THE BARBARIAN VS THE MONK: BRUTALITY OVER TECHNIQUE-PART II: JACK DEMPSEY AND GAME CHANGING BRUTALITY

Continuing on in the saga of brutality, allow me to discuss an instance of one of the most brutal moments in combat sports: the heavyweight championship bout between Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard.  For any that have not had the absolute joy of witnessing the first (and what should have been final) round of this fight, please enjoy

And now let’s back up a little bit.  I’ve mentioned Dempsey before, but for those that are unaware, Jack Dempsey was one of the major inspirations of Mike Tyson, to the point that Mike took to cutting his hair in the same style as Jack (back when Mike had hair).  Mike idolized Jack and did his best to emulate his style, both due to it’ brutal effectiveness in the ring along with its entertainment value for the spectators.  It was simply fun to watch Jack Dempsey fight.  And why is that?

Because Jack effectively reinvented the sport of boxing WITH his brutality.  Ever notice how very old time boxers had what appears to be a unique stance compared to modern fighters?

The body is leaned far back while the hands are stretched out forward.  For what purpose?  Because people don’t like getting hit in the head!  So boxers would lean their heads away and put their hands forward to put up a defense.  Boxers would look for openings and come in with 1 or 2 long looping punches before retreating to a safe distance again.  It was a very defensive style, built around preserving the skull (and, thus, the fighter) for long durations, which, given how many fights would go into the dozens of rounds, wasn’t’ an awful idea.

And then came Jack Dempsey.  Jack, who brought “bad intentions” into his fight, who hit people with the intent to do harm and break them, brought in an aggressive style of forward pressure where he was willing to sacrifice the safety of hanging back and having the gloves far out if it meant getting inside his opponents guard and demolishing him with tight hooks.  Jack, who learned that if he “fell” with his punches, he could put all of his bodyweight into the blow, because he was going FORWARD into the opponent, not backward, retreating away from them.  Jack, who stalked his opponents like a lion going after prey, standing barely an arm’s reach away while they got back on their feet, only to savagely batter them back down to the floor again.  Jack made his own style, because he wasn’t going to use the techniques that people said you HAD to use to be a boxer, and it became so brutally effective that they had to CHANGE THE RULES OF BOXING to make it fair for other fighters.

You know you've done good when they have to change the rules to make things fair for your opponent that is 58lbs heavier and 5 inches taller than you

Marinade on that for a second there: boxing, which, at that point in history, was the most brutal manner of prizefighting available, had to be changed because Jack Dempsey arrived.  He arrived, and brought with him so much brutality that boxing was no longer “safe”.  Prior to his arrival, it was the natural self-preservation instincts that were permitting prizefighters to have 100 round slugfest and still walk away and have a beer.  Know what the outcome was for that Jess Willard fight?  Jess was carried away with a broken cheekbone, a broken jaw, several broken ribs and an estimated 6 missing teeth, with a physician ruling that it would be 6 weeks before Jess could move comfortably again.  The beating was so savage that, for DECADES, arguments existed that Jack either coated his boxing wraps in plaster of paris OR had loaded his gloves with metal, as the mere idea of one man so savagely beating another in the ring was just unfathomable.  And it doesn’t really matter what the truth is to those accusations, for if Jack DID manipulate his gloves to do more damage, that just further demonstrates his brutality, and if he DIDN’T, that just goes to show how terrifyingly brutal he was.

BECAUSE of Jack, more rigorous pre-fight inspections of equipment occurred, to look for evidence of tampering.  Because he arrived, fighters had to change their stances and approach, learning how to work angles, active defense, counter aggression, etc.  Because of Jack, fighters HAD to retire to a neutral corner when their opponent was down, so that they could STAND UP before getting smashed in the face again.  In fact, Jack lost one of the greatest matches in his career because that rule change had recently been implemented and he defaulted back to his baseline brutality when he saw a man down on the canvas.  That opponent ended up getting a “long count”, as the ref didn’t start the 10 count until 8 seconds after he had been knocked down, as Jack did NOT want to go back to his corner. 

Jack, seen here, being told that what he wanted to do to his downed opponent was NOW known as "assault and battery" rather than sound strategy

Because when you have enough brutality, you force the game to change.  While other fighters were fighting for sport, Jack grew up fighting just to have enough money to eat and find a place to sleep, and this meant he had no time to play by anyone else’s rules or style: he was going to bring his brutality and play the game the way he wanted to play it.  He wasn’t going to change who he was: he was going to force everyone else to change to deal with him.  Because brutality can overcome just about everything, so long as you throw enough of it at something, with violent “bad intentions”.

And when the game changes because of your brutality, it no longer matters if you “lose” by the new rules.  If the only way people can beat you is by removing or limiting your brutality, you’ve already won.  There could be no possible victory any sweeter than the one of being the person who forced the game to change because it could not deal with the force of nature that you are.  Endeavor to be the one who is so absolutely brutal that the only chance people have to win is by no longer playing the same game as you.