The Jack Dempsey vs Jess Willard fight featured the best left hook I ever saw. They called this fight "the worst beating in history" for a good reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VawHgrLvbD4

I actually met Jack Dempsey at his restaurant on Broadway and 42nd street during the 1964 New York worlds fair. He sat in the front table of his restaurant shaking hands with fight fans all night.

Lobo will know better than me, but Willard was the champ. "The great white hope" the man who beat a very old Jack Johnson for the heavy weight championship, and at the hand shake they didn't look like they belonged in the same ring, Willard looked unbeatable.

Al, just how old are you? What row were you sitting in?

OK, I guess you didn't mean you were actually at the fight.

It's hard to get into boxing now a days when there are so many different boxing organizations and multiple titles
for each weight class.

It's been all downhill since the Tommy Burns-Jack Johnson fight.

I was at the fight! I think I saw Al there too!

:eek:

"They don't make boxers like they used to"

I know, right? The waistband is always wearing out and ****.

Lets get this straight I met Jack Dempsey in 1964, and he fought Jess Willard in 1919, which is about when my father was born.

Oh. It must have been your grandfather I saw at the fight.

Seriously, one of the coolest gifts I ever received was a pair of miniature boxing gloves autographed by Jack Dempsey that my grandparents got at his restaurant in New York.

Good thoughts,

Bob

I wear briefs.

That is a nauseating clip.

We can only surmise that this is a national, not a racial, commentary.

Lobo
I'm a little surprised no one asked about the Jack Johnson Jess Willard fight. Now that was a racially charged fight.

John
If Willard was smart enough to stay down it wouldn't have been such a terrible beating.

Reminiscient of Emile Griffith vs Benny Paret fatal fight. Man...

About the damage to Willard - apparently it wasn't as severe as rumored:

"In the fight Willard was later reputed to have suffered a broken jaw, cheekbone, and ribs, as well as losing several teeth, although at the scene, witnesses and even a sparring partner who travelled back with Willard and his wife 2 days after the fight said he was only bruised, and had a black eye. (Since he gave several interviews right after the fight, as well as on the next day to reporters, his jaw could not have been broken). His attempt to fight to the finish, ending when he was unable to come out for the fourth round, is considered one of the most courageous performances in boxing history."

Man o man. I had a hard time telling which bell was getting rung... the one the timekeeper used, or the one in his head?

It sure was. Kind of amazing that not that long later, all of America was rooting for a black fighter in another heavyweight championship fight - Louis vs. Schmeling, when it was "better" to be black and American than white and German. Interestingly, Louis and Schmeling themselves got along well, and became friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDWnMXzgeZo One of the very best ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imZaiGJgbsw War.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuYclaefqPQ War, Part Deux.

http://youtu.be/ue4LAW217pw?t=9m One of the best left hooks in recent history

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8XrcGXFcmc Two modern greats who had a 4-fight rivalry as good as Graziano-Zale, Robinson-LaMotta, Pep-Sadler, or anyone else.

LOL hadn't even thought of the racial angle. BTW, some of the Burn Johnson fight is on youtube. What a mismatch. Burns was tiny for a heavyweight (5'7", 175 lbs; he weighed in for the fight at 168 lbs, leading to speculation that he had been sick) and Johnson was physically impressive (6'1" and 210 lbs). Apparently Burns had been knocking out bigger men for a decade, but Johnson was not only bigger, he was strategically superior. He tied up Burns at will, totally owning the fight. The fight was in 1908, but it looked like a big man fromt he 20th century was toying with a little man from the 19th.

Some interesting quotes:

Burns: "I will defend my title against all comers, none barred. By this I mean white, black, Mexican, Indian, or any other nationality. I propose to be the champion of the world, not the white, or the Canadian, or the American. If I am not the best man in the heavyweight division, I don't want the title."

Johnson: "Let me say of Mr. Burns, a Canadian and one of yourselves, that he has done what no one else ever did, he gave a black man a chance for the championship. He was beaten, but he was game."

In 1910, former champion James Jeffries came out of retirement to fight Johnson: "I feel obligated to the sporting public at least to make an effort to reclaim the heavyweight championship for the white race. . . I should step into the ring again and demonstrate that a white man is king of them all."