With the July 4th weekend upon us, the Talk ‘n’ Shoot Podcast picks up it’s Classic Boxing theme with a retrospective look at fights from the holiday weekend. The podcast delves back on two of Jack Dempsey‘s title fights, as he both won the title on July 4, 1919 with his three-round destruction of Jess Willard, and he fought again in 1923 against Tommy Gibbons in a fight that famously bankrupted an entire Montana town.
We also look back at a rare double knockout fight that went down in 1912 when lightweight champion Ad Wolgast faced Mexican Joe Rivers in what is remembered as the most controversial fight of it’s time.
The July 4th holiday weekend used to mean family, country and fights. Even the modern era has seen the Ultimate Fighting Championships hold some of their biggest events around the July 4th holidays, but this year the calendar is remarkably void of big-time boxing and MMA. Mexico’s “Cinco de Mayo” has become synonymous with fights in this century, while the July 4th weekend continues to fade into boxing history. Now, this podcast is a retrospective podcast about boxing, but it could also be looked at as a call for a rennaisance as well. Perhaps in 2016 and in years to come we won’t be talknig about the past, but rather the next big mega-fight on July 4th weekend.
Take a listen as the Talk ‘n’ Shoot Podcast looks back at three historic boxing matches that took place on July 4th:
