james j jeffries ATG NO!

Can you still be tried for HERESY ?

 

He was very good for the times that he fought in. He'd never have beaten Jack Johnson,though, no matter at what stage of his career he'd got in the ring with him.

 

He was the best in his own time - what more can one ask for?

 

All of the above is totally irrelevant.

Even if we accept your assumption that he would get destroyed today (never a given), it would not in any way detract from his historical standing as a dominant champion.

He was clearly the best heavyweight of his era, and quite probably the best that there had been up to that time.

That by any definition makes him one of the heavyweight greats.

 

Nothing.

 

You can’t simply dismiss anybody who holds a different opinion to you as being racist.

 

Works for me!

 

Jeffries was percieved as being a top ten ATG at heavy by many writers into the 50's, but as the old guard passed away so did his support .
In the 50's Dempsey was seen as much better than the new king Marciano, now the majority, [not me,] think Marciano beats him.
It's a cycle.

 

Every era has guys who say "The old-timers were way better than the guys today." And others who say, "The guys today would kill the old timers." Could it be that good fighters are good fighters in any era? I think every top fighter, every top era, has strengths and weaknesses. A lot of how these fights play out has more to do with how particular styles, strengths and weaknesses match up, as well as the rules in play and scoring criteria. There are so many factors - fight to finish or limited number of rounds, maximum number of rounds, glove size, referee style, scoring criteria/method, straight Queensberry rules or clean break, smelling salts allowed, fight can or cannot be stopped on cuts, don't stop fight unless count to ten, allow unlimited number of knockdowns, ring size, etc. Makes it harder to translate one era to the next.

 

Jeffries is clearly an All time Great. He fought 9 future Hall of famers losing only one of those fights and it was after a 6 year layoff to a fellow all time great. His resume speaks for itself. He also fought and defeated several good to very good black contenders on the way to the title, names like Hank Griffin, Peter Jackson and even Bob Armstrong. Too judge him against anitquated recording equipement and only seconds worth of prime footage is unfair. Against his peers he stands up to any era's top heavyweights.