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THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
SATURDAY, JULY 5, 1919

JACK DEMPSEY, NEW KING OF
PUGILISTIC WORLD, FIGHTS MOST
SENSATIONAL BATTLE OF CAREER

(By Frank G. Menke, Universal Service
Correspondent.)
_ Arena, Bayview Park, Toledo, Ohio,
July 4. - Jack Dempsey is king of the
pugilistic world tonight. And a greater
champion never lived.
_ The Utah gladiator, fighting the
most sensational battle of his meteoric
career, battered Jess Willard from a
powerful, mighty looking human into
a bleeding and awful mass in three
rounds of fighting.
_ Willard, after returning to his cor-
ner, collapsed in his chair, was seized
with fits of nausea and seemed to
lapse into unconsciousness.
_ Then his seconds ended the battle
by tossing a towel into the ring.
_ And by that token Dempsey rose to
the sublime heights in his chosen pro-
fession.
_ Willard's showing was the most piti-
ful of any champion of all time.
Dempseys the most remarkable and
most amazing in pugilistic annals.
_ Throughout the nine minutes of
fighting, Willard never landed a real-
ly solid blow upon Dempsey. And
through those nine minutes Dempsey
hit Willard with such crashing, ter-
rible force that long before the second
round was over the crowd began to
shriek to the referee:
_ "Stop it, stop it."
_ The echo of the first gong hardly
had died away before Dempsey
launched a terrible attack that quick-
ly closed Willard's eye, smashed his
nose, gashed his lips in many places,
transformed his whole face into a
bleeding horrible mass and made his
body one splotch of red.
_ It wasn't a fight, it was a slaughter.

_ _Willard's Title Starts Slipping.

_ The first two punches that Dempsey
landed meant the end for Willard. The
challenger, dodging several jabs of the
giant, rushed in suddenly, whipped a
mighty left to the stomach and fol-
lowed with a flashing right to the
body.
_ Taps began to bugle then over the
pugilistic greatness of Jess Willard.
_ At that first blow landed upon the
one time "concrete" stomach of the
Kansasan, he sagged under the impact.
And when that right hander landed
on the jaw that Willard had termed
so proudly "a concrete jaw" the cham-
pion staggered, and then followed the
most sensational incident ever wit-
nessed in the first round of any cham-
pionship struggle in all history. Wil-
lard, hurt, and realizing it, tried to
rush into a clinch, but Dempsey, with
the ability of a panther, swept away
and then rushed back against Willard.
A left to the stomach, another, then a
right and then a right to the head sent
Willard reeling backward. Dempsey
hurled another right hander at the
giant and Jess Willard dropped to the
canvas for the first time in his long
ring career.
_ The referee stood over him and be-
gan to toll off the count. Willard
took six and then stumbled to his
feet. Dempsey charged - and Willard
attempted a clinch, but Dempsey was
not to be denied. Another ripping left
went into Willard's stomach - and
down he went again. He came up to
be met with a volley of blows that
sent him back - helpless - onto the
ropes.
_ Pecord did not begin a count - and
therein, according to many ring crit-
ics, he pulled a "boner." For the rules
say that when a man is helpless and
hanging on the ropes, with his heels
off the flat of the ground, he can
be considered a knock down victim.
_ Dempsey stood off waiting - and no
one knew for what. But at last Wil-
lard, his face a smear of blood, drag-
ged himself from the ropes and tried
to fall into another clinch. But Demp-
sey stood away and sent a right
crashing to the head. Willard dropped
again, but, dazedly climbed to his feet
and staggered across the ring. Demp-
sey followed and dropped him a fifth
time.

_ _Downs Willard Seventh Time.

_ Once more Willard got up, only to
be dropped by two lefts to the body
and a right to the head. And then
came the most peculiar incident that
ever took place at a championship
battle.
_ While the big crowd shrieked in
delirium, and while Willard grovelled
at his feet, Ollie Pecord the referee,
began to toll off the count. He seemed
to have reached the fatal "ten," for
he stopped counting and pushed Demp-
sey back into his corner.
_ At once pandemonium broke loose.
The crowd, assuming that Dempsey
had won with a knockout went insane
in its action. It surged towards the
ring and some in the ringside division
tried to climb through the ropes and
embrace Dempsey, who was standing
in his corner. All the while Willard's
seconds were assisting the giant back
to his corner and trying with every
means to bring him back to a sem-
blance of his old self.
_ "Dempsey wins - Dempsey wins,"
shrieked the mob.
_ But Dempsey hadn't won - not then.
_ For Pecord and some of the other
folks ordered back the crowd that had
attempted to climb through the ropes
and almost before the crowd realized
what had happened the fighters walk-
ed to the center of the ring and be-
gan squaring away for the second
round.
_ "What happened? What happened?"
demanded the crowd.
_ Then it was announced the Pecord
hadn't quite completed counting out
Willard before the bell rang. But no
one heard the bell which was pro-
nounced faulty by Pecord even before
the battle began and which sounded
but faintly.
_ Dempsey, realizing that he was a cer-
tain winner played things safely through
the second round. He opened with a rush
at Willard and smashed several ripping
blows to the head and body, just to stun
the champion a little more. One drive
sent Willard reeling to the ropes; an-
other drove him back near to Dempsey's
corner. Then Dempsey slowed up a little
and merely plugged away, not aiming
so much for a knockout as to reduce
Willard still further to a state of abso-
lute weariness.
_ And so was fought the second round
with Willard pawing occasionally at
Dempsey - and never hitting: with Wil-
lard vainly attempting to clinch his way
along.

_ _Most Battered Champion of All.

_ Willard looked a wreck when he came
out for the third - and before it was
ended he was the most battered cham-
pion that the heavyweight division of the
ring has ever known. Whirling from his
corner with all the speed and agressive-
ness of which he is capable. Dempsey
went out to finish Willard in that round,
and technically he did.
_ Driving powerful lefts to the head,
Dempsey closed Willard's right eye com-
pletely and then increased the gash
over the left to such a point that Wil-
lard was almost blinded. Then Dempsey
began driving for the jaw and stomach
while Willard staggered around the ring
and tried to avoid him. But the effort
was useless.
_ Once in that third, Willard attempted
a rally - tried to fight back - but he quick-
ly covered again, for as soon as he
opened his closely held guard, Dempsey
drove through with blows more vicious
than before.
_ Twice during that session Dempsey
backed Willard to the ropes and once
it seemed a certainty that just another
blow would floor the giant for the long,
long count. But before that blow could
be struck the bell rang - and the fight
was over.
_ Willard tottered to his corner. It
looked to many as though he never
could make it. But with a dying heave,
he landed in his chair.
_ There his head sunk upon his breast.
His seconds leaned over, looked anxious,
tried to talk to him. And then they
realized that the reign of Jess Willard
as king of the boxing world was over.
_ A towel was hurled into the ring.
_ For a second there was silence from
the crowd - and even Pecord stood as
though petrified. But in a trice he leaped
across the ring, yelling for Dempsey to
come forward. Jack stepped forth, close
to the center of the battlefield and
Pecord raised the arm of Jack Dempsey
which announced: "Jack Dempsey wins
this fight on a technical knockout and
so becomes heavyweight champion of
the world."

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION 1919
THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION
JULY 5, 1919


THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION 1919
THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION
JULY 5, 1919

DEMPSET WINS
WILLARD A PITIABLE SIGHT
GREATEST HEAVYWEIGHT SINCE JEFFRIES
WILLARD'S STYLE OF LOSING
WILLARD"S WIFE SORRY OF DEFEAT...

JACK DEMPSEY, NEW KING OF PUGILISTIC WORLD,
FIGHTS MOST SENSATIONAL BATTLE OF CAREER

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, JULY 5, 1919
Historic boxing newspapers and articles.