Jess Willard Discussion

Great chin ,Gunboat Smith couldnt dent it with his best punch[ he would have Bonavena's].Only joking.
Willard killed Bull Young with a right uppercut that broke his neck.
He ranks higher than all most everyone at 6' 6 '' 1/4in, save for Valuev and the Klits Sorry Russell,Im having a couple of ciders,dont mind an old man :good

 

Supposedly inhuman strength, great size, tough guy (who else would have continued against Dempsey), durability and stamina.

I am impressed with the little film there is of him.

However, he was missing a love for the game. The desire was really not there.

 

Yep.

I think he is somewhat underrated in the sense that he had genuine ability and potential, though he didn't make the most of it.

He made a serious comeback somewhere in his 40s and came one fight shy of getting another shot at the HW title.

 

Willard never had the desire to make a great boxer. He was immense for the era, a true giant in every sense of the word---amazingly strong, and had an ATG chin---I think he summed his own self up best, "I think I could have fought with everybody", while he would more than likely lose to the ATG HW's, he wouldn't have been the easy to put away, easy to decision one sidedly type.

By the time he won the HW title, he lost whatever interest there was in boxing. He signed a contract with a circus and remained there for three years before letting Dempsey get a crack at him, and he only returned against Firpo because of a lack of funds. Outside of that, he hated publicity and would hide out from the press, unless he knew it would still keep his name out there to somewhere down the line generate some needed money.

Before Johnson, he was just another No-Decision fighter, only attracting big gates because of his size---much like another HW some 30 years later named Primo Carnera would do when he came over to the USA---but he brought to an end the Johnson era, and became the ATG White Hope, in a sense. It immortalized him.

As far as his style goes, he was rather predictable, he threw long jabs to keep opponents at bay, and when they came too close, he threw uppercuts. It was an uppercut that killed Bull Young, not a body shot like some believed, trying to make Willard sound like a murderous body puncher [watch the old film reel 'The Heart Punch'].

 

As for his conditioning, he was a product of his era. Everyone was fighting 20 round fights all the time then---his bout with Johnson was scheduled for 45 rounds---he lost the first 20 rounds to come back to knock him out in the 26th round. While the 20 round bouts lacked the action that fights today may have, for someone to fight in 110 degree weather with an ATG in Johnson, old aged or not, must have been well conditioned to the max.

And remember, Willard was no spring chicken himself either.

 

Absolutely. In a 15 or 12 rounder, he'd beat very few champions that came after him. I'm not even sure if i'd favor him against a peak Neon Leon. He was a farmer strong boy who got hyped up because a white man was needed on the currently black throne. Had the Johnson fight been over 15 or 20 rounds, he would probably have been soundly beaten. As a champion he was horribly inactive (bad time for heavyweight championship boxing in general), and his supposed iron chin was never tested. The two best punchers he faced stopped him (Dempsey & Firpo) and while he was old at that time, he never proved to be able to take their shot, either. Surviving a guy with a 30% knockout ratio does not mean you have an iron jaw.

 

Willard faced punchers in Gunboat Smith and Luther McCarty, though it can be said McCarty was probably the best tactician among the white heavyweights of the time as well.

 

he disliked the sport and was crude. However his power, size and heart are impressive. In a 45 rd fight, he may well be able to win against quiet a few guys, but i cant see him doing much against most champs in a 15 rd fight

 

Jeffries, imo, could have beaten any HW in a 45 round contest.

 

Pithy ,but accurate thumbnail sketch of "The Tall Pine".

 

I think Willard was 30 when he started fighting.:good

 

Willard is one of the most misunderstood champions in heavyweight history ...

He did not start fighting as a pro until age 29.
He never had the chance to truly develope into the fighter he could have been .
He had tremendous natural strength, in an age before weights and juice.
He had an iron jaw and huge power.

If Jess Willard were born for this generation, trained as an amateur, fought under a proper trainer and conditioning coach I believe without question he would have been a better version of Vitali ...

Instead he is remembered for gettingh crushed by Dempsey, as some sort of pot bellied, thin armed freak stumbling around a ring , pounded by a wild midget ... few remember he was 37 and had been highly inactive and terribly overconfident ...

History can be cruel ... at least Willard had some form of last laugh, living pretty happily to a ripe old age and happily married for many years ..