If Jess Willard had faced Joe Frazier in Kingston.?

I think Willard, who is somewhat underrated, probably wins under ~1915 rules, when there was a _lot_ more clinching, and shoving and even holding and hitting seem to have been more or less allowed even if technically illegal, kind of like traveling in basketball.
Then again Joe was a truly superb infighter, and I could maybe see him chopping down Willard if he can get in close and stay there long enough.

 

Going with Big Jess...if in 1915 & 20 rounder. Post fight Jess performs at a Kingston bar with his singing group "Big Jess and the Knockouts".

 

So Frazier gets to wear the substantially smaller and more destructive gloves of the day?

We saw him deform and brutalize plenty of top heavyweights wearing modern ones, including shattering the iron chinned George Chuvalo's cheek bone and making him turn away.

Frazier with his work rate, even diminished, and those small gloves... Willard ends up badly, badly beaten in my opinion.

 

Good comment ^....that is why we have the Classic Boxing Forum....and the cast of characters in it.

 

I quite honestly feel Willard ends up with a Dempsey level beating in this match, one that's simply more prolonged because Frazier wouldn't be primed and it would go several rounds.

Jess Willard is no George Foreman, any which way you want to look at it.

 

I picked Willard for the lulz....but Fraizer beats him up

 

"Big Jess and the violently knocked out" is a more realistic band name for the man after this match.

 

Its a tough call.

Willard certainly wouldn't jump on Frazier early, as might be his best option.

Frazier wouldn't stop Willard early, as might be his only option.

So Frazier gets smoking.

Jack Dempsey didn't beat Willard easily, he just made it look easy.

He was taken into deep waters a couple of times.

It then becomes a race as to whether Frazier gets ground down, before Willard's face falls off, or Frazier walks into something serious!

I respect Frazier enough to favor him here, but not with enormous confidence.

 

It's an easy call. We have two different species of heavyweight here, two guys with ridiculously different levels of accomplishment, background and talent. Frazier was rated in the TOP 2 heavyweights in the world (trading back and forth with the greatest ever) for SIX YEARS, SIX YEARS when he was actively fighting and defending. Frazier was an Olympic Gold Medalist and was undefeated coming into the Foreman match, having bagged the greatest trophy in the division's history only 22 months before. Willard was an old, part-time, late comer to the sport, who was looking to make quick money, and once he got the title (under a set of circumstances custom-designed for him) he returned to rodeo and circus work, capitalizing on the title.

Easy call.

Frazier KO4.

 

Isn't this analysis concerning the fat 5'-11.5" Frazier at 214 lbs , with a 71" reach, recent victor over Terry Daniels & Ron Stander, going against a 6'-6.5" Jess Willard at 238 lbs , with an 83" reach, with his most recent victory over Jack Johnson? With the fight scheduled for 20 rounds?

 

A how old (37?) old Jack Johnson that had been in the fight game for 20 some odd years at that point already. What a riveting victory, literally exhausting an out of shape fighter a decade something removed from his best using your ridiculous size advantage.

I'll actually go out on a limb and say Frazier looked better on film in his fights leading up to the first Foreman fight then Willard did against an ancient, pitifully outsized Jack Johnson.

 

Lets give Willard his due respect. For a dilettante he accomplished a lot. He was a talented guy looking to make a buck.

 

Nah man, he's totally a great fighter, didn't ya' ever hear the tale about how he wore out the great Jack Johnson to win the title.