Jess Willard was known as a gentle giant that didn’t like punching in the face and mainly attacked the body. The say his attacks to the body where not like the other boxer of his day but rather Bob Fitzsimmons. And he waited for his opponent to attack first.

So let’s add some stuff up and for those initiated to bare knuckle fighting of the day, it was light attacks to the head and vicious attacks to the body. This was to protect fighters hands from breaking since there was no padding. Then add in the fact that Bob Fitzsimmons was trained in bare knuckle by former World Bareknuckle Champion Jem Mace, then add in the fact that Willard was trained by a former bare knuckle fighter no joke named Bert McErney. Then add in the fact that he was a bare knuckle boxing referee before he even laced up gloves. His job outside of boxing was unheard of too, a horse tamer/trader.