[GIF] Johnson - Willard

Which is why he was able drive himself and his wife back to Kansas two days later?

 

i hate when peopme use "the heat" as an excuse for a fighters performance...as if the heat only affected the guy that lost

 

It will effect the older less in shape fighter.

 

Well, considering he was even still alive should make it obvious that "fatal automobile accident" was an exaggeration.

But my fault I guess for the confusion.

 

It was important for the career of Willard that injuries were downplayed. There are first hand accounts of tooth loss and that Jess's jaw hung open as if broken. The caved in right side of his face did not go away overnight.

 

Mike Casey on the aftermath of Dempsey-Willard


For once, the bloody descriptions of a bloody fight didn’t go far enough. The injuries that Willard sustained were horrific and more comparable to those suffered by shell blast victims in the recent Great War. One of his cheekbones had caved in. His jaw was broken, as was his nose. Many of his teeth had been knocked out. His ribs were busted, his eyes were swollen shut and he had lost his hearing in one ear. His face and body bore multiple contusions, cuts and abrasions. His lips were badly cracked.

Ringside reporter Damon Runyon wrote: “Squatted on his stool in his corner, a bleeding, trembling, helpless hulk, Jess Willard, the Kansas giant, this afternoon relinquished his title of heavyweight champion of the world, just as the bell was about to toss him into the fourth round of a mangling at the paws of Jack Dempsey, the young mountain lion in human form from the Sangre de Christo hills of Colorado.

“The right side of his face was a pulp where the fists of the Indian brown boy from the Centennial state had been landing for nine minutes with fearful force. The right eye of the champion was completely hidden behind that bloody smear. His left eye peered over a lump of flesh in grotesque fashion. The great dough-like body of the giant was splotched with red patches.

“They were the aftermath of Dempsey’s gloves thumping there and giving back a hollow sound as they thumped. At the feet of the Gargantuan pugilistic was a dark spot which was slowly widening on the brown canvas as it was replenished by the drip-drip-drip of blood from the man’s wounds. He was flecked with red from head to foot. The flesh on his enormous limbs shook like cus****.”

Dempsey was always very honest and often very self-effacing about his achievements. But even Jack, who gave every credit to the gameness of his opponents, couldn’t put a soft focus lens on the brutality of Toledo. Willard’s pitiful state at the end of it all made Dempsey want to vomit.

“Willard was a sorry sight,” Jack said, when describing the last moments of the horror. “His face was swollen and bruised. His right eye stared at me glassily and he could hardly talk through his cracked lips. I pelted him with more blows, including a hard left to his eye, partially shutting it. He was becoming bloodier and he spat out a tooth.

Sitting on his stool at the end of the third round, Dempsey became mesmerized by the gruesome vision in the opposite corner. “I looked over toward Willard. His face was distorted by a broken cheekbone and he was having trouble holding his head up. I felt sick. I hadn’t realized that my inner fury could do so much damage.

“I couldn’t wait for the massacre to end. I was sapped both mentally and physically. I looked at Willard again – I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off him.”

Before the great slaughter, when he was still riding high as the 5/4 favorite, Willard approached Dempsey’s manager Doc Kearns and made a curious request. Jess wanted legal immunity in case he killed Jack.

 

Willard many years later would let visitors feel the right side of his face that was "caved in" as a testament that Dempseys gloves were loaded.

 

Spot on.

 

Good lord. Are people still buying the bull**** about Willard having his eye socket crushed and teeth knocked out. Sorry, that never happened. Its been totally debunked by the people who were there. If you are using Mike Casey as a source you might as well consider Bert Sugar a great historian.

Also, it wasnt hot the day Willard fought Johnson in Havana. Ive debunked this numerous times as well. It was actually very nice with a light breeze and had briefly rained that morning. As I recall the temp was in the low 80s which would have considered quite comfortable for someone in 1915 used to fighting outdoors. The stories of the intense heat originated from Willard and writers who werent even there (very few American writers made the trip to Cuba). Cuba sits in a temperate zone and doesnt suffer huge swings. Willards story that it was 115 degrees would mean that he would have been fighting on the hottest day ever recorded in Cuba BY FAR... IN APRIL... That story is bull****.