Retired Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard having fun for the cameras

What year was that? Do you know? Was it like the 20th or 25th anniversary of their fight?

 

He was so much not expecting it that the smile never left his face.

They had gloves on for a reason. These are two former hwt champions not fragile mortals.

 

It actually looks like one of the best heavyweights ever in his late 40s who was training the U.S. soldiers at the time ...

Standing next to a 60-something-year-old broken down older man, who was never very good boxer to begin with, who came to take a few pictures and started getting punches thrown at his face.

Willard threw a punch like you'd expect. He never had any intention of ever getting close. And he did it twice for the camera.

Then he had to defend himself when a much younger and still relatively fit (by comparison) Dempsey started throwing punches at his face.

I don't want to make too much of it. It's not important. If you thought it was funny, fine. I thought Dempsey came off like a d1ck ... like he was trying to prove something against an old man who wasn't expecting that.

When Dempsey and Tunney got togther, did Tunney punch Dempsey in the face to show him up - like "I can still kick your @ss any time I want to?" I don't recall ever seeing that.

But that's what it seemed like Dempsey was doing to Willard. And Dempsey and Willard weren't peers. Willard was an old man for a fighter when they actually met. Dempsey was in his early 20s. And that age difference is even more on display here. Willard is an old man in this, and clearly not expecting that.

I give him credit for blocking the punches as well as he did.

But Dempsey just came off like a d1ck to me in this, even with the dancing at the end. Which he initiated, like he was trying to lighten the mood because he'd gone a little overboard, which just made it seem even odder.

 

And the smile did leave Willard's face around the 34-second mark, when Dempsey kept throwing at his head ... until Dempsey grabbed him to start dancing.

It's a short clip. But you have to be pretty oblivious if you don't notice how awkward it got when Dempsey kept throwing at his head and Willard actually had to start blocking them.

This wasn't a sparring match. They were posing for photos. Willard had a tie on for god's sake. He wasn't expecting a workout.

 

No punches were being thrown at anyone's head. If their were he would have landed at least one which he did not. The punches here were similar to the shots thrown when Dempsey and Louis sparred for the camera in the late 50's. Aimed at the arms and gloves rather than the face.

They were wearing gloves for a reason.

 

Seriously?

The gloves were a prop. This wasn't a sparring session. Boxers routinely pose with boxing gloves on. 60-year-old, retired-for-a-couple-decades boxers who show up in a tie for a photo shoot and put on a pair of gloves don't anticipate getting punched in the face.

Hell, when Ali and Frazier showed up in their 60s and put on boxing robes and trunks and posed for photos, they didn't go in thinking they were going to have to hit each other in the head because they were dressed for it.

And old guys who aren't dressed for it (like Willard) certainly didn't either.

Dempsey was being a jerk.

 

No punch from Dempsey hit Willard aside from hitting his arms and gloves as well as that one tap to the belly. The crowd, Dempsey and Willard were having a good time. Quite obviously.

 

You are making a big deal out of nothing. As for the "dancing" at the end, years later there was a meeting between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. both dressed in tuxedos sparring and light harmless "punching' and it ended when Dempsey and Tunney danced a waltz like dance.. Yes Dempsey with gloves was ruthless, but not in this case...

 

Yeah I seen the full video of that, odd.

It started with Bob Hope vs Rocky Marciano, than a nurse, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney and other champions enter the ring. Than Marciano spar a bit with Dempsey and Tunney, than the big walz. It was odd.

 

I remember in the vaguest terms, a little numerous that was Marciano vs jerry lewis and the rock throws a little too hard a fake shot and Jerry lewis says something along the lines of "you do know this is just for show, right?"