Jack Dempsey v Harry Wills. Who wins?

Question

the fight was signed but Dempsey was pulled out by his manager to fight Gene Tunney. If the fight had gone ahead what would have been the result?

Answer 1

Jack Dempsey 61-6-8 (50) vs Harry Wills 65-8-2 (47)

Common opponents:

Fred Fulton  ko 1 by Dempsey, ko 3 by Wills

Gunboat Smith W 4, ko 2 by Dempsey, ko 1 by Wills

Luis Firpo ko 2 by Dempsey, ndw 12 by Wills

Jack Sharkey ko 7 by Dempsey, LF 13 by Wills

To richard t:  What a smart aleck response sir.  That's why we ask for peoples opinions and use this site.  

Size advantage obviously goes to Wills although that never seemed to bother Jack Dempsey.  Speed advantage goes to Dempsey.  Power advantage goes to Dempsey.

The fight;  Dempsey rushes out of his corner looking to end matters quickly as both men trade pretty evenly for the first couple of rounds.  Wills uses his strength and ties Jack up on the inside.  In round 7 Dempsey catches the big man with a blazing combination and sends the big man to the canvas.  The bell rings and saves Wills from a sure knockout loss.  In round 8 Jack crashes a right hand to the jaw of Wills sending him to the anvas again where the referee counts him out.

Answer 2

I am a huge Demspey fan, but lets face the facts.  Dempsey (or at least Tex Rickard) shamelessly ducked Harry Willis.  This argument is the same as the one surrounding the Hearns/Mugambi fight that never took place.  As much as I respect Dempsey, all fighters have their weaknesses, and Tunny exposed Dempsey's.  I think Harry Wills would have did exactly what Tunney did to Dempsey, but with more violence.

Willis wins, the proof is in the fact that Dempsey didn't take the fight when the opportunity arose.

Answer 3

Wills was knocked out in four rounds by Paulino Uzcudun.  Uzcudun had cast aside his contract with Tex Rickard to fight Wills, after having been dropped from Rickard's heavyweight elimination tournament when Jack Dempsey refused to engage in more than one preliminary bout leading to a fight with Gene Tunney. Rickard's original plan was to match Uzcudun with Dempsey and have the winner meet the survivor of the Jack Sharkey-Jimmy Maloney bout.

Wills was 38 years old when he lost to Uzcudun.  Wills had lost to Sharkey in the previous year.  When and if he would have beat Uzcudun he may have had a chance to fight Dempsey but I think Dempsey would have knocked him out and by the time they fought Wills probably would have been 39 or 40 years old.  In his prime I think Wills would have given most heavyweights a problem and he would have stayed in there with Dempsey.

Wills is in the group with Burley, Langford.  Guys who never got a shot or weren't given a chance until they were too old.  Great question alot of people never have heard of Wills but he was a great heavyweight fighter in his prime.  He beat Langford many times.

Answer 4

big boxing fan and its history, but am sad to say never heard of harry wills, will do some research and get back to you

Answer 5

a smaller gate and payday...............

who knows who would have won 80 years ago.......

go look at tapes of the fighters........and decide for yourself