Why did Willard get a title shot at JJohnson?

I know this is a "who cares" question, but Willard only had beaten Gunboat Smith and a few others who weren't real well known now, then all of sudden he is in Cuba fighting Jack Johnson for the title.

Willard was massive.....even by today's standards.

Why did he get the title shot? (then defend once, then after 3 years of inactivity, Dempsey crushes him).

 

Basicaly because his promotor Jack Curley:

A. Calculated that he could beat Johnson.

B. Was able to put up the money.

Johnson would esentialy fight anybody for $30 000 or more.

 

The fight was fixed for Willard to win. Jack Johnson went to his grave saying that he threw the fight.

 

Great story.

 

A thoroughly discredited notion amongst all but the staunchest Johnson apologists.

 

Johnson had offers to fight Langford, Jeanette and McVey for 30k+ as champion, but declined.

 

Haha, bull****.

 

BIG DEE HERE= First Johnson didn`t win the first 20 rds of the fight because if you watch
the fight what you can find Willard in the late rds really lays the wood to Johnson in some of the rds. Johnson goes after Willard hard in the 17th rd and Willard fights him off.
When the bell rings Willard pats Johnson on he back and talks to him. It looks like he`s
saying good round because there isn`t any hostility between the two as they walk to their corners. Willard always said when I was a kid back in the early 60s that he didn`t
hate Johnson like some did he was just the guy that held the title that he wanted and that he had told Johnson that several years earlier. Willard said that at the time that Johnson joked that if they keep finding these white hopes any bigger he`s going to have to get a step ladder to reach them. Oh yes one other thing JESS WILLARD WAS NEVER KNOCKED OFF HIS FEET IN HIS CAREER UNTILL JULY 4, 1919 IN TOLEDO, OHIO BY JACK DEMPSEY. WILLARD TOOK THE BEST PUNCH IN BOXING TILL HE GOT OLD AND INACTIVITY WASTED HIS BODY. WILLARD WAS ALSO ONE OF THE STRONGEST BEING ABLE TO LIFT A 550 LB BALE OF COTTON ONTO A WAGON. SEEN BY 5 WORKERS WHO
WERE TRYING TO LIFT IT ON THE WAGON.

 

Apparently, Johnson had signed a statement saying that he threw that fight, and stuck with his story until the day he went to the grave. If there is any bull**** about it, then it came from Johnson himself. Not those who are familar with the fact that he MADE the statement.

 

That's nothing. James Jeffries carried a 400lbs deer for 10 miles in a pace that would make an Ethiopian marathon runner blush. And that was after having people tee off at his chin with a sledgehammer for $30 per shot, which only left Jeffries laughing.

 

And then he headbutted them all to death.

 

Stories get better with time don't they:good

 

Yes, most everyone here is not only aware of this statement but surely aware of the money he received for making it and the resulting article in Ring. This is not exactly a newsflash. When cooler heads prevail and examine the context of the fight and that in which these later statements were made, it is quite a stretch of the imagination to believe he threw the fight.

 

BIG DEE HERE= Willards story wasn`t bull**** the guy was strong as hell as was the story
of Jefferies. How many of you on here are deer hunters? Pontius I know you aren`t as
your from Holland. Hell you probably can`t even own a gun can you and Magoo you live in Chicago so you probably don`t either as they are real hard on gun control too.
So the facts a 400 lb whitetail deer huh get real you find one I want to see the damn thing as I`ve never seen one that f**kin big ever and they take 5000 and more deer in my county every year and I`ve never seen a 400 lb whitetail buck. 200 to 275 yes but thats it. 400 lb is the size of an Elk. The one Jeffries carried was probably 175 to 225
and guys were tough in that era which was my grandfathers day and he was tougher than nails.

 

I happen to be a deer hunter, and I can tell you that no buck or doe that I've ever seen was no 400 Lbs either. I think that your statement of 175-225 is more realistic, though I think anything over 200 is a stretch for even a man like Jeffries. Remember, we're not talking about lifting a stationary object like a barbell with weights on it. A dead animal is awkard to lift, and not to mention for 9 miles or whatever the hell it was. I shot a decent size buck one time that I guessed weighed around 200+, and it took three of us to lift the goddamn thing on to the back of a pickup truck. That says nothing about schleping it half way across the state on your shoulder, plus maybe a rifle in the other hand.

I'm not saying that Jeffrie's story is BS, but I'm not sure I believe all of its components.