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It is often forgotten that Jess Willard was a heck of a fighter, with an excellent resume. Fans today might consider him an earlier version of Vitali Klitschko. They possessed similar height, weight, ability and build. While Vitali benefitted from the easements that exist in the modern sport; what truly set them apart was Jess Willard's immensely superior toughness.
"Big Jess" was a feared fighter in his day, enjoying top celebrity and boundless ideation about how good he really was; before it all came crashing down against the compact smashing machine known as Jack Dempsey. Prior to that 1919 encounter, many in the press expressed fear for Dempsey's life.
From the perspective of the moment, such grave concerns were not at all far fetched.
The choppy films of the 19-teens could not fully capture it, but in fact Willard was very agile, superbly balaned and for a man of his size, astonishingly quick.
But what is also seemingly forgotten is that Willard was also a ferocious right hand puncher.
Indeed, in the summer of 1913, he took on, for a third time, a young, muscular cowboy out of Glenrock, Wyoming named John William "Bull" Young. Though the record is stubbornly lost to time, the cowboy pugilist was believed to have won more than 20 fights across the west against other rugged ranchers, farmers and cattlemen in places like Casper, Wheatland, Cheyenne and Billings.
But Willard was far more than a big ranch hand looking to make some honest money, and in the 11th round, he struck the burly cowboy with a tremendous right uppercut that drove the base of Young's jaw up into his brain, and he died the following day. Willard was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Fortunaly for Willard he was successfully defended by noted Western lawyer Earl Rogers and the charges were dropped, but Young's death would haunt the gentlemanly Willard the remainder of his life.
Not as unheard of as it would be today, the celebrated Pottawatomie Giant had options for cashing in on his fame aside from risky adventures in the ring. What he opted for was to accept a starring role with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show for a minimum guarantee of $1000 per day, and by taking a percentage of the gate, he often earned $2500 a day; which equates to approximately $79,570.54 today, and I for one, can easily see his side of things, as this certainly demonstrates the cultural importance of being the world's champion in those times, when toughness was still a matter of survival, and survival a matter of toughness.
"Big Jess" was a feared fighter in his day, enjoying top celebrity and boundless ideation about how good he really was; before it all came crashing down against the compact smashing machine known as Jack Dempsey. Prior to that 1919 encounter, many in the press expressed fear for Dempsey's life.
From the perspective of the moment, such grave concerns were not at all far fetched.
The choppy films of the 19-teens could not fully capture it, but in fact Willard was very agile, superbly balaned and for a man of his size, astonishingly quick.
But what is also seemingly forgotten is that Willard was also a ferocious right hand puncher.
Indeed, in the summer of 1913, he took on, for a third time, a young, muscular cowboy out of Glenrock, Wyoming named John William "Bull" Young. Though the record is stubbornly lost to time, the cowboy pugilist was believed to have won more than 20 fights across the west against other rugged ranchers, farmers and cattlemen in places like Casper, Wheatland, Cheyenne and Billings.
But Willard was far more than a big ranch hand looking to make some honest money, and in the 11th round, he struck the burly cowboy with a tremendous right uppercut that drove the base of Young's jaw up into his brain, and he died the following day. Willard was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Fortunaly for Willard he was successfully defended by noted Western lawyer Earl Rogers and the charges were dropped, but Young's death would haunt the gentlemanly Willard the remainder of his life.
Not as unheard of as it would be today, the celebrated Pottawatomie Giant had options for cashing in on his fame aside from risky adventures in the ring. What he opted for was to accept a starring role with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show for a minimum guarantee of $1000 per day, and by taking a percentage of the gate, he often earned $2500 a day; which equates to approximately $79,570.54 today, and I for one, can easily see his side of things, as this certainly demonstrates the cultural importance of being the world's champion in those times, when toughness was still a matter of survival, and survival a matter of toughness.
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