Harry Wills look poor on film. What to make of it.

[Dr. Z]

The Madden, the Firpo bouts feature Wills as the winner, but impress he does not. Two takeaways in these fights which have nothing to do with age.


1. Wills' technique is suspect. It is not good.

2. His power level is disappointing and does not reach the level of expectations.

Wills can be seen in a 3rd filmed fight with Uzcudun , but he is too old to draw any conclusions here and it is taken out in 4.

I must ask where is the mythical monster that Depmsey avoided?

Maybe Wills speed and power were a little better in the late 20's to early 30's, but the drop of film to reality if what can be viewed today does not show it.


I have no doubt that Wills was a top talent during 1914-1925. I also think he was a little chinny. He made his name on past thier and used up fighters and did not fight the talent of the times on Demspey, Greb, and Godfrey...or Tunney. He was a little foul prone.

[QueensburyRules]

- - What little film of Wills is near his retirement and hardly representative.

Had Boston or NYC been progressive enough when the timing for Wills vs Dempsey was at it's peak and buko$$$ purses to be had, we'd have some of the greatest boxing footage ever.

Looking at the current state of the world, seems like de-evolution is in play today, so what the hay!!!

[them_apples]

The Madden, the Firpo bouts feature Wills as the winner, but impress he does not. Two takeaways in these fights which have nothing to do with age.


1. Wills' technique is suspect. It is not good.

2. His power level is disappointing and does not reach the level of expectations.

Wills can be seen in a 3rd filmed fight with Uzcudun , but he is too old to draw any conclusions here and it is taken out in 4.

I must ask where is the mythical monster that Depmsey avoided?

Maybe Wills speed and power were a little better in the late 20's to early 30's, but the drop of film to reality if what can be viewed today does not show it.


I have no doubt that Wills was a top talent during 1914-1925. I also think he was a little chinny. He made his name on past thier and used up fighters and did not fight the talent of the times on Demspey, Greb, and Godfrey...or Tunney. He was a little foul prone.

There is almost no clear footage of him at all. How can you even decipher what he is doing? How could you possibly recognize how quick he is or what moves he is doing with so little frames to describe it?

I remember how bad Tunney looked before they restored the film with his bout with Dempsey. We were all wrong there - we are all wrong here.

[JAB5239]

There is almost no clear footage of him at all. How can you even decipher what he is doing? How could you possibly recognize how quick he is or what moves he is doing with so little frames to describe it?

I remember how bad Tunney looked before they restored the film with his bout with Dempsey. We were all wrong there - we are all wrong here.

"His power level is disappointing". He only had an 80% ko ratio and was named in The Rings 100 best punchers. I'm sensing another agenda here. There are hundreds of fighters who don't look good on film as you have pointed out many times, for many reasons. Why are we not picking out Jim Jeffries? He didn't look good on film either and most likely only has a slightly higher ko percentage because he had so few fights against in my opinion much lesser competition.

[them_apples]

"His power level is disappointing". He only had an 80% ko ratio and was named in The Rings 100 best punchers. I'm sensing another agenda here. There are hundreds of fighters who don't look good on film as you have pointed out many times, for many reasons. Why are we not picking out Jim Jeffries? He didn't look good on film either and most likely only has a slightly higher ko percentage because he had so few fights against in my opinion much lesser competition.

In reality it’s a pointless post. Someone looking at fuzzy old janky film and wondering why it doesn’t look like something filmed in 4K.