JOHNSON WOULD HAVE WON ON POINTS IN TWENTY ROUNDS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 309, 30 December 1944, Page 5 (Supplement)

JOHNSON WOULD HAVE WON ON POINTS IN TWENTY ROUNDS

AFTER the 25th round, jonnson called Curley to his corner. The failing champion whispered something, and Curley walked over to Mrs. Johnson's seat. As the 26th round got under way, Mrs. Johnson got up and started for the exit. She had to pass the ring, and as she got there, saw Johnson knocked down. She let out a scream that resounded through the arena. . The fight was held at the Oriental Park race track. Curley had drawn for Frazee a glowing picture of 100,000 spectators paying half a million dollars. Actually, there were some 12,000 onlookers who paid, thousands who didn't, and the fight hardly was a financial success. Had the contest ended after 20 rounds, Johnson would have won on points and retained the title. In those first 20 rounds the negro hit Willard almost when and how he wished. Jess was no boxer. He was a big, ungainly fighter who had lost a 20-round decision to Gunboat Smith, and in 1914 had been whipped by Bearcat McMahon in Youngstown in a 12-rounder. STOMACH PUNCH HIS UNDOII JOHNSON rushed in and held on for dear life. That punch to the stomach proved the negro's undoing, and really ended the long and at times ludicrous quest for the White Hope. , , , Referee Welch pried Jack loose and Jess crashed a left to the body. Johnson no longer knew what he was doing. He was just a tyro now. He lowered his guard to protect his stomach and Willard hammered a right to the jaw. That was the finisher. Jack s legs became rubber. They bent he dropped and rolled over on his back. Welch motioned Willard to his corner and started the count. Welch went from one to ten. He could have gone right on in so tar as Jack was concerned, Johnson lying down there at ten, Welch held Willard's right mitt aloft. A new champion had been crowned! The result did not appeal to the Cuban onlookers. There was a not at the ringside. President Menocal left shaking his head. He too, did not r -em convinced that the contest had ueen decided on its merits.Those who hr.d bet on Johnson ieered and he .vied. Menocal ordered the Army to take over and things quieted down A cavalry troop cleared the w y for the fighters three-mile ride back to their hotels. Willard got a tremendous ovation Johnson returned to Havana with left eye shut and lips swollen and cut "The heat got me," Jack said. But for the easy life in Europe, I would have taken him."

Johnson with a system. He knew Jack was a great boxer, a grand counter fighter, a defensive marvel. Willard knew that his main chance [ay in wearing the negro down. No use trying to outspeed him, outbox him. Just keep plodding, and time and nature would take their course —and their dues. In the first eight rounds, Johnson was the aggressor, the winner, the hero. Willard took it and then took it again. But there was something strange about this fight. While Jack kept pouring it in, Willard kept taking it —and without any sign of giving up. Johnson reached Jess with both hands and achieved about everything you can imagine a lighter doing in the ring—except the knock-out. Came the ninth, and Willard had a cut on his right cheek, and was bleeding from the mouth. But the Kansan was more annoyed than he was distressed. Though taking it, he was gaining confidence. Willard suddenly assumed the offensive in the ninth? rushed at

Jack like an enraged bull and swatted the negro flush on the mouth with a right. , From the tenth round to the 20th Johnson earnestly tried for a knockout. These rounds do not support the belief that Jack took a dive. As Damon Runyon put it —and he was at the ringside—"l don't believe Johnson would have waited 2(3 rounds under that broiling sun to take a dive. He was not knocked out. He simply couldn't go any further, and he realised it." In the twenty-first round it became apparent that Johnson had worn himself out. He had shot his bolt thrown his Sunday punch without being able to stop the Kansas giant Now it became a question as to now much farther the champion could go. Johnson was slow in answering the bell for the twenty-sixth round. Jess met him more than two-thirds of the way across the ring and walloped a left to the face. Johnson's head snapped back, ana before he could recover his poise, the Pottawatomie Behemoth drove a terrific right into the bread basket.