On this day 5 April 1915(Exactly 105 years ago today) In front of a huge crowd at the new Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba.
Jess Willard knocked out the defending champion, Jack Johnson( first African American world heavyweight boxing champion) in round 26 of a scheduled 45-round match to claim the heavyweight title
The bout lasted one hour and 44 minutes–the longest heavyweight title fight of the 20th century.
Johnson was guaranteed $30,000, plus one-third of picture privileges. Willard received 25% of total receipts and one-third of picture privileges.
Willard said before the fight that he expected to take a beating for the first 10 or 15 rounds and had trained specifically for that scenario. Johnson tried his best to make it come true.
The bout opened with both fighters facing one another with gloves at their waists and hoping their head, shoulder, foot and hand feints would force the other man out of position. Johnson easily stepped away from a lunging left/right to the body, smartly smothered a prospective jab to the head and landed a quick counter right over the top.
Most of the fight was waged at long range with each fighter striking a defensive upright posture with the majority of their weight on the back foot. While Willard did most of the leading, Johnson did the majority of the scoring with singular thrusts and occasional headlong rushes. When he chose to punch – which wasn’t often – Johnson’s quick and damaging blows enabled him to build a big early lead. That said, Willard soaked up the punishment Johnson dished out with nary a flinch.
The 12th saw Johnson unleash a furious burst that drove Willard to the ropes but, once again, the challenger shook off the damage and resumed his patient, jab-heavy boxing. The tenor of the fight began to turn in the 17th when Willard stepped up his forward movement as well as his work rate. Most of his one-twos fell short of the mark or were muffled by Johnson’s open gloves but Willard’s proactive attitude sent a forbidding message to the champion: “I am still strong and you still have nearly 30 more rounds of fighting to do.”
Johnson regained a semblance of control in the 18th, thanks to his occasional charges. At round’s end, Willard draped his huge left arm around Johnson’s shoulder before beginning his walk toward the corner. Willard was decidedly less friendly in the 19th, for now it was he who began and ended most of the skirmishes and his nimble semi-circling stood in stark contrast to Johnson’s flat-footedness.
All the while Willard fired ramrod jabs toward Johnson’s face and followed with rights to the body or the jaw. It clearly was Willard’s best round thus far and given the difference in energy level, more trouble was in store for Johnson – much more.
The fusion of Willard’s strength, his own lax conditioning and the searing conditions forced Johnson to confront the reality that his championship reign was in peril. He always had realized that he lacked the stamina needed to complete 45 rounds but he thought Willard’s perceived clumsiness and inexperience would eliminate the possibility of a long fight. Now that he had one, Johnson had no choice but to step out of his defensive shell and gun for the finish.
Willard continued to jab effectively during the first two minutes of round 20 but the challenger’s right hand to the side of the head ignited a fury within the champion. His flashing fists bulled Willard across the 20-foot ring and while Johnson’s punches landed accurately, they lacked the power that had left the mighty Jeffries in a heap five years earlier.
The rally was short-lived, as was the one Johnson produced in the next round after another Willard right to the temple stoked his fire. This time, however, Willard answered with his own assault in the round’s final minute that caused several ringsiders to leap joyously to their feet.
From that point forward, Johnson barely had the energy to hold up his gloves, much less hold off a 238-pound giant. Suddenly, the once-invincible Johnson appeared far older than his 37 years.
“Time had done its work,” the Associated Press reported. “It had been the opinion of Johnson and many of his friends that he did not have to be in the best of condition to whip Willard, underrating the latter’s splendid condition and youthful stamina.”
According to a New York Times account, Johnson asked Curley following round 22 to “Tell my wife I’m tiring and I wish you’d see her out.”
The end came shortly before the halfway point of round 26. As the pair maneuvered toward the challenger’s corner, Willard fired a lunging jab followed by a pulverizing right to the jaw. Upon impact, Johnson’s head snapped violently to the side while his hands reached out and tried to take Willard down with him.
That effort failed, so his stricken frame slid down Willard’s torso and legs before landing back-first with a thud. As Johnson shaded his eyes from the blinding sun, referee Welsh positioned himself four feet directly behind the champion’s head and tolled the count. Once he reached “10,” he immediately raised Willard’s right arm and walked toward ring center.
After the fight, referee Jack Welch said: “If I had been compelled to give a decision at the end of the twenty-fifth round, it would have been Johnson’s by a wide margin. Up to the twentieth round, Willard had one won only one round by a real margin and two or three others by the slightest shade. In the thirteenth and fourteenth, I was almost sure Johnson would knock Willard out, but Willard showed that his jaw and body were too tough. Johnson put up a wonderful fight to the twentieth round, but age stepped in then and defeated him.”
Elsewhere;
On this day 5 April 1950(Exactly 70 years ago today) Former Ghanaian professional boxer Roy “The Black Flash” Ankrah, who won the Gold Coast Flyweight title, Gold Coast Bantamweight title, Gold Coast Featherweight title, Gold Coast Lightweight title and British Empire Super Featherweight title knocked out Danny Nangle of United Kingdom in round five at the New Baths, Willemhall, West Midlands, United Kingdom, in a Super featherweight contest.
On this day 5 April 1981 (Exactly 39 years ago today) Real Tamale United (RTU) hit the headlines in the match day 10 of the Ghana Football League, when they ended Asante Kotoko’s unbeaten run with a painful 1- 0 win in Kumasi.
A powerful 40th minute free kick by veteran P. M. K. Kusi did the trick
On this day 5 April 2009(Exactly 11 years ago today) Ghana was drawn with England, Uruguay & Kazakhsatan for the 2009 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, which Ghana won later in that year, becoming the only African country to date to win the competition.
“For eight years we have not been to the U-20 World Cup so to return as champions of Africa is remarkable. It’s gratifying to me that we’re not just winning but also doing so by playing beautiful football,” Ghana coach, Sellas Tetteh said ahead of the draw.
FIFA U-20 World Cup 2009 groups:
Group A
Egypt Paraguay Trinidad & Tobago Italy
Group B
Venezuela Nigeria Tahiti Spain
Group C
Cameroun USA Korea Germany
Group D
Ghana Uruguay Uzbeskistan England
Group E
Brazil Costa Rica Australia Czech
On this day 5 April 2009(Exactly 11 years ago today) Ten-man Asante Kotoko team bowed out of the Africa Champions League after the former Ghanaian Champions lost 0-2 to Ithihad Khemisset in faraway Morocco. Kotoko had beaten the Moroccans 3-1 three weeks earlier in Ghana; however, the away goal scored by Khemisset helped them to advance to the next stage of the competition on superior away goal difference.
Referee:Huus Lambogoje – Mauritania
Expulsion: Osei Kwame Jnr
By: George ‘Alan Green’ Mahamah
