Loaded gloves Dempsey Willard

Having read Kearns' autobiography The Million Dollar Gate it is clear that Doc Kearns was, among many other things, a con man extraordinaire, of which he takes great pride in admitting. He admits to many shenannigans which turned defeat into victory for his fighters. Yet, regarding the Willard fight, the only dirty trick I can recall is Kearns paying the fire chief to run the fire engines blaring past Willard's camp every hour on the hour for a couple days before the fight, saying "one thing''s for sure - Willard didn't get much sleep before the fight". It is interesting that the Sports Illustrated article came out about 6 months after Kearns died. In Dempsey's autobiography, he says of this incident "From wherever he was, Doc Kearns had managed to give me one more swift kick in the pants."

 

D,thanks for posting the Cox article. The allegation by Jack Kearns was ludicrous. Kearns was a "snake oil salesman"who was sore at Dempsey since Dempsey fired him because of financial misdeeds. So years later Kearns got back at his former charge by these rediculous allegations.
Darn it we should put this total yarn to rest, once and for all. YIPES!

 

I'm not in the camp that thinks Dempsey cheated, but putting a bolt or a roll of dimes (or nickels or quarters, depending on the size of your hand) inside your fist certainly increases the amount of damage a punch can do. It's an old barroom fight trick and one utilize by legbreaker types who beat people up for money owed to bookies and the likes.

It doesn't make the punch more powerful, per se, but there is no give on impact when it's backed up by a handful of metal. Get a roll of coins and just hit the inside of your own hand, and then try it without. I think you'll see a difference.

It should also be pointed out that doing so puts pressures on the finger bones and knuckles because the hand can't give, so the likely result besides injuries to Willard would probably be a badly broken hand on Dempey's part.

 

People claimed bolt, horseshoe, plaster--how dempsey managed to get hand in glove is amazing
Willard was sore loser, that's it. He pulls a bolt out during interview and say sit came from Dempsey's glove---how does he have it? Did Dempsey walk over later and say "here, I wont you to keep this as a memento of out bout?"

 

Wouldn't Willard have noticed that when he shook hands with him? (at 5:00):

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"Why Jack, your grip is so steely..."

 

Apparently years later Willard would point to a dent in his skull (yes a ****ing dent in his skull!!!) and claim that no fist could have caused such an injury

 

Jess reportedly claimed to have sustained a broken jaw in Havana, and said he fractured all the bones in his right hand when an uppercut counter off the ropes landed on Frank Moran's elbow in the third round, when he actually had just a slight crack of the joint of his right index finger according to a post fight examination by Dr. Lewis Morris. So there is some evidence of Willard exaggerating injuries, perhaps to boost his own image of toughness.

The question of precisely how severely he was physically damaged against Dempsey is an interesting question. Jack's own account reports that he saw his first knockdown punch cave in Willard's cheekbone, and that Jess spat out a tooth in later action. We do have footage of that late third round hook to the body forcibly hopping Willard upwards. Certainly other fighters have lost teeth, had their cheekbones broken, and ribs fractured, even in an age of ten ounce gloves and mouthpieces, let alone in an era of five ounce horsehair filled gloves without mouthpieces.

 

Great article thanks

 

Kearns was pissed at Dempsey...that is the reason for the plaster claim...total ****.

 

I dont think Dempsey cheated. He certainly didnt have plaster of paris or a bolt in his hand. That being said I have an article by Jimmy DeForrest written in about 1920 or 1921 where he says that he used a special bandage on Dempsey's hands that hardened after you wound them. I believe this articles is what started the story of Dempsey's loaded gloves. He said this was the same bandaging he used for Kid McCoy's hands (I never realized DeForrest worked with McCoy, but thats before my era of study). I always thought that article was interesting. There could be something to it but for two things: This seems to refer to the heavy bicycle tape that was common (and not illegal) in the old days. the problem with that is that bicycle tape was black (or at least every photo Ive ever seen of a fighter using it it was black) and both the film, and several photos of Dempsey in the ring prior to the fight show him ungloved with white handwraps. This would suggest he simply used guaze. Another point is that in the footage of the film Willard enters the ring, waves to the crowd, then walks over and shakes Dempsey's ungloved hand. If Dempsey had illegal handwraps Willard would have know that instant. I'll dig up that article and post it later today. I know right where it is.

 

Willards cornermen stated that the injury's discussed by the press from the Dempsey fight were exaggerated.

 

The gloves they used then were small , often 3oz in the fists with 5oz in the wrists. It was a big deal when new jersey demanded 6oz in the fingers and 2oz in the wrists for the Dempsey v carpentier fight.

even so a boxing glove is still a boxing glove and pretty hard to grip anything in it. can you imagine how hard it would be to keep swinging whilst holding a bolt? surely if a bolt was small enough not to be seen by ringsiders striking the head of the bolt against something would knock the bolt further into the palm of the glove and out the other side of the mitten? It would only be possible to get one shot off correctly striking the head against the target and even then if you swung and missed the first time it would send it shooting out into the ringside.

The only other way to cheat would be to break the gloves stuffing away from the contact area, so that less protection is on the knuckles, but everyone did that with horsehair gloves anyway - and would likely damage the hand.

 

Was Dempsey-Willard the first fight for the heavyweight title where hand wraps were used at all?? I have footage of Johnson-Willard and in ring pre-fight they were donning the gloves and I'm pretty sure they didn't have wraps on?? - Would make sense to me that Dempsey uses hand wraps and for the first time and as if by magic we see someone actually throw punches with absolutely everything they had without any holding back or careful punch placing for the first time ever - hence the brutal damage to Willard - can anyone confirm or deny? I was always led to beleive that hand wraps only came on the scene when Dempsey emerged?? Could this have been what stirred up the curiosity?? "What's those bandages on his hands?? That looks like plaster of paris!!??"