hosting the july 4, 1919 world championship rev -- heavyweight fight between jack dempsey and jess willard. it was difficult to find a place to hold this fight. in 1919 boxing had an awkward reputation for death in the ring recently. also gambling, and organized crime that was involved in it. but toledo made an offer, and it was decided to host the fight here. both fighters came to town a couple months before, they worked out and trained and built an 80,000 seat wooden stadium made of michigan pine. right next to it as a replica of a stadium of the same design, built for the july 4, 2019 centennial celebration of the fight. the day of the fight was extremely hot. and the pine began to leach. the newspaper boys were making a fortune selling newspapers for people to sit on. if you look at the photographs, a lot of straw hats, people have towels over the back of their next, it was really warm. , hesey was the underdog plummets willard in one of the most violent three rounds of boxing you will ever see. willard did not even answer the bell for the fourth round. he went down multiple times in t