Harry Wills where do you rank him?

I have a feeling that if we had footage of him in his prime, decent to good footage, that he'd be much more recognised and higher ranked, and Dempsey in turn would rank lower for not facing him for 6+ years.

 

he's already ranked lower because of that

 

There was an exhibition of four rounds between Harry Wills and Joe Louis in 1947. It would be interesting to know, if there exists a film about it. In my (subjective) opinion Wills would not be the favourite in a fight against Dempsey, but that is speculation. Both athletes were fighters of world class and should be ranked high.
@ KSmith
I liked to read "Black Genesis" and I hope "The Sundowners" will be available in Germany, too. Till now it is not.
Best wishes.

 

Wills was a very good fighter who likely hit his stride in 1916-17 and really peaked one or two years later. By 1923 he was already on the downslide after twelve years in the ring against a lot of really tough customers. Dempsey of that year or even the next would've knocked him out.

 

Rating Harry Wills ahead of Liston and Tyson seems perfectly reasonable. Although Tyson has many fans he was not the best heavyweight of his era so putting Wills ahead of him seems reasonable.

 

How can you be so sure about that though? in 1923, Dempsey seemed to be more interested in making movies etc. He buried the heavyweight title in dust for a full three years (never before or after has a champion been so inactive) and before that, he went the distance with a lightheavy and nearly got beat by a wild, sloppy puncher.

 

Dempsey didn't really start to lose interest until after the Firpo fight. As for the Shelby fiasco, Gibbons trained for the fight of his life and was one of the cleverest men at his weight in the world. Couple that with a solid defence and teak-hard beard, and you've got a tremendous boxer. Unfortunately for Dempsey, he seriously underestimated Gibbons, something he didn't usually do. He figured Tommy couldn't hurt him and he'd get to the lighter man's chin sooner or later. Unlike Carpentier though, Gibbons didn't attempt any open assault for the champ to take advantage of.

As for Firpo, Dempsey figured to go in there and just knock him out, as he had done with other big men. One thing Firpo could do was punch. Watch his fight with Brennan. In the wild melee he tagged Dempsey with a good one and Dempsey went through the ropes. Guaranteed that if Firpo hit Joe Louis or Muhammad Ali or Wladimir Klitschko with that punch, they'd be on the seat of their pants too.

Harry Wills fought a careful fight with Firpo almost a year later. Some at the time commented that his timing seemed off. He managed to put the hulking Argentine down once, but couldn't keep him there.

If Wills fought Dempsey in 1919, it might have been a different story, though I still think Dempsey had the style to beat him then too.

:bbb

 

Hey Mendoza,

GREAT POST!!!! I read somewhere that Billy Miske had wanted
a fight with Wills as well. Miske had a pesky style with a good
defense and might have given Wills some trouble.

Grebfan9
www.firstroundboxing.com

 

Wills is Top 10 HW on my list and should never be ranked below Top15 on anyones list

Wills was arguably the best heavyweight in the world from 1914-1926.

A good argument for Wills to be ranked above:

Dempsey (beat better comp in the same era and dominant for longer)
Jack Johnson (arguably better comp)
Jeffries (deeper resume the Jeff)
Frazier (dominant for longer)
Holmes (arguably better comp)
Foreman (deeper competition, maybe not as limited)
Liston (dominant for longer, arguably better comp)
Holyfield

Wills should definately rank above:

Langford (17wins-3losses was it?)
Patterson
Schmelling
Charles
Walcott
Tunney

 

#15

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