If Jess Willard had faced Joe Frazier in Kingston.?

Prime Willard? I'll pick Jess to win with his durability and power.

 

"Willard was often maligned as an uncoordinated oaf rather than a skilled boxer, but his counterpunching style, coupled with his enormous strength and stamina, proved successful against top fighters. Willard's strength was so great, he was reported to be able to kill a man with a single punch, which unfortunately proved to be a fact during his fight with Jack "Bull" Young in 1913, who was punched in the head and killed in the 9th round. Jess Willard was charged with second-degree murder, but was successfully defended by lawyer Earl Rogers."A Foreman grade right uppercut floored John (Bull) Young. He died the next day from surgery to help relieve pressure of a cerebral hemorrhage."

 

This excessive, irrational worship of late 19th/early 20th century heavyweights is the closest thing we’ll ever see to grown men admitting that they still believe in super heroes.

 

The way to beat Frazier is to overpower him, I can't see Willard over powering Frazier. Then again Willard does have a legendary uppercut and was on his game for that fight against Johnson, while Frazier was not his best at Kingston. I still see joe landing that big leaping left and dropping jess. Jess was very durable but no body is made of iron, Jess gets knocked out between round 8 to 12 Willard was big tough and had a good uppercut, but he rellied almost entirely on his size, and we all know joe is a giant killer and twice the fighter jack johnson was

 

George Foreman was an uncommon terror in the ring. He destroyed Joe not only with his power but his attack was murderous. Especially early George was not someone you wanted to trade with. I don't think Joe Frazier was as far out of shape as it may have looked. He wasn't peak but he could have still beaten quite a few top heavyweights. Willard was strong but he was not as aggressive or powerful as George Foreman.

I think Joe Frazier gives him a beating. Maybe not as quick of an ending as Dempsey as Joe like to build the pace round by round. Anyway Big Jess doesn't see the final bell.

 

Good post.

 

I wonder how many deaths in the ring Tyson would be responsible for if he fought in the exact same period as Dempsey. Got to stand right over his opponents and everything.

 

Or Joe Frazier for that matter.

 

Tyson would have thought he was at Cape Canaveral launching heads into orbit.

 

Frazier and Tyson are the last two people I'd want to see transported back in time to fight. It would be barbaric. They nearly killed people as is.

 

Imagine the Ribalta uppercut from hell? I wonder what that would look like with half modern sized, horse hair gloves?

Maybe Tyson's hands explode like when he punched Mitch Green bare fisted in the streets. I hear the old timers heads was made of sterner stuff than the knock offs we see nowadays...

 

Foreman wouldn't be very pretty either.

 

Willard, like Baer, had somewhat of a marred career after killing a man in the ring.
For at least one fight, the other fighters manager convinced Willard to go a bit easy on his fighter, so that nobody gets killed an goes to prison. This kind of stuff got into Willards head, as it probably would just about anyone.

A prime Frazier would chop him down.

But Kingston Frazier? Against a prime Willard?
Something tells me that the reality is that Willard would be too strong, durable, powerful, big, fast, and energetic for Frazier.
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He's about the best there is right now, through still green. I was in the ring and right close to the men all the time and will say that Willard hits harder than any heavyweight in the game today. Fitzsimmons, when his hands were good, could not hit with more pile-driving force than this fellow. Jess was under wraps all the way with Bauer for fear of injuring him, but at that he shot over a couple of right-hand uppercuts that would have stopped less gamer ring men than the St. Charley heavy.
I never saw a boxer improve as fast as Willard. He's got a nasty left hook developed, the short kind, you know, that does not have to travel far to hurt. And his right uppercuts and crosses are stunners. He does not waste punches either, and when he starts one, it's a good bet it will land. There is none of the old-woman milling style with him. He did not pull a punch from his hips in the fight. All of them were the snappy kind that you see champions use.
I do not hesitate to say that I think Willard can trim Jack Johnson in the latter's present condition.
I saw McCarty fight a couple times, and if Willard can't beat him, then I never had a boxing glove on. Willard is bigger and tougher and a harder hitter than McCarty, and I actually believe he can out-box him too.

- Fort Wayne Referee of Bauer Fight

 

Willard's greatest achievement was to act as a punching bag for 20 rounds against an old, tired champ who never had much of a punch or attacking style to begin with... Against one of the greatest attacking heavies ever, even in a somewhat depleted state, we would see a recasting of Toledo. Any speculation otherwise is purely delusional and pretty much par for the course.