I'm always quite surprised by how people here put so much stock in what is written in contemporary newspaper reports, and take it all at face value. Obviously it was in a lot of people's interests to deny than Jess Willard had been brutally (perhaps permanently) damaged at that time. If Dempsey did Willard a lot of damage it's not a "superhuman narrative" by any means, as seamus claimed. In fact it's an ordinary human narrative. Men getting their jaws and teeth broken every night of the week with far less punishment than a champion boxer would dish out. Watch the film. It was brutal. Those gloves were small. Willard was getting beaten hard. I've seen far less displays of violence result in terrible injuries, by ordinary street thugs, not 'superhuman' by any means. I don't know what damage Willard sustained and nor does anyone here. There are conflicting stories. It doesn't matter either way.
Actually it was abit of a superhuman performance......I would gather many who were there's went to there graves remembering in awe what transpired
Dempsey probably would beat Quarry but Quarry would be his most challenging opponent. IMO, Dempsey was more quicker than Quarry and Dempsey was at least as hard a puncher at Fraizer. I think Dempsey would stop Quarry by a late TKO
I think we can give Quarry a pass on the Chuvalo ko, he could have got up at two and lost the count, dumb move but in reality there wasn't a ko.
In Willard's defense, they could be bone spurs, or more likely scar tissue, which can feel hard. Dempsey wrecked him up bad. I would fully expect long-term scars and nagging remnants from that beating.
If Chuvalo could put him down with a left hook,I'd say there is a good chance Dempsey could,that's my point.
Clearly it was at the far end of human spectrum as far as fighting performance goes. But that is true regardless of whether or not Willard's jaw, teeth, cheek were broken. We just don't know one way or another what the true damage was. And its not necessary to know to assess the performance. If Willard got away relatively unscathed he was very lucky indeed.
it would not surprise me a bit, Jerry won , what Bombing barn burner did Dempsey KO? He refused to fight blacks who are better than whites (boxing anyway). And Jerry fought them all!! 185 LBS is not gonna help Jack, How many times has anyone seen Jack even fight to wipe Quarry out?- its all hearsay? Differant era Man! Jerry took the best from fighter's far superior to Dempsey! his chin was first rate. 3-2-1 w/3 knockouts when he did hit the deck. and Jerry beat 8 ranked contenders knocking out 4 who were much more physical than Jack. If Chuvalo could deck Jerry ? (He had 35 lbs on Jack Dempsey- 8 oz Gloves).
I'd take Bunny Johnson over Joe Bugner thats for sure! Always glad when someone "Learned something every day!"
I think people slightly underrate Jerry's chances here. I think Dempsey wins, but mostly because Jerry liked to wade through punches to land his own. You don't wade through Dempsey's punches. By the same token, if a crude and rough around the edges Firpo could land his telegraphed punches, what would an excellent technical counter punchers like Quarry do. If Carp could land his right hand on Dempsey and stagger him, I fully believe a right hand from Quarry could also pose a problem. I still like Jack to win, but it's not a 1st round KO and he doesn't win before getting staggered or put down himself imo.
