Then The Wild Bull Of The Pampas Luis Firpo would have been crowned the new World Champion, and Argentina would have had it's first champion.
The thread title made me think of Jack nearly kayoing Jess Willard in one, thinking that he'd won, and heading to his dressing room, only to be called back.
Would of had a huge rematch. Dempsey brutally KOs Firpo in a rematch. The gate is giant. There is rubber match and that breaks whatever records they want to go for. The only unknown is if there is some interim match before they rematch, Firpo defending in Argentina and Dempsey getting a win in the interim to hype the rematch.
I don't think that making Dempsey feel sad, was very high on Firpo's list of priorities, but let's say that it happens. Then the one million dollar gate left in the world, is Dempsey vs Wills! Suddenly Dempsey needs it!
It would be High on Firpo Kamikaze's list. Maybe I would be helping history then If I let him fight Wills?
Now that's an interesting point. What if Jack carry s on walking and doesn't return, so they award it to Willard???
Jim Corbett wrote that Dempsey actually didn't return to the ring until after the 2nd round was due to start and that, if Willard's corner had been more on the ball, they could have insisted that he be disqualified at that point.
So was pretty close to him actually losing the fight then? That's actually crazy to think about. Dempsey smashes hell out of poor Jess, but then actually gets him self dsq! Never understood why Jack left the ring so fast. Must have been literally after the bell had rung to end the first round (which of course is the one that Jack didn't hear).
It certainly would have gone down in history as one of the luckiest wins of all time. It seems like the reason Dempsey left the ring so quickly was that Kearns knew Willard had been saved by the bell but tried to finesse the referee into declaring the fight over by acting like that decision had already been made.
Ahhh, crafty old Kearns. Lol The Don King of the day there. In hindsight, Dempsey had won it, no way was Willard gonna come back from that shell shacking. Amazing he actually lasted till the third.
I have wondered about that myself. I cannot imagine after seeing that first round that Willard could possibly survive the second round, or even answer the bell for the second round.
I honestly don't know myself. I mean, how could he bring himself to actually do it? He's being pounded from one side of the ring to the next, and back, then he thinks it's over, then it isn't!! Amazing bravery is all I can say.