Is Harry Wills Resume overrated?

Who says Wills would have no chance?

 

"Also thought he was 35 not 38."

The United States census, certainly the best evidence, has him born in 1889. His tombstone, and I don't see why anyone would lie about his age on his tombstone, states he was born in 1889. His given birthday is May 15, 1889.
(his tombstone is pictured at a site called "Find a Grave" on the internet)

That makes him 35 in 1924, and 38 in 1927.

From what I can tell, the younger age comes from his New York Times obituary, but newspapers have been known to make mistakes.

The 1910 census reports Harry Wills as being 21 at the time. I have looked him up.

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that!

You can be the most evil and racist man in history, and it is irrelevant, if your resume stacks up on paper!

 

Most Champions have resumes built off fighters of the past, I think what matters is were they contenders or a shadow of themselves? Were they still in winning form?

Wills was a force among the Black heavyweights of the day & gained experience. Wills also had a good win vs Firpo. The firpo win was not like the explosive Dempsy KO of Firpo but Wills controlled the whole fight & did not get dropped so it was an easier fight for Wills.

From what I can see from film of Wills I think Dempsey missed a good chance to shine but then again you never know how styles play out.

Wills looked like he was not hard to hit and was not as fast as Dempsey and was not mobile but Wills had good size and reach.

Things were not perfect in those days with many of the best fighters not fighting the best and a lot of inactivity. Joe Louis changed all that fighting the best and it continued until Floyd Patterson (or Cus) then Liston & Ali fought all comers until Holmes,King & the Alphabet Champions (in an era where was 2 sets of fighters) and many avoidences by Holmes (never unified) gave up a title not to fight Page & never rematching hard fights) Tyson changed all that (give credit where it is due) Vlad set the bar again unifying & dominant. LL did well missing only a few.

So I dont think Wills is overated, he never got a deserved title shot but was not electrifying crowds either. Why didnt Wills fight Tunney & why did Tunney all of a sudden get colorblind?

 

Here's a temporary opinion...

3/7/22

"Downright fear of Will is about the only thing which will avert the Dempsey-Wills encounter. Perhaps after what Harry Wills showed in the ring no amount of money can induce Kearns to permit Dempsey to meet the giant black man....

The Wills that finished Norfolk in less than two rounds can take Tom Gibbons, Fred Fulton and Bill Brennan, or any other three heavyweights that can be named, including Carpentier, in the same ring on the same night and stop the whole trio inside of 10 rounds.

It is even to be doubted whether Jack Kearns, despite everything has been agreed upon regarding a match with Wills, will now consent to permit Dempsey to go through with it. The Dempsey-Kearns scouts that were at the ringside have informed Kearns exactyl what happened...

The Wills who beat Norfolk is bigger, stronger, faster and a harder hitter than Dempsey."

 

Peter Jackson kicks the crap out of anyone on Sullivan’s resume

 

Wills beat a 34-35 year old Jeanette in 1914 according to the New Orleans item. Jeanette was rated top 3 in the world at the time

Wills was shot to pieces at age 38 when he fought uzcuden. He had nothing left. I won’t need to correct you on the age, as Edward already has.

I’m assuming by now, you have dropped your argument wills was still close to his prime at age 35 when he took on fipro in late 1924

 

Interesting how the article mentions wills as being “faster” than Dempsey. While that may be an exaggeration, it does prove that the younger wills was significantly faster than the 36-38 year old walking corpse people judge on the film.

 

Who says Jeannette was top3 in 1914?

1913-07-01 Harry Wills D-PTS10 Joe Jeannette (New Orleans, LA, USA)

1913-07-02 The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA) (page 10)
JOE JEANETTE
------
Only Gets Draw With Local Black Boxer Willis,
------
But That Was Because He Wanted Too Long Before Turning Loose His Punch

 

Go back and re read all my posts...way before Edward chimed in, I continuously referred to wills as 35 years old against fipro. Why? Because I’ve been here a lot longer than you and I know wills correct birthdate it’s been covered here before.

You my friend, are grasping at straws trying to tear down a 38 year old wills because you are insecure your favorite Fighter jack demosey would have beaten him in his prime

 

Of course he didn’t look “great”...he was 35 years old in 1924! Get that through your tiny little brain. He had been beating the worlds best since 1915!

New Orleans Item was the newspaper covering the fight. They had a reporter live for the night. He scored it for wills. It’s significant. Why? Because a still green harry wills fought on at least even terms with a hall of fame Jeanette who was still one of the best in the world in 1914.

In fact name me 5 heavyweights throughout history who could have fought on even terms with Jeanette in 1913-1914 in only there 13th and 19th pro fights?

Here are the 1914 rankings

1914

Champion Johnson

2 Langford
3 Jeanette
4. mcvey
5 Carpentier
6 Clarke
7 Dillon
8 Wills
9 Levinsky
10 Coffey

That’s a big time performance from a young wills against Jeanette

jack Dempsey refused to take on any stiff challengers early in his career. He ducked a fight with Sam Langford in 1916-1917 because of fear of losing. Yet wills was beating up on Langford during these years...so do you give wills credit for dominating a man who Dempsey was too scared to fight? Dempsey had a chance to fight Jeanette in 1918, but ran out of the ring. If Jeanette were a white man, it’s debatable whether Dempsey would have left the ring or not.