BoxRec

I know this is an old debate (and probably already been done on a thread in the past) but who would have won?

I read that Dempsey signed to fight him but the fight was cancelled. I also think that it has hurt Dempsey's legacy that he didn't fight Wills or defend against any other black contenders.

I have never seen Wills fight and it's not always possible to tell from his record, and reports of his fights, just as how good he was as I have the impression that some of the black HW's of the era often had to fight within their abilities in order to get fights with name opponents.

Wills was much bigger than Dempsey but apparently much quicker than a Willard or a Firpo. I'm sure it would have been a great fight.

I remember reading an article in a boxing mag years ago on this subject. It was one from the archives @ 1953 or so. In the article Dempsey was quoted, speaking about the 'color line' and the black fighters denied title opportunities. Dempsey was very humble and dferential, saying that it was lucky for him that his manager drew the 'line' as he (dempsey) figured that Wills would've KO'd him. The consensus of boxing writers disagrred; their opinion was Dempsey by KO after rd. 10. I have never seen Wills at all, so I can't say, but he did lose to Sharkey

Interesting reply... I read an old copy of The Ring with a similar archive story in which Dempsey claimed that he was not afraid of Wills but was terrified of Langford and admitted he's never have fought him. This was odd as Langford was way past his prime when Dempsey was figthing and, although a great, would not have had much chance at that point in his career.

Are there any films of Wills that you know of?

Dempsey was mostly just giving praise to Langford. John the Barber tried to match Dempsey with Langford during Dempsey's first visit to New York early in his career, but Jack refused that match and a couple of other ridiculous matches that Dempsey was not qualified, nor experienced enough to take at the time. John the Barber was as dirty a manager as there has ever been, and he was just wanting to throw the young Dempsey in the ring with anyone for some quick paydays, but luckily for Jack, he did not bite and went back out West and continued fighting. After Jack became champion there wasn't a man alive that he felt he could not beat as he was very, very confident in his abilities. Jack Kearns, Tex Rickard and a couple of high ranking officials in the state commision are the real reasons' that Dempsey-Wills never happened.

There is film of him in one of his last bouts getting knocked out by Uzucudun.

I think in their primes, it's a pick-em fight. Willis was a terrific puncher with good boxing skills and defense. His record shows that he was a great heavyweight fighter, but without more info a lot is just speculation. I've noticed a lot of the scribes who claimed an easy Dempsey KO only saw Willis when he was past his best (Firpo, Sharkey). In 1920, Willis was dangerous to anybody. But Dempsey was a monster himself.

I was just reading a Ring Mag (1993?) where they fed data into a computer . It had Dempsey winning a 15 round decision.

Not going to make a new thread about this because it's pretty trivial, but has Bernard Hopkins ever fought a white fighter? He certainly hasn't since he began challenging for titles in 1992.