{"id":708940,"date":"2026-06-01T20:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/708940\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:28:09","slug":"jack-dempseys-famous-fight-shaped-ryan-rozicki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/708940\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Dempsey’s Famous Fight Shaped Ryan Rozicki"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Rozicki\u2019s reputation as one of boxing\u2019s most aggressive punchers can be traced back more than a century to a fight that took place long before he was born.<\/p>\n

The Canadian cruiserweight, who faces Chris Billam-Smith on June 6 in Bournemouth, says his outlook on fighting was heavily influenced by watching Jack Dempsey\u2019s destruction of Jess Willard in 1919. The bout remains one of the most famous heavyweight title fights in boxing history and left a lasting impression on Rozicki when he first discovered it as a young fighter.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen I saw it, at that time in my life, it was all about violence,\u201d said Rozicki to Sky Sports\u2019 The Gloves Are Off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always about how much damage I could do to somebody in a street fight. I\u2019m not going to get into too much detail about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when I saw Jack Dempsey fight, the way he attacked Willard \u2013 it was just the violence he displayed in that fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this day, I think it\u2019s probably the most brutal set of injuries ever suffered in one boxing match. I try to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rozicki\u2019s style has reflected that philosophy throughout his professional career. Twenty of his 21 victories have come by knockout, and he has built a reputation as a relentless pressure fighter who is willing to trade punches in pursuit of a stoppage.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old said Dempsey remains a source of inspiration more than 100 years after the former heavyweight champion\u2019s victory over Willard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Jack Dempsey did on that night, on July 4, 1919, in Toledo, Ohio, changed the course of boxing forever. I\u2019d like to bring a little bit more of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause although I like boxing, and appreciate the boxers, the movement, the technique, the jab, the angles, we don\u2019t see enough of the violence \u2013 like two guys trying to actually hurt each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rozicki will attempt to bring that approach into the ring against Billam-Smith, the former WBO cruiserweight champion. Billam-Smith has never been knocked down as a professional, but Rozicki believes the attacking style that made Dempsey famous still has a place in modern boxing.<\/p>\n

Whether that approach is enough to hand Billam-Smith a first defeat since 2024 remains to be seen. One thing is clear, though. Rozicki\u2019s fighting identity was shaped long ago by a heavyweight champion who competed more than a century before his own career began.<\/p>\n

Olly Campbell is a boxing journalist who has covered the sport since 2014, providing ringside reporting and technical analysis of major bouts. His work focuses on fighter tendencies, tactical adjustments, and the details that shape high-level competition.<\/p>\n

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Last Updated on 2026\/06\/01 at 11:19 AM \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Rozicki\u2019s reputation as one of boxing\u2019s most aggressive punchers can be traced back more than a century…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-708940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}