Whats the story with him? I know he beat a young Dempsey, but how did the fight go, how good was he, what he did he fight like? I'm curious about him.
he was overweight but considered a hard man to beat in 4 roundeds due to his speed and surability. Solid fighter with wins over Langford and Dempsey(though according to all reports his last win over Dempsey was a robbery in which Dempsey even floored Meehan. The "draws" are fishy too, most people think Dempsey won them.) He would never dare get into a fight with Dempsey for more then 4 rounds because "Dempsey would kill me"
He esentialy ate himself into a heavyweight. He threw an awfull lot of leather per round while running backwards. This made him a verry dificult man to outpoint over four rounds. Dempsey spoke glowingly about him describing him as one of the better boxers of the era. He was an incredible personality as well by all accounts.
Ok guys thanks for the info. How do you see him doing against todays fighters? Would he do well against them due to the poor stamina of many of todays top fighters?
I get the impression that Willie Meehan was sort of a smaller WW I version of Leroy Jones, a light hitting, quick reflexed fat man, with good boxing skills. (For those who don't know, Jones challenged Holmes for the HW Title in 1980. He stood 6'5," and weighed up to 275 pounds. He wasn't very mobile, but had the sort of quick hands which could easily catch flies out of thin air. He retired one match after losing his challenge of Holmes, Larry being the only boxer to defeat him.) The few photos I've seen of Meehan show him displaying the same upright posture Jones affected. Dempsey said, "I just couldn't catch Willie." From what I've read about Meehan's performance in four rounders, he might have been Butterbean's absolute worst nighmare.
Ha ha ha. Interesting question. I think that if marketed corectly he could have made a lot of money today as a curiosity. I think that he would have had to stick mainly to four round fights because he used the fact that his fights were short to put up an incredible workrate and outpoint his oponents. He simply developed a style specific to four rounders. Leroy Jones is a good analogy.
Harry Wills, Jack Dempsey, Harry Greb, Billy Miske, Fred Fulton, Sam Langford, Gunboat Smith and Bill Brennan! Meehan was no pushover for anybody,
I just came across an old ring magazine issue (july 1991) with a story on meehan. willie meehan was born 12/25/1893, real name was eugene walcott. his nickname was 'fat boy' and started his career in 1909 as a flyweight. he ate himself into the heavyweight division. he stood 5'9 and was described as 'durable, akward and slow'. the time of the dempsey decision was a month after jack's demolition of fred fulton. at the time california limited fights to 4 rounds, which is another reason why willie fought so many 4 rounders. at the time of the fight, meehan was in the navy teaching boxing and their fight was part of a benefit for the army and navy. dempsey floored willie in the second, but meehan got right back up and resumed attacking dempsey, and had a very good round three, backing jack up. in the fourth dempsey hurt his hand and the ref awarded the fight to meehan which was well recieved by the crowd. the article goes on to tell how meehan's subsuquent vaudville tour was a farce and his exit from the spotlight, courtesy of fred fulton. willie died on 2/09/1953. http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=10585&cat=boxer