‘I will be perfectly honest and acknowledge that I did not expect to whip [Jess] Willard as quickly as I did. I thought that the fight would last a few rounds, say six or seven, and that during those rounds that Willard would rough me around and attempt to tire me out. I entered the ring with that idea in mind and prepared to fight accordingly.
The morning before the day of the fight I had a talk with Jack Kearns. Jack is like a brother to me; I know he likes me, and I was afraid, as I have been in other fights, that if I got knocked down or was being beaten up he would do something to save me. I told him that no matter what happened he was not to interfere. That if I got kiIIed it would be time enough to come and drag me out.
Now, I want to let my friends in on a secret. I don’t know how to fight. When the fellows at the training camp tell me to use a left hook I try and can’t do it. I don’t know how to use a left hook any more than I know how to use a right cross.
When a man tries to hit me I forget all about that scientific stuff and hit back with all my might. I just watch for the openings and shoot in my fists. But I don’t know what kind of punches I’m using.
Well, get back to what I started to say, I entered the ring expecting to be roughed. But I learnt one thing in San Francisco when I fought Carl Morris four rounds that I had not forgotten. I thought, before I fought Morris, that I couldn’t slug with the big fellows – that I ought to keep away from them as much as possible. But toward the end of that first fight with Morris, as those who saw the fight will recall, I sailed in and had no trouble hitting him.
I had that in mind, and when Willard didn’t begin roughing me, when he stood away and started to box, I just slipped past his long arms and planted him.
I want to say one thing for Willard. He is a thoroughly good fellow and a gentleman. He said nothing mean before the fight and said nothing mean after he had been whipped. He expected to win, of course, and said so. I can’t hold that against him.
I am often asked whether I thought Willard did right in refusing to come out for the fourth round. I won’t say as to that. He knew best how he felt. But I know what I would have done had I been in his place. I would have come out and fought on until I was knocked dead. I hope that in my career in the ring I will never do anything that will cause people to think I quit. I would rather die than have people think that.
I wish also to thank my friends in San Francisco who stood by me so loyally when I was climbing to the top. I know that I made mistakes. I did things that I am ashamed of. Now I think of those things and wonder why I did them. A small boy should have known better.
But everybody, I suppose, makes mistakes, and now that I am world’s champion, a thing that I cannot yet realize, I will try to so conduct myself as to make up for those mistakes. I wish to say, too, that Jack Kearns and I will always be pals. He made me champion, and he will never have cause to say that I am ungrateful.
And in conclusion I will add that never will it be said that Jack Dempsey is a non-fighting champion. A world’s champion should fight at least every six months. I like to fight. If the public, or part of the public, thinks a certain man can whip me, my ambition will be to go ‘get’ that man. I will duck nobody.
When I’m through with the ring, I want my name to be on the honor roll with those of John L Sullivan and Bob Fitzsimmons – men who were world’s champions in every sense of the word.’
– Jack Dempsey
My Pondering
This is epic! What a study attitude and gigantic determination!
