1. Harry Wills was a heavyweight boxer who held the World Colored Heavyweight Championship three times.
17 Facts About Harry Wills
1. 2.
Harry Wills fought for over 20 years, and was ranked as the number-one challenger for the world heavyweight championship, but was denied the opportunity to fight for the title.
3.
Harry Wills fought many of the top heavyweights of his era.
4.
Harry Wills defeated Willie Meehan, who had decisioned Jack Dempsey, Gunboat Smith and Charley Weinart.
5.
Harry Wills fought Luis Firpo in a match that ended in a no decision.
6.
Harry Wills faced future heavyweight champion Jack Sharkey in 1926, and was being decisively beaten when he was disqualified.
7.
The next year, Harry Wills was knocked out by heavyweight contender Paolino Uzcudun in a bout that signalled the end of his reign as a serious title contender.
8.
The top black fighters of Harry Wills' era were forced to continuously fight each other, as many white fighters drew the "color line".
9.
Harry Wills beat Langford three times for the colored heavyweight title, with Langford winning it back twice.
10.
Over 45,000 readers responded, and Harry Wills finished first with 12,177 votes.
11.
Wills twice attempted to sue Dempsey for breach of contract over the canceled bout, which had been barred in New York State on orders from Governor Alfred E Smith by Athletic Commissioner James Farley, an early champion of African-American equal rights due to his public threats to resign from the Athletic Commission if Wills was not given the fight against the champion Dempsey, as Farley deemed Wills the number one contender.
12.
Harry Wills retired from boxing in 1932, and ran a successful real estate business in Harlem, New York.
13.
Harry Wills was known for his yearly fast, in which, once a year, he would subsist on water for a month.
14.
Harry Wills admitted that his biggest regret in life was never getting the opportunity to fight Dempsey for the title.
15.
Harry Wills was confident that he would have won such a match.
16.
Harry Wills died at Jewish Memorial Hospital in New York City of complications from diabetes on December 21,1958.
17.
Harry Wills was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.