron bolt stuffed in his left glove.

It was the late Reg Gutteridge who visited Willard and was shown the bolt shortly before Jess's death. Willard truely believed even as an old man that Dempsey had his glove loaded.

The book says that 'there is a scrap of evidence for this contention. Close inspection of the Dempsey vs Willard films reveals a metal object lying at the end of the ring nearest the camera, beneath the third rope and at the centre.' (Obviously in the post fight aftermath). It also says the object 'looks roughly like the sort of spanner used for loosening or tightening ring ropes'.

Looks like the debate will go on.......

[StarshipTrooper]

Close inspection of the Dempsey vs Willard films reveals a metal object lying at the end of the ring nearest the camera, beneath the third rope and at the centre.' (Obviously in the post fight aftermath). It also says the object 'looks roughly like the sort of spanner used for loosening or tightening ring ropes'.

Well, if it lying on the ring apron than clearly it wasn't in Dempsey's glove

Poet

[Sugarj]

Hi Poet,

As I said in brackets before '(Obviously in the post fight aftermath)'. I'm guessing were it true Dempsey's handlers would have been extra careful taking Jack's gloves off.

I have the full fight at home but it doesn't show much after the fight finished, I haven't looked at the You tube posts above so dont know if they have much post fight coverage.

The author much have had a longer edit to have spotted the accused implement. Hee hee

[GJC]

me thinks jack just wanted to get the plaster out of his gloves

me thinks jack wanted to spend his winnings
Think it would have been amusing if Dempsey had been disqualified for not being in the ring for round 2, Willard would have made a great picture as the winner and still....

[GJC]

I have no idea whether this will work, this is my first ever link I have posted (Call me GreatA) so here goes nothing.

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/dempsey_gloves.html

An interesting article on the whole affair, it certainly discounts the plaster of paris theory resoundingly but does give some legs to the load theory. Anyhow read and make your own mind up.
For my money its an urban myth.