Jack Dempsey and the loaded gloves, what are your thoughts on it?

Willard said he found a metallic bolt in the ring and kept it for his life. He felt the gloves were loaded.

There is no doubt Willard suffered great damage. Its hard to tell if the gloves were loaded. Maybe they were, maybe they were not.

But like you said. Dempsey was much faster and quicker and had no trouble landing. He would have won, either way, I think.

One thing that disturbs me is there was a heavy bet on Dempsey to finish Willard in round one, and Dempsey himself sprinted out of the ring ( I think at the end of round one ) ..why? It should have been his time to bask in the celebration of becoming a new champion.

Instead he looks like a man who's running away from an accident scene. Those who run imply guilt.

 

Who is They?

 

The "Dempsey Roll" he used to knock Willard downs seems like it would be much harder to do with heavy loaded gloves.

Shifting your weight back and forth for power punches like that is really hard to do as quickly as he does it.

 

Jess Willard had fights with Floyd Johnson and Luis Firpo a few years after losing his world heavyweight title to Jack Dempsey. If Willard had sustained such physical damage in his bout with Dempsey, would he have been able to fight again?

- Chuck Johnston

 

Dempsey does not stab at Willard. You do see him throw what looks like a karate chop left hook with what looks like an open glove. (First round after the first knockdown). This type blow however was taught in that era (and before) especially to the body.

 

Battlin' Jack Nelson (if I remember right) was famous for throwing what, in karate, would be called a ridgehand using the thumbside of the glove. It was used mainly to the body, but could go high like a hook to the jaw as well. It was unorthodox, so many times it snuck in there against a fighter because they weren't used to the angles.

 

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There is little doubt Willards right cheekbone was broken. That huge hematoma that can be seen in rounds 2-3 along with Willards statement that the right side of his face was "caved in" and bone pieces still broken years later is testament to this.

 

And incredibly not a mark was left from this damage only a few days later!

They sure don't make them like they used to!

 

The Jess Willard book goes along with what Seamus says about the damage being overstated.
It also says that Willards face looked awful, and you couldn't see his eyes.

About the loaded gloves, it lays out all the sources and sides to the story pretty well.
The author basically concludes saying that the evidence is pretty poor and inconclusive, but at the same time he puts a lot of salt in the Kearns 1964 SI confession.

 

It all depends on what source you are referring to regarding Willards injuries. Willard, Fleischer and The NY Times concur as to the injuries sustained. The hematoma on Willards face you can clearly see as is the blood all over Willard. Willard himself states the right side of his face was caved in. What is in contention are the many many broken bones that Pacheco described in one of his books.

However neither Fleischer, Willard nor The NY Times talks about this at all.

Willard was horrifically beaten and no doubt his cheekbone was broken, blood poured from his mouth, face cut to ribbons, right eye closed shut and welts covered his body.

Too many eye witnesses that proclaim this as the worst beating in boxing history to pass it off as anything else but.

 

Williard was obviously very badly beaten up both to his face and body that's obvious.
You do wonder though if he sustained several broken ribs and a broken jaw whether he really could have survived the 2nd and 3rd rounds which he did without going down again.

 

More speculation:

In MMA that sort of strike is not unknown.

It's known as a palm strike and there are advantages to it, especially because you can apply more force without destroying your knuckles, especially with those itty bitty gloves back in the day. Dempsey may have been aiming to impact with his palm (actually his wrist bone) and not his fingers / knuckles at all.

Bas Rutten explains from 1:10:

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Some of Dempsey's wilder punches looked almost like these:

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Something to think about.

 

After Kearns admission to SI in 1964, they had Cleveland Williams test out the plaster or paris method Kearns described. The solution broke apart after Williams hit the bag a few times.

 

Thank you for addressing this. I suppose It could explain that technique. I don't think it was the wrist he was landing with. He was turning his hand over like a reverse karate chop.