Quote:
Originally Posted by ubu55
Which brings us to the Dempsey/Willard fight/massacre. Dempsey's manager, Doc Kearns claimed years later (and after he and Jack had a falling out) that he'd loaded Dempsey's gloves before the title fight. The severity of Willard's facial injuries was his "evidence."
|
Could have been possible?But look at Louis/Schmelling II, the docs after the fight attending to Max ,thought that he was beaten with a BB bat?Dempsey was a very hard puncher,so he could have inflicted the punnishment 'Legally" at least IMO?
I don't know how the rules of attending witness to a boxers hand wrapping was back then.But trainer/manager Panama Lewis did just that in 1983,tampered with his boxers gloves.He removed padding from his fighter, Resto's gloves & put a hole in the center,thus giving his fighter an enormous advantage over his opponent Billy Collins Jr.,who had a torn iris ending his carrer boxing because of this.Lewis got banned for life,from involvement in boxing, & a 6 year prison term,Resto got 3 years in the poky.Resto also admited that Lewis dipped his wrapped hands in plaster of paris!Resto was not known to be any kind of puncher,so this was evident.
Quote:
|
As for Johnson, wasn't part of his story that a photo of him taking the count shows him shading his eyes, supposedly able to rise if he cared to?
|
True, but as the late great boxing writter Burt Sugar put it,Johnson probably could have gotten up, but he was begining to take a real pounding from Willard,who seemed to be gaining strength & stamina,while JJ was markedly loosing it.Did he really want to get up & take more?Sugar said probably not,he had allready suffered 2 broken ribs.Must have been very paifull every time Willard hit him there?
Quote:
|
I've seen downed/beaten fighters indoors in much the same pose, and even a dazed man would want to shade his eyes from the hot sun.
|
I have too, it seems like a natural reflex.The photo also does not show the motion of JJs arms,Sugar said in the film you could see his hands pulsating,like he was in pain.He looked a if he was convulsing.He was no doubt in pain.
He just met a fighter who was a little younger,but less talented,who was hungrier, & could withstand a lot of punnishment Johnson gave him in much of the earlier rounds, which JJ won most of them.A photo in round 20 or so taken of Johnson ,showed a face of utter dispair,& begining to see some abuse to it.Soon after that round he told one of his corners,to tell his wife to leave the fight, go back to the hotel.I think that action spoke volumes!