The source of the myth that Dempsey’s gloves were loaded with plaster of Paris for the Willard fight was a 1964 Sports Illustrated article written by Jack “Doc” Kearns, Dempsey’s manager at the time of the fight. It’s contradicted by many things:
Teddy Hays, another of Dempsey’s seconds, cut the tape off Dempsey’s hands in full view of everyone in the ring at the end of the fight. Kearns would have certainly ensured that didn’t happen if the tape had been encased in plaster of Paris.
Oscar Fraley, Kearns’ collaborator for the article, also wrote The Untouchables, a book about prohibition cop Eliot Ness which historians agree was full of tall tales.
Most convincingly, there exists a photo* (of surprisingly high quality) showing Dempsey entering the ring for the 1919 fight. His taped hands are clearly not coated in anything.
Kearns was a notorious liar and con man who parted ways with Dempsey over money he’d stolen. Kearns later filed lawsuits claiming that he was entitled to 50% of Jack’s earnings even after they’d parted ways. He was Dempsey’s “Colonel” Tom Parker, down to the fake title. Even the SI editors gave the story a “cautionary note” and described Kearns as a “wily trickster”. He was broke and on his deathbed when he sold the story to SI.
Another myth that Dempsey was holding a railroad spike in his hand is easily refuted by viewing the fight film, which shows Dempsey raising his open hands several times after clinches.
Make no mistake, boxing at the time was a dirty, crooked sport. But Dempsey was the real deal.
Included in the definitive Dempsey biography, “A Flame of Pure Fire” by Roger Kahn, the source for the above.
In the linked Youtube above (post 21), Willards hands are clearly ungloved, and they mention (around time mark 0:16) that “gloves are being brought out now, and put upon his big boned hands”.
Would Dempsey have also enter the ring ungloved? That part is not shown in the Youtube clip.
The photo I mentioned shows Dempsey’s left hand as taped, but ungloved, as he steps up to the ring. It’s of high enough resolution to distinguish the strips of tape.
You’re welcome, TriPolar. I am interested in anything else you learn about this.
Agreed, the point of that sequence was that Thunderlips took the fight seriously while Rocky had gone “soft” and didn’t care about the fighting as much which is why Mick had been trying to protect him and why Clubber Lang dispatched him so easily in their first fight.
You may very well be right and I suspect you are, but following the debacle of his autobiography of Pete Rose, I’d be a bit careful about taking what Kahn says as gospel.
Not that I think he’s a bad guy, a bad writer(The Boys of Summer is still one of the best baseball books I’ve ever read) or even a liar, but he has a tendency to get to close to his subjects and to want to make them into heroes.
I know that I’m coming to this thread about 6 months late, but it occurs to me that, if you’re basing your comparison on what they did against Rocky, you have to take into consideration that Drago was facing an older, retired Rocky. On its own, 3 years off can make a big difference (See Ali-Bonavena, for example). Being 3 years further past one’s prime can also take its toll (See Ali-Spinks2 then Ali-Berbick) . Put these together, and I believe that the Rocky that fought Drago was potentially a very different fighter than the one that fought Lang.
Clubber Lang would so kick Drago’s ass… Drago was a stiff fighter who never moved his head… Lang’s handspeed would tag drago’s head staying in the same spot.
Also Lang’s foot movement would allow him to get inside of drago tie him up and do damage with uppercuts… Also… Drago demonstates doubt when the fights not immediately going his way… Lang is single minded… he’s a killer. As MIckey told Rock… this kid will kill you…
I do think that the rematch Lang Rocky was a weak ending… no way Lang goes out that easy… why you he be fat and happy after only just gettin the title. “Come on over here… and see what a real man is like”… great quote…
IRL, absolutely. But in the Balboa-verse, the point was that after his Siberian training Rocky was at his (forgive me) peak. The Rocky in IV was the physically, skills-wise, and motivated best. He had to be to conquer the cold, calculated, underhanded Soviet boxing science monster laboratory.
I was reminded in some thread that Dempsey’s hand encased in plater is likely legend made up after the fact. IIRC the story was told by a former manager for the first time long after the event, There was a more recent case of a boxer having his hands wrapped with cast material, gauze impregnated with plaster, that would harden during the course of the fight as sweat from the boxer’s hands was absorbed,
