Step back in time.........Jack Dempsey versus Jess Willard

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1 Louis
2 Ali
3 Holmes
4 Marciano
5 Foreman
6 Dempsey
7 Frazier
8 Lewis
9 Liston
10 Holyfield

 

Although Dempsey destroyed Willard convincingly enough, I think the win has to be taken with a grain of salt. Willard was a 37 year old heavyweight coming off a three year abscense, was never truly impressive even at his best, and won the title from a shot Jack Johnson who aledgedly threw the fight. Of all the transactions through out history where the lineal title changed hands, I'd say this is one of the weakest in terms of quality.

 

There are a lot of champions who would have beaten their predecessors 10 times out of 10. George Foreman would have creamed Joe Frazier a perfect 10 for 10, and Frazier was infinately better than Jess Willard was. Tyson would have anialated Michael Spinks 10 for 10. Liston would have crushed Patterson a perfect 10 for 10.

My point is that Willard, even at his very best, was still one of the weakest champions in the division's history. The version of Willard that Dempsey beat, was possibly THE worst of all time. Dempsey crushed Willard with impressive ease, but the fact is, he was in there with a very mediocre opponent, who in truth was probably not even top 10 material by that point, let alone a legitimate titlist.

 

Dempsey was a MONSTER in the ring, very underrated today. And this is him at his destructive finest. Like Ali, Jack Johnson and to a lesser extent Joe Louis, Tyson and Marciano, Dempsey DEFINED his era and transcended the sport of boxing. I rank him as the third greatest HW of all time. He typically ranks lower on ATG lists today, which I think is reflective of the fact that most who saw him are dead, or too old to define prevailing beliefs. Dempsey at his best was a dominant destroyer in the ring - and this fight SHOWS it.

 

im a huge dempsey fan and this was one of his signature wins
having said that, jess willard was tailor-made for jack... he was slow, kept his hands down the entire time even though he was getting crushed repeatedly, never tried to hold, pretty much never did anything except get annihilated

 

It's one of them, but not the most brutal, it didn't sustain long enough like some other sad events did. Willard was most certainly messed up beyond recognition however, but not as bad as Greb beat Tunney.

Off topic, Tunney could not be seen around his family for months because he was beaten to such a pulp by Greb, that's interesting and horrible in the same right.

Well, he was a standing target to a quick handed swarmer like Dempsey and had nothing in return. The ref ought to have stopped the bout in the first, it was a clear mismatch.

And that says something about the smaller Dempsey's power, as smaller gloves create more damage, but provide less concussive force to produce KO's.

Do you think Dempsey would be a more effective Cruiser than HW today John, or would you see him putting on more muscle to round out at about 210 pounds today, in comparison to his lean 185 pounds back then.