How did 190lb Jack Dempsey DESTROY super-heavyweight 240lb Jess Willard?

Ok we disagree here, if he could make it out of round 1 with no neutral corner rule, then he could make it out of round 1 with a neutral corner rule, despite modern refs being more likely to stop the fight sooner

 

I never said that. I said he would make it back to his corner for round 1

 

Jess Willard is not even an equivalent of a modern day 6''7 regular gym guy, let alone modern day super-heavyweight.

Imagine Dempsey trying to fight Vitali like that. There you would learn the difference between a real modern day super-heavy and a stationary target from 1910s.

 

Agreed

 

if Willard was hit in the jaw by a larger glove where the concentration of the impact was not so small and the filling of the glove was a compressed foam designed by NASSA to cushion the inside of crash helmets rather than wads of matted horses hair that could be massaged away from the knuckles I doubt Willard could have been "quite" so stunned. He most likely still goes over but might not go over so heavily.

I think Because Willard was so hurt AND Dempsey got at him so quickly again Willard was not capable to defend himself after the second knockdown. If he was not so hurt to begin with and Dempsey had not been allowed to get at him so soon we will never know if Willard could have been such a danger to himself.

The eight seconds would not be enough with the gloves at were used that day. It is impossible to know if the same damage could have been inflicted with modern 10oz gloves. Probably not. But likewise, the difference could be neglegable. It's not impossible. We don't know.

What we do know is Damage was done enough to incapacitate Willard with old gloves to the degree that he was. if that degree of incapacitaton is as adequate with a two times larger glove you could be right.

I'd suggest the exact same thing as you are with the gloves used that day without standing eight counts.

we do know for certain that compulsory standing eight counts, the neutral corner rule and introducing gloves with twice the protection to the knuckles (and victim) were all brought in to aid a stricken fighter. the three knockdown rule was also brought in to aid stricken fighters but is sometimes left to the discretion of the referee and sometimes does not always apply.

 

Why?

A modern referee -and Bigger gloves- why couldn't it have lasted a bit longer?

 

Maybe, maybe not.

The eight count rule is said by some to have saved Patterson in the last Floyd v Ingo fights. The three knock down rule is often waived. Three of the actual knock downs (with those old gloves) were illegal by today's standards.

Dempsey still would have clobbered Jess with the same initial sequence of punches but with bigger gloves equipped with scientific impact technology it's unlikely he makes the EXACT same impression is it?

Maybe Willard goes over but is only half as hurt? The gloves theoretically are half as likely to do the same damage because are twice as big. Maybe the difference in glove size and technology only manages to make the same impression on Willard that Dempsey did make in round two and three of that fight even with the old gloves?

Less, likely (but not impossible) Maybe with more wits about him after the first sequence of blows Willard reacts differently falls a different way on top of Dempsey?

With different officiating, with different glove technology it could be a completely different fight.

 

Don't you?

I think an important factor is that today Dempsey and Willard would be fighting each other with gloves twice as big and it would so much harder for Dempsey to make the required sustained impression to hurt big Jess so much in the first round.

In the second and third round he was obviously half spent and half as explosive.

I think much of that result relied upon the equipment and officiating of the time. In a way that it can not now.

 

I think it might have been over in the first round today to be honest.

Willard's depressed fracture would have been enough to put a stop to it, and he would have had to get out of the first round without going down three times.

 

Yes I think the odds favour it being a completely different fight. If that means going beyond three rounds because Dempsey can't make the same impression with the same number of punches yes.