Jack Dempsey vs Jess Willard (historical boxing fight)

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Boxing, Jack Dempsey vs Jess Willard  (historical boxing fight)   #JackDempsey  #Boxing

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00:00Jack Dempsey, a sensational young tiger with amazing speed in two murderous hands.

00:11Jeff Willard, the biggest man to hold the title under Marquess of Queensbury rules.

00:16Jeff has the muscles of a wrestler and the sheer power of a raging bull when his temper is around.

00:21He stands six feet six inches in height and weighs 240 pounds.

00:25His great arching chest measures 56 inches.

00:27Though half a foot taller and 50 pounds heavier than his rival,

00:31the tall pine of the Potawatomi is rated only a five to four favorite over the Manasseh Mauler.

00:36The 70,000 spectators pack around the ring in the blistering sunshine.

00:42The championship belt of gold and silk is paraded for all to see.

00:46Symbol of every heavyweight king from John L. to Willard himself.

00:49The referee, Ollie Ficord, calls Willard and Dempsey from their corners for instruction.

00:54Now you can see what a difference there is in their size.

00:56Though a great athlete, the bronze challenger seems almost puny next to the giant he's about to fight.

01:02They listen quietly, almost without interest to a story they know by heart.

01:06Sweat beating shoulders and foreheads.

01:08The crowd waits tensely.

01:09Who'll win?

01:10Willard with his fine jab and smashing uppercut?

01:13Or Dempsey with his speed and the best left hook of all time?

01:17Round one coming up.

01:22The timekeeper jerks his bell for him.

01:24Somehow it jams.

01:26And Willard doesn't hear the faint sound over the excited yelling.

01:29He pauses, looks around, puzzled, doubtful.

01:34Say, what's going on around her anyhow?

01:36Where's the bell?

01:36There it is.

01:39So the big fight begins and Big Jeff moves easily into action.

01:42The mahogany huge Dempsey circles moving in and out with cat-footed quickness.

01:47The champion wants to keep Jack at long range with his poking neck jab, but Dempsey won't let him do it.

01:51He's never still for an instant, bobbing and weaving around.

01:54It looks like a test of speed against power.

01:57And Willard has no chance to get set against Dempsey's speed.

02:00At such a pace, there's a lot of missing and a lot of pinching.

02:03It's bound to be that way, but it's only a warm-up so far.

02:06Each is trying to figure out the other's defense to open him up, nail him with a punch.

02:10The challenger crowds keeps on crowding.

02:12The instant he's in the open, he moves back again.

02:15His left grips in tirelessly and often.

02:17The blows mess are grave-willeders.

02:18Dempsey hasn't the range yet.

02:20Jess holds whenever he can, but that's Jack's meat.

02:23Nobody's strong enough to tie him up for long.

02:25And trying to hit him is like trying to hit a sunbeam that moves away.

02:29Dempsey's hands are in motion all the time.

02:31Willard tries to block with gloves and forearms and elbows, but he's compelled constantly to retreat.

02:36What else can he do against the endlessly moving little man?

02:39When you're going away, you can't do much damage yourself.

02:42A champion is supposed to make the fight, but try as he will, it's far beyond Big Jess.

02:47But he hasn't been hurt yet.

02:49For all the charging, for all the blows, the tall pine has suffered no injury.

02:53He's covered, knows how to handle himself, and in spite of his great size, he moves around

02:58quickly and gracefully.

02:59No, the little man won't get him.

03:03They maneuver around the side of the ring.

03:04Now watch, watch.

03:05There's that big left, and Willard's down.

03:12Up.

03:13Fury's up.

03:14Dempsey hurt him along the road.

03:15Leading away with both hands.

03:18There's that left again, and Willard's on the floor for the second time.

03:20The champion's day is groggy, but he's game.

03:23He's up again.

03:24The fist coming on him.

03:29And down he goes.

03:31Balls along the floor like a wounded animal, shouting with his back half-turned as he arrives.

03:36The mauler overwhelms him with hysterical burst of Fury that sends him to the floor for the

03:40fourth time.

03:43Dempsey stands over the second man, his fifth track.

03:46The instant Willard knees are off the floor, jacks at him again.

03:48Jess is wide open.

03:49And he has absolutely no defense.

03:54And he hits the deck again.

03:56Courage, just plain courage, instinct, whatever it is, blends in bind and staggering up to

04:01his feet.

04:10Willard wheels around the ring, powerless, with Dempsey pumping right and left into it.

04:15Clear across the opposite corner.

04:16And there he's taken it again.

04:17How can the man stand it?

04:19And there he falls, his gloved hand, heeling to the rope, trying to hold himself up.

04:23Then, painfully, he drags his racked body to a half-erect position.

04:28But a right smashes into his side.

04:30Other rights crash to the head.

04:31And Willard collapses into a sitting position, dazed and helpless, after the most murderous beating

04:36a man ever took in the ring.

04:37And there's the bell.

04:40But no one hears it.

04:41Dempsey turns away.

04:42He seems doubtful, puzzled.

04:44Kearns and others rush jubilantly into the rope square.

04:46It's all over the quickest heavyweight knockout on record.

04:52Jack hurries out of the ring to avoid the crowd.

04:55But the timekeeper and referee Ali Picard are yelling that it's not over.

04:59The bell had sounded before Big Jess was counted out.

05:01Where is the challenger anyway?

05:03Willard's chief second, Walter Monaghan, and the other handlers have leaped into the ring

05:07to bring their man, too.

05:08The champion seems helpless, but technically the fight is still on.

05:11Doc turns, rushes to the rope.

05:19Jack, hey, Dempsey, come back, come back.

05:22Run two, and the bell sounds again.

05:24Amazingly enough, Willard rises for the second round.

05:27Beaten as no man ever has been, he advances into Dempsey's raging fist.

05:31He jabs as though any jab could keep that tiger away from him.

05:34With all his wearied, broken body, Jack does his best to keep going.

05:37Why?

05:38It's no use.

05:38He hasn't a chance.

05:39But there's a tradition of all champions behind him.

05:42He has to fight even when he has nothing left to fight with.

05:46Jess may not have been a great champion, but no braver man ever laced on a pair of gloves.

05:51If he quit under punishment, no one would blame him.

05:53It's courage, nothing but magnificent courage that's holding him on his feet.

05:57No matter what he does, he can't get away from that tiger who stalks him.

06:01His arms and legs are heavy with exhaustion.

06:03Salt sweat burns the gashes Dempsey's fist have opened.

06:06When Jack bores in and hits him, drives him around the ring, he can't muster enough strength

06:11for a dangerous punch in return.

06:14The seconds and minutes are ticking by faster and faster.

06:17There isn't much time left in the round.

06:19If he has to get his KO before the bell rings, he'll have to do it in a hurry.

06:22But Willard's only thought is to protect himself, and weak and tired as he is, it's no sense

06:27to get him set for the finishing punch, even when he's driven helplessly back against the

06:31ropes.

06:32He wobbles about and flinches.

06:34Does his best to save himself from his relentless foe?

06:37There are only a few seconds remaining now.

06:39No chance for a finishing blow.

06:41It's too late.

06:43Maurer spins the champion around out there in the center of the ring.

06:45And there's the bell, and referee Picard sends his men to the corner.

06:50Back in just a moment.

06:53Round three, and at the start of the third, there's no easing up in Dempsey's attack.

06:57His left hook still thunders.

06:59In the clinches, Willard is no longer strong enough to make even a pretense of blocking the

07:03uppercuts that shake and hurt him.

07:05Still, the clinches are the only sanctuary left in.

07:08Out in mid-ring, he's helpless.

07:10He's lost all coordination between brain and hand.

07:13His efforts are pitiful.

07:14He was big and good-looking and smiling when he came into the ring.

07:17Now he's a lurching, tottering wreck of a man.

07:20Dempsey beats at him, in the body, shifting his attack for a moment from that pitiful

07:24face.

07:24A new champion's being born here, born in the torrid heat among the yells of 70,000 spectators,

07:30born in blood and effort and pain.

07:32It's bad for Willard, taking the hammer blow to the ring's greatest puncher, but it's

07:36no picnic for the man who's winning either.

07:38His lungs strain.

07:39His heart beats in his throat.

07:41His arms are like lead.

07:42But still, he carries on that deadly attack.

07:45He pours leather at the giant, who should have gone down long ago, who would have gone

07:48down, but for the heart of a lion and the endurance of a buffalo.

07:52Even the spectators are beginning to flinch at the sight.

07:55This is no fight.

07:56It's a slaughter, a massacre.

07:58Big Jess has no more chance than a babe in arms.

08:00Look at the heavyweight champion of the world.

08:02His face is pounded almost to a pulp.

08:04His tired days, I appear through a mask of blood.

08:07It's dripped down over his body, stained his punch, spotted his legs.

08:10Even Dempsey's smeared with the sanguinary fluid.

08:13Each time the mower goes into a clinch, he gets more of it.

08:15Why doesn't the referee stop it?

08:17Why?

08:17But Ollie Picard comes from the old school.

08:20There's only one way for a champion to finish, they say, and that's on his back.

08:23But the bloody, half-blinded Willard won't go down, not even when the tiring Dempsey's

08:32blows stagger and hurt him more and more.

08:35And again, the seconds are running out.

08:37The round's nearly over.

08:42And the impossible has happened again.

08:44Big Jess has lasted through this murderous, another murderous round with this roaring Dempsey.

08:49Now coming up for round four, but Willard can't come out for the fourth round.

09:04His nose and cheekbone are fractured, ribs broken, half a dozen teeth knocked out, and

09:08he's hardly strength enough to rise and shake hands with his conqueror.

09:11In this most unusual of fights, an idol has been born.

09:14Dempsey the Mower, unusual every second of it.

09:17The bell failed to sound clearly at the start.

09:20The champion was knocked down seven times in the first round.

09:23The challenger left the ring and had to be called back.

09:25Willard lost his title while sitting in his corner.

09:28Every minute, as crammed with drama, as the ring is now, was yelling excited men.

09:32Dempsey's in everyone's minds and hearts.

09:34Dempsey the Killer.

09:35Dempsey the Champion.

09:36Dempsey the Champion.

09:37Dempsey the Champion.

09:38Dempsey the Champion.

09:39Dempsey the Champion.

09:40Dempsey the Champion.

09:41Dempsey the Champion.

09:42Dempsey the Champion.

09:43Dempsey the Champion.

09:44Dempsey the Champion.

09:45Dempsey the Champion.

09:46Dempsey the Champion.

09:47Dempsey the Champion.

09:48Dempsey the Champion.

09:49Dempsey the Champion.

09:50Dempsey the Champion.

09:51Dempsey the Champion.

09:52Dempsey the Champion.

09:53Dempsey the Champion.

09:54Dempsey the Champion.

09:55Dempsey the Champion.

09:56Dempsey the Champion.

09:57Dempsey the Champion.

09:58Dempsey the Champion.

09:59Dempsey the Champion.

10:00Dempsey the Champion.

10:01Dempsey the Champion.

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