Can We Get A Handle On Jeffries From This Footage?

Yeah he looks pretty bad. This is a good example of the contemporary accounts and fellow great fighters praising a fighter turning out to be garbage.

He may have steamrolled his opposition, but that's more of an indication of their quality than Jeff's ability.

He may be the most open to right hands I've ever seen in a fighter labeled an ATG. His right hand is dead the way he positions himself and its clear he's just looking to land that hook.

His hook, by the way, you can see coming a mile away and is wide. It doesn't appear to be anything even approaching average by the standards of even 20 years in the future.

Its pretty bad. I can't agree that this guy even belongs in the same ring as any other HW champ I've seen, based on this footage.

 

But I don't know if this is enough evidence to make such definitive statements. More and better quality footage would give a more well-rounded idea of him overall.

Based on this footage, he's the stereotype for ATG's who are always on lists and always mentioned h2h, but fall way short when seen on film.

 

I agree with this for the most part, may just be the fact that he was trying to finish Ruhlin, but defense is almost completely absent.

First time seeing this, and I am unimpressed.

 

Absolute garbage!!..NO TALENT WHAT SO EVER!!

 

Id have to read more and analyze more of Jeffries before I went too negative based on one scrap of very poor quality film. But, the thing that has always impressed me about Jeffries is his conditioning. When he came down in weight to fight Johnson what he accomplished in getting into physical condition would have made most modern fitness gurus jealous. Beyond that Id have to do more research. I'll say this, for the era the guy was huge, that makes up for a lack of ability (if he had a lack of ability). In the film of Corbett-Fitzsimmons I remastered he dwarfs everyone else.

 

I have to say something about this if I may. - First of all, I do not know if this really is Jeffries in the film but maybe he is. - The film quality is very poor. But what I do know is that the uploader called "fightfilmsguy" is somebody who "surprised" me in the past: Over a year ago I found somewhere the Max Baer documentary "Tender Hearted Tiger" and I uploaded it on youtube - and about a month later the "fightfilmsguy" uploaded that same docu on his channel (video looks exactly the same) and he says in the description and in the video itself that he found that docu somewhere in some hidden place at the end of the world and restored it to make it available for the public. I don't know what exactly he restored but the video looks exactly the same to me.

But: I do not want to say anything mean about the guy since he indeed uploaded very rare stuff on his channel in good quality also. But in that particular case he was in my opinion claiming that my find was his own.

 

Its the real fight but yes this fight films guy is a liar. This version isnt any different than any other version I have. He sometimes takes out the color data and stabilizes the image or slows down the speed but hes not digging anything rare up out of any archives as he pretends. He lists a ton of stuff as being original 16mm transfers that hes done. He makes a lot of **** up as he goes along: He says he did this restoration of the first Dempsey-Tunney fight, in the information for it he says that the 7th and 8th rounds were not shown in the theatrical cut. This is bull****. I actually did a digital restoration for the owner of the original film which turned out beautiful. The 7th and 8th rounds are present but they were water damaged and unwatchable. He talks about "Joe Fosco" in the same post. Its not "Joe" its Tony, who was my partner on this and who found the complete film. Another example is the **** hes screen capped from Pathe Gaumont that I found and paid to have transferred to safety film over a decade ago with three other people. What he and others dont seem to realize about this footage, which makes it obvious that its a website cap, is that it has a big rooster (the pathe symbol) superimposed over the image. This doesnt appear on the original film. Basically he pretends hes collecting all of this film and doing restorations on it when hes really just getting DVDs of stuff from collectors and fiddling with it in Vegas or Premiere. This fight in particular he says is a mutoscope film. No its not. I dont know why anyone would even make that up. If youve ever played with a mutoscope you know this film is far longer than a mutoscope film. There is a mutoscope version of Jeffries-Sharkey out there but this clearly isnt it, and this clearly isnt a mutoscope as I know who owns the original and where it came from. I could go on about this guys BS but whats the point. I just dont understand guys like him and Noltimier who pretend to be something they arent.

 

This minuscule piece of film helps highlight the kind of Jeffries was; steady, strong and very tough. It's important to note a couple of things however:

1) Jeffries was not symbolic of the skill-set of the time; there were many other fighters who utilised lateral movement and boasted more of an arsenal.

2) Jeffries notably improved over the course of his championship run. His defensive work was sharper for the Corbett rematch and many believed the version that steam-rolled Jack Munroe was the best yet. John L. Sullivan was in awe of how nimble the big man was, something this footage doesn't convey at all. Had Jeffries fought in 1905/06 we would of had some quality performances.

With that said, Jeffries' left hand, his short hook and sneaky body attack were enough to grind down some of the world's best. It may appear pretty basic, but for a fighter that was dubbed circumspect and didn't always rely on his bulk, that can only suggest his boxing wasn't too shabby.

 

I have to say, based mostly on this footage, but also on what actually happened in their fight (and of course on the Johnson footage), while he was obviously a better fighter in his prime and would have started a heavy favourite if they fought before his retirement, I think that the Jack Johnson uppercut would have caused him some serious trouble (at least that is what it seems to me).

 

He looks very poised, confident, well conditioned and powerful .. I like his shorter hooks to the head and body as well as the rare right handed uppercut .. the feel out over hand left hook is a bit raw ... did not seem to throw a jab at all and the crossing of the legs moving forwards can make you cringe ... still ,there is certainly something there ...

 

He looks strong. But compared to modern time fighters he is bad.
Recently I saw a restored copy of Johnson vs. Burns...and I was shocked when I realised how bad Johnson looked.
It is boxing, very early days.
I think boxing peaked in the 60és.
Since then boxing has changed. The champs and stars fighting 1-3 fights a year.