On July 4, 1919, the air was full of expectation and the bets were on: Jess Willard, the public’s favorite, was facing rookie Jack Dempsey. No one ever imagined that Willard, a 111-kg wall of muscle, would receive the biggest surprise of his life. | The Ring

Former world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey earned the right to challenge for his lost crown #OnThisDay in 1927, when he proved the doubters wrong to knock out Boston's tough ex-sailor Jack Sharkey in the seventh round at Yankee Stadium. In a pre-fight poll of 25 sports writers, 16 picked Sharkey to win and nine picked Dempsey. Sharkey entered the ring as a 7 to 5 favourite. However, many among the enormous 80,000 in attendance who had paid over a million dollars to see the ex-champ believed