Tommy Ryan assesses Dempsey-Willard, and compares them to the greats that preceded them: 'Tommy Ryan, rated as one of the best Middleweight fighters that ever lived, gave the big boys the north and south today. Tommy doesn’t believe that size amounts to a hill of beans in the prize ring. "Yes, I’ll admit that Willard is a monster,” said the Syracuse Hindu today. "But, listen, I licked George Lawler In Hot Springs years ago, and he was exactly the same size as Willard. If a big man isn’t as good as the little man, he has no chance. Dempsey’s rush? Yes, good. I’d like to see him in a fight, though. You know there’s two ways of rushing in a fight. One way is to tear in as you would in a street fight. That’s no good. The other way is to rush in and play checkers with the other fellow’s leads. That is the way to force a fight. Dempsey, bobbing this way and that, will bother Willard, but his hands must work, too. He must have an idea with his bobbing. I noticed his hitting his sparring partners on the arms. You know touching them as they start hurts ’em. That is a science, that 'touch thing'. Jack Johnson was the greatest man in the world at that stuff. You see, when a man starts a right, you touch him on the shoulder or arm, and the force is gone. It throws him off. His timing is done. It kills the other fellow every time. I liked that in Dempsey. "Greatest fighter I ever knew? Jim Corbett, in a class by himself. No one near him. Jeffries? Another wonder. Willard is a big man, but he isn’t wide like Jeffries. No, Willard is 'High', that’s all? No chest, shoulders or back like old Jeffries. I’d like to see Jeffries and Willard fight. See you later.”' - 'San Francisco Call', June 1919.
