Jack Dempsey vs Jess Willard

[TheGreatA]

It has been 90 years since this fight happened:

The complete film:











The fight in pictures:

[Stoppage]

Brutal ending for Willard. Dempsey messed him up badly.

[mickey malone]

Surely one of the most brutal hidings ever administered in a boxing ring.. Willard always insisted there was something in Dempseys gloves that day, but to the best of my knowledge, nothing was ever proven.. I don't think Dempsey was the kind of guy to knowingly cheat..

[Caesar]

dempsey is the best!!! thx for vids

[Miburo]

To this day the most brutal championship fight in the history of boxing.

[Sugarj]

Hi Mickey, yes poor Willard insisted that Dempsey's left glove was packed with a tool used to tighten ring ropes till the day he died! He kept what he believed to be the implement in a box and showed it to one of his biographers. It was apparently found on the canvas in Dempsey's corner by one of Jess's cornermen after the fight.

Others touted that Dempsey had used plaster of Paris!

I'm undecided but lean more to Dempsey's innocence, I think he had the beating of Willard anyway and more than enough power without extra aids.

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!

[Spartacus Sully]

theres allways that weird kinda explained thing about how dempsey left the ring and almost didnt make it back in....why was he so quick to leave the ring? theres also the thing about how if you actually used plaster after the first few hits it would crumple and start to do more damage to your hands then it would to the other persons face.

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

[mickey malone]

Hi Mickey, yes poor Willard insisted that Dempsey's left glove was packed with a tool used to tighten ring ropes till the day he died! He kept what he believed to be the implement in a box and showed it to one of his biographers. It was apparently found on the canvas in Dempsey's corner by one of Jess's cornermen after the fight.

Others touted that Dempsey had used plaster of Paris!

I'm undecided but lean more to Dempsey's innocence, I think he had the beating of Willard anyway and more than enough power without extra aids.

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!

Good post SugarJ.. Very informative... Almost too informative.. It does add a cloud of controversy over the win, but then who'd be stupid enough to leave it in their own corner?.. You have thought he'd have at least toe poked it out of the ring..
Don't blame Willard for thinking that though.. No body else even came close to doing that to him..

[Sugarj]

Quite right Mickey, I'd have managed to conveniently lose the tool too! I'll look the story up again, it may have been the ring apron. I seem to remember reading it in a very good book by a guy called Gerrard Suster, I'll look it up again.

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

As I said, I lean against the claim......dont want to upset Mr Kinetic. Ha ha

[BattlingNelson]

Surely one of the most brutal hidings ever administered in a boxing ring.. Willard always insisted there was something in Dempseys gloves that day, but to the best of my knowledge, nothing was ever proven.. I don't think Dempsey was the kind of guy to knowingly cheat..

Hi Mickey, yes poor Willard insisted that Dempsey's left glove was packed with a tool used to tighten ring ropes till the day he died! He kept what he believed to be the implement in a box and showed it to one of his biographers. It was apparently found on the canvas in Dempsey's corner by one of Jess's cornermen after the fight.

Others touted that Dempsey had used plaster of Paris!

I'm undecided but lean more to Dempsey's innocence, I think he had the beating of Willard anyway and more than enough power without extra aids.

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!

A lot of info about Dempsey's alleged cheating can be found here:

http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/sh...hlight=Dempsey

To this day the most brutal championship fight in the history of boxing.

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