Giant v. Dentist, 1916

Ninety-two years ago today, at the second iteration of Madison Square Garden, heavyweight champion Jess Willard (pictured right) made his first title defense, a lackluster 10-round bout with Frank Moran that went the distance and ended, as the contract stipulated, with no decision being rendered. Most reporters at ringside had Willard winning every round, and of course the champion kept his title. Jess Willard, "The Pottawatomie Giant," is famous today for only two fights, defeating Jack Johnson for the heavyweight crown in 1915 and then losing it to Jack Dempsey in 1919. In this way, Willard's reign is somewhat akin to that of Larry Holmes, in that he is largely forgotten by history for having succeeded a legendarily flamboyant champion and preceded a legendarily vicious one. It's a nice comparison on paper, but it doesn't hold up much beyond the words I wrote above. In fact it's tremendously unfair to Holmes, who was an outstanding and unfairly undermined heavyweight champ where Willard was something of a sideshow, a lumbering giant with little actual boxing ability. The bout that Willard fought with Frank Moran (known as "The Fighting Dentist," pictured left ) on March 25th, 1916 is less notable as a heavyweight title fight than it is as the first promotion that Tex Rickard ever made in New York. Rickard would go on to become boxing's P.T. Barnum with Madison Square Garden his personal circus, so much so that the third Garden became known as "The House That Tex Built." Amazingly, there is footage of the Willard/Moran fight, which I present to you below. It's uneventful, although interesting just to see the stand-up style of the times in action. Also, you have to hand it to the Dentist. Overmatched in just about every way, he's still swinging for the fences in there.