Harry Wills, the colored heavyweight champion was the rightful challenger to Jack Dempseys title but Dempseys promoter, Tex Rickard refused to allow the fight to happen even though Dempsey was confident he could beat harry Wills. After the Jack Johnson,Jim Jeffries fight which he promoted, he vowed to never again promote a fight between a black and white fighter due to the race riots that occured after the fight. Also white Americans felt that one black champion had been more than enough, the flamboyant Johnson had shocked white society. Black fighter did hold titles in the lighter weight classes but it would be years before a black would be allowed to fight for the heavyweight title again. Thing is Dempsey said he would beat Wills easily. Was he right? Or would Wills have outboxed him? We can only guess. It was a fight that should have happened but didn't.
Totally agree. Wills was the "coloured world champion" a title that jack Johnson used to good effect prior to snagging Tommy burns. I believe a unification fight should have happened even before the dempsey era. . I am of the opinion that a fighter who is destined to be a linear world champion would find a way to achieve that destiny in most eras. If that sounds like I am saying all world champions are equally as good, I am not. I am saying all world champions deserved to be world champions even if that means waiting for a better champion to get old. Like Willard -only dempsey got there first. without the opportunity however you wont land even an old linear world champion! Instead wills did land fights with old black contenders when he was at the peak of his powers since he was forced to fight much of his career in the parallel universe that was a virtual “black league.” It is a pity wills was unable to land fights with white contenders of his own generation like carl morris, pelkey, al palzer, frank moran, jim flyn, or luther mcarthy that would have given a stairway to the stars, the linear championship. freezing wills out of the title picture actually did quite a lot for Willis’s’ legacy. Despite being forced to languish on the coloured circuit his reputation is not all it seems. Wills had an advantage in that he was the younger bigger heavyweight within this group that had nobody but each other to fight. best wins are over famous names (Langford and McVey), well past their best who actually beat wills earlier on when they were younger until they just got too old. Apart from the Cotton ko loss,when Wills had only 5 fights unbeaten ,against a man with 2 wins out of 7 fights he was really prime for his losses among the black ranks. I therefore place him below the Black trio of Jeanette ,Mcvey and Langford. Even so I agree he would have given Willard at least as good a fight as moran and dempsey a better fight than miske did. welcome to the forum.
Lets push aside the political issues about the fight not happening and get down to the bones. Jack Dempsey probably genuinely thought that he could beat Wills, even if he was misguided. He might well have misjudged how seasoned and versatile Wills was. Wills was a verry tough customer!
yes, wills had talent and character. he swapped wins with a lot of much more experienced wise old guys until he mastered them all and kept beating them. its a pity he was left treading water too long in the ratings after that point. wills finally ran out of puff when they finaly "opened the books" and let him fight firpo, sharkey and uzcudun in his final years as a fighter.
So if the fight had happened who would have won? It seems both Dempsey and Wills were confident they would win.
