Maumee Bay, Toledo. July 4th, 1919

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Jess vs. Jack, by James Montgomery Flagg.





My take on the same.  But why listen to me?




Here is big Jess K.O'ing one of the best fighters of all time, Havana, 1915.  26 rounds in brutal heat and Johnson is clearly in bad shape.  It was an honest knockout and it shows how very, very good Johnson was even as a fat slob.  Johnson lied about this and because the film was forbidden for years in the states many people still think that fat Texan took a dive.  Jess seems to have attracted calumny in his career but he was very good and very dangerous.  He was a Kansas cowboy who hated boxing and managed himself.  Too bad, because if he had had a manager who was up to the mark he would have kept his title.  (  After the first round in Toledo Jack was out of the ring and did not come up to the bell.  The ref, Ollie Pecord, should have awarded the fight to Jess right then and there.  The same thing happened in the Firpo fight, Firpo managed himself and when Dempsey was pushed back into the ring by reporters he lost the fight).





Dempsey-Firpo.  George Bellows.


"Jesus, he was a handsome man.  And-
How do you like your blue eyed boy, Mister Death"?



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