Given the FIrpo and Fulton fights, I'm not sure why anyone thinks Dempsey would need loaded gloves for Willard.
I’ve never seen how cocaine helps athletes, it just gives you energy for like 15 minutes and then you feel like ****. If you get high in the locker room, you’ll probably be sober by the time the fight starts and need bumps between rounds. Different from amphetamines, which has been used a lot (especially baseball players) by athletes
Yeah, wasn’t it Jack’s ex Mrs - Maxine Cates - who spilt the coca beans on Jack? Okay, coca leafs to be exact but beans sounds much better. Was Maxine a credible witness? Let’s just say:- “She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie….”
The rail road spike accusation was bolstered by or originated from the appearance of a long object on the canvas after the fight - I believe there is an image still of same - it turned out to be a cigar thrown into the ring by an excited fan. Kinda like in Caddy Shack when Billy Murray confirmed the “turd” in the pool to be no more than a Baby Ruth candy bar - taking a bite out of same to prove the fact - though horrified onlookers didn’t immediately uptake it as a proof. As to the initial claims re Willard’s injuries. Who exactly made those claims and wasn’t it only Willard who denied them? Surely he at least lost a tooth or had a fracture - I don’t think that’s beyond the realms of possibility. Any possibility Willard was motivated to play down his injuries? Another claim, I believe made by Willard himself, was that he permanently lost partial hearing in one of his ears due to the beating he copped from Dempsey - Willard always held that Jack’s gloves were loaded due to the uncommon force of the punches (as Willard felt them) - which is prob why he mentioned hearing loss to give his claim weight. Personally, I don’t believe there was any loading or other such cheating - Dempsey had a string of impressive KOs going in - culminating in the savage beating of Willard by way of his own bare, legally wrapped and gloved fists.
cocaine 100% gets you amped, I know wrestlers that used to do it before matches, but yeah it's a short intense burst, it also has numbing effects, I have heard that Bas Rutten used to inject novocaine into his shins before pancrase fights so he could throw kicks and not feel it, so imagine a similar effect for boxing by putting some between your cheeks and gums
I have absolutely no proof of anything, I have read everything I can find on this matter..but I have never been entirely satisfied with the delivery of the Right hands Dempsey used on Willard. He definitely seemed to favour the first knuckle and Thumb knuckle area rather than the actual fist part of the glove. Although he were directing an ice pick into a block of ice. This might not prove he was holding something because film shows his glove does open and close and anything within his grasp, that likely would damage his own hand, would drop out. I just find it extraordinary that he hits willard that way and the explanation for it really is not that satisfactory.