Jess Willard vrs Jack Johnson/100th Anniversary

[Caractacus]

This past April 5 marked the 100th anniversary of Jess Willard becoming the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFZVlsLs9Eo

[pound per pound]

This past April 5 marked the 100th anniversary of Jess Willard becoming the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFZVlsLs9Eo

Cool stuff. While its unfair to judge Johnson at age 37 you have to wonder if that style would have worked decades later. The guard is too low, and he's stationary. Willard wasn't exactly a good boxer, but his size and length and forced Johnson to retreat.

[Caractacus]

Willard had a telephone pole like jab there
which prevented Johnson from getting in and trying to pin his elbows back,
like he could with much smaller fighters earlier.
Willard also had a terrific right upper cut,
and when that big right hand landed in the 26th round,
Jack Johnsons head looked like it almost exploded.

[jaclem3]

caracturua (not going back to check spelling) calls it in mentioning willard's right hand uppercut. jack dempsey said it almost took his head off. by no means great fighter, but we can't discount his courage.....just look at the horrific beating h took from dempsey and kept getting up.

[Caractacus]

Willard must have developed that uppercut from back during his days in Kansas as a ranch hand throwing
100 pound bales hayes into the back of a six-team wagon over the years.
(which I think was how he was discovered)

I think it was Willard's right uppercut that had caused a ring fatality earlier in his career,
and may have stopped him from going"All Out" afterwards.
Anyway after this fight Willard's career had to go in decline,
because he accomplished the goal that got him into boxing in the first place
(actually it was all about the Benjamins was the main reason he went into boxing)

[Caractacus]

check out this interesting article regarding the 100th anniversary.

http://www.ringtv.craveonline.com/news/ ... ears-later

[Caractacus]

Jess Willard truely did remove"the Golden Smile"
from Jack Johnson's face in that fight.
Reportly shortly after this fight and later that evening Johnson spoke to his old manager
and told him the Willard had loosed his golden teeth and rather spit them out onto the canvas
so that the sun could reflect from them and everyone in the crowd to see,
Jack Johnson instead swallowed his own golden teeth.

Jess Willard did not come out of that fight unscathed either.
I had read somewhere(perhaps in that article)
That Jess Willard suffered a broken cheekbone and three broken ribs from Jack Johnson.

[dempseyfire]

This past April 5 marked the 100th anniversary of Jess Willard becoming the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFZVlsLs9Eo

Cool stuff. While its unfair to judge Johnson at age 37 you have to wonder if that style would have worked decades later. The guard is too low, and he's stationary. Willard wasn't exactly a good boxer, but his size and length and forced Johnson to retreat.

Tons of master boxers even nowadays have "low guards" . . .if you have skills/experience via rolling, slipping and parrying, a low guard is actually much more beneficial than the more modern, squared up "shell stance" which restricts a boxer's movement and options much more.

Not to mention, this was a 45 round fight and they have 6 ounce horsehair gloves on.

[Ambling Alp II]

Plus Johnson could roll with punches and was great at the lost art of picking off his opponents punches with his gloves.

[Caractacus]

This past April 5 marked the 100th anniversary of Jess Willard becoming the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFZVlsLs9Eo

Cool stuff. While its unfair to judge Johnson at age 37 you have to wonder if that style would have worked decades later. The guard is too low, and he's stationary. Willard wasn't exactly a good boxer, but his size and length and forced Johnson to retreat.

Tons of master boxers even nowadays have "low guards" . . .if you have skills/experience via rolling, slipping and parrying, a low guard is actually much more beneficial than the more modern, squared up "shell stance" which restricts a boxer's movement and options much more.

Not to mention, this was a 45 round fight and they have 6 ounce horsehair gloves on.

Its interesting watching Willard fight.
His fighting style sort of reminds me of a forerunner to future heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.

[Caractacus]

check out this interesting article,so interesting it was re-printed in 1937.


http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 0086&hl=en

[kaiserbill]

Interesting footage.
Thanks.

Having read many opinions and myths surrounding this, as well as still photos, a couple of observations:

That was a sweet knockout punch. Nothing wrong with it at all. Long, strong, and delivered with power.

It is noticeable that Johnson becomes more fatigued, and appears to be fighting in bursts.
Willard looked by far the stronger as the fight progressed.

Interesting contrasts to the style we see more recently over the last few decades.

Perusing Willards career record on boxrec...he doesn't actually have a bad record at all.

[Caractacus]

Does anyone here know if all 26 rounds of the Willard vrs Johnson fight still exist?
How many rounds were in the original feature film(that was banned in the USA)?

Im looking for the 25th round(from the moment the bell rings),
where the deciding blow was the "heart punch"
a right cross to Johnson's mid-section
that reportedly had pretty much finished the fight before
the crushing over right hand in the 26th round.

[Caractacus]

I came across this on youtube.
An abridged and very grainy print of the fight film(looks to have been transfered from silver-nitrate onto safety acetate at some point,
with portions of rounds one,twelve,fourteen,fifteen,seventeen,eighteen,nineteen,twenty,twenty-one,twenty-five and twenty-six.
check out the punch Jess Willard lands at about 32:32 of the clip.
Could that have been the"Heart Punch'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74dnCeXI8MM

[kaiserbill]

Dunno, but having a look at the footage, it is clear that Willard is varying his attack somewhat at different stages of the fight.
A lot of the time he is using his reach advantage to sort of jab, or jab and then throw a long straight right to the head of Johnson. In fact, it was that which knocked Johnson out in the end.

Yet, other times he is clearly targetting Johnsons body, particularly the solar plexus/belly. This is quite noticeable at 5:40 of the original footage in the first post.

It clearly had an effect over the long fight, together with the heat, that led to Willards main offensive long right being successful in the end.

[Caractacus]

My guess that is why Johnson held his guard so low in this fight.
He didnt like being punched in the body by such a big man.
At times in the footage you can even see Johnson flinch whenever Willard faints.
BTW It was just as hot there in the ring (110 degrees)for Willard as it was for Johnson.
"Hotter Then Hell" Willard was quoted as saying years later.

[L.A. kidd]

I had always heard of the "fixed fight" rumors, started by nat Fleisher, but, after viewing this film Johnson could not bully Willard around the ring like he did all of his fights with littler men.

nat Fleisher rated Johnson no # 1 all-time heavyweight, what he doesn't say is Johnson bullied most of his lighter opponents, he could not bully Willard. Johnson was vastly over-rated.

[Ambling Alp II]

Johnson didn't try to "bully' his opponents. He lost to Willard because he was was past it and Willard did what he had to do.

[L.A. kidd]

that may be true, however Jeffries was idle for 6 years, and very, very, rusty, yet the press credited Johnson with a great victory.

it very well might have been different if they would have fought each other in the prime year of jim Jeffries.

[Caractacus]

Yes,Jim J. Jeffries would later say that it was the rigourous training trying to get back into fighting shape
after six years of going to seed(and over 300 ibs)that did him in before he even stepped into the ring at Reno.

BTW Humilating his oppontents would probably be a better word to discribe what Jack Johnson did in the ring in front of the crowd and movie cameras.

[Caractacus]

Here is a really good account of all 26 rounds of ring action published in the newspapers the afternoon of the very same day as the fight(April.5.1915),
so you know this info that it was indeed HOT OF THE PRESS.
(also scroll over to the right a few pages to read the rest of the article)


http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 3527&hl=en

[pound per pound]

Here's part of the fight.

The ring action starts around the 9:50 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74dnCeXI8MM

[cfang]

On the subject of johnson vs jeffries primes etc It just depends on how highly you rate them both. Jeffries had 23 fights and was champ for 4/5 years and defended against pretty much the men who came before him or who were all much smaller than him fitz, corbett and sharkey etc. He drew the colour line and wouldn't face johnson when he should have.

His title reign is probably on par and indeed is a bit similar to Marciano's. Few years, fought older, fairly small heavys and outlasted them - quality opponents though.

For me Johnson was a quantum leap and a class above Jeff. Guess we'll never know who would have won in their primes but I know who I'd have my money on.

[Caractacus]

- Tale of the Tape-

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 7855&hl=en


(Willard had a seven and one half- inch reach advantage,
76 inches to 83.5 inches)

[Caractacus]

Here's part of the fight.

The ring action starts around the 9:50 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74dnCeXI8MM

Anyone here count the number of uppercuts that Willard had thrown at Johnson(in what survives of the 26 rounds film footage anyway)?
Other then jabs and straight lefts,it
looks to me like Willard mainly threw right hands to Johnson's body.
How did they define an 'uppercut" back then?
Although perhaps it may have been Jack Johnson's fighting stance that prevented Willard from throwing them.
BTW Despite the claims,Jack Johnson was so obviously trying to knock out Jess Willard with numerous rushing
punching attacks.