Harry Wills Sparring , Never Seen by Me !!!!

Good stuff. In the little bit of footage I’ve seen of Wills I never really liked how open he was. He was Still a great fighter but I think a lot of offensive technicians could have exposed him.

 

I think he could trouble a lot of greats with the speed, accuracy, reflexes and unorthodox baiting and blocking tactics displayed in the video. That combined with his size, reach and strength of course.

 

This footage shows me that appearing to be open was just what Wills wanted, in order to set up counters. Similar to Mike Gibbons in that regard.

 

Perhaps. He had a very successful career so something he did must have worked

 

Anyone know what year this was?

 

The source link claims 1928 but it doesn’t seem very plausible since Wills is training for Dempsey here. It was probably between 1924-26.

 

The video makes a lot more sense at 0.75 speed. And the sparring partner is horrible.

 

It´s not even sparring. Wills gave me a bad impression from the Firpo footage I´ve seen... he looks okay here.

 

The way he leaned back and used both his hands to parry and feint reminds me of Johnson.

 

There was a lot of dough on offer for one that could, for a lot of years.

 

Truth. But no one can ever seem to agree on WHY it never happened nor who was at fault

 

I have wrangled with this argument for a few years now.

Perhaps Wills was a hybrid between John Ruiz and Larry Holmes.

As for who was at fault, I am confident that it was the governing authorities first and foremost.

Even if you take the least generous view of Dempsey, he was getting blocked and obfuscated.

That is besides the point, because Wills was the true victim.

 

I’m sure politics had everything to do with it.

 

I think politics combined w/ indifference.

Dempsey probably could've made the fight if he reeeeaaaaalllllllyyyyyyy wanted to, but after it fell apart a few times, he just said "meh" & looked elsewhere.