Jeffries got what he deserved ...

For me there is something infinitely pathetic about the fight where time finally catches up with a great champion.

We don't celebrate Rocky Marciano knocking Joe Louis through the ropes, or Larry Holes pummeling Muhammad Ali, or even Jack Johnson being laid out at the feet of Jess Willard, so why should it be different for Jeffries?

Apart from his political stance, it might be that we don't have any quality footage of him in his prime?

I submit that we should prefer to remember him as the invincible boilermaker, who defined what a great champion in the gloved era was, rather than this sorry and distasteful spectacle.

Is that really sympathy for the devil?

 

We should celebrate the fact that he took an almighty beating and though he must have known he was"in for it" very early on, at no time showed the slightest sign of quitting.
He went out on his shield as great champions should.
A VERY BRAVE MAN WHO HONOURED HIS CALLING.
AND ,ULTIMATELY THE SOBRIQUET OF CHAMPION.:good

 

Jeffries was an egotistical ******* as well. I dont think his actions are excusable but I also dont think that Johnson beating him well past his prime when he had spent the previous year stripping off 100 pounds is some kind of a moral victory. I also think its pure folly to try to paint the situation as black and white. When you take these guys out of the context of their day and judge them by todays standards, especially based on quotes printed in the media at the time you do a disservice to them. Im not trying to soften Jeffries image Im just saying. I think its ridiculous to take a guy like Jeffries, who was an ******* but an upstanding citizen who was actually respected by most and paint him as the bad guy and take a **** like Johnson who was actually denigrated by most people from several cultures and walks of life and paint him as a victim. The issue may not be so black and white but the general impression that Jeffries, taking into account his failings as a person, was a decent enough person and Johnson and taking into account even his difficult position as a black man in white America was a pretty ****ty human being, is probably a lot closer to the truth than the monday morning quarterbacking done a century later by applying norms that didnt even exist in that time period. You might as well say cavemen were horrible people because they intermarried, or copulated with "underage girls" (a term and/or societal norm that didnt even exist 1000s of years ago. The thread was started as a means of saying that the racist Jeffries finally got what he deserved by the champion of the black people. Im merely saying its silly to characterize it as such. You might as well have Jesse Jackson go and punch James Earl Ray in the face on his death bed and claim its some kind of victory of right over wrong. Its silly.

 

Everybody who has commented so far has had a unique viewpoint.

 

I agree with mcvey and Mendoza.

 

Let me play devils advocate here, not that Jeffries was the devil:

Jack Johnsons poor treatment of Sam Langford went beyond denying him a shot at the title. He threatened him with a gun on one occasion, and deliberately humiliated him on another.

Muhammad Ali was very cruel to some of his opponents, and there was sometimes a racial component, but we don't rejoice in Larry Holmes finally shutting him up for good.

I understand what you are saying, and why you feel that way, but is Jeffries perhaps getting singled out a bit?

 

So it is intrinsically satisfying if the victim hands out the beating, but we take no real pleasure in it if somebody else does it later.

I can identify with that, but part of the appeal of this, seems to be that it is the perfect morality tale.

Jeffries avoids a man that he might have been able to beat, for wicked reasons.

Jeffries comes out of retirement past his prime, to fight him, again for wicked reasons.

Jeffries gets his ass handed to him.

It is almost like one of Aesop's fables!

 

The funny thing is that when Johnson personally confronted Jeffries and asked for a shot Jim didn't say "Screw you n****r, I don't fight your kind". He told him "You wouldn't draw flies". Which was true when you consider where they stood at the time in terms of drawing power.

 

It's seems to me there is a sort of moral equivelancy being debated on the thread regarding the two champs. For me, I don't see it, the fact Johnson abused his wife and whether it directly resulted in her actions (it could not of helped) or not the fact the woman took her own life only exacerbates his horrible treatment of her.
Jeffries was egotistical and a bigot who got his comeuppance and rightfully so, however it's beyond the pale to shred his character to prop up Johnson. Anytime I read a story about a domestic abuse victim taking suicide as a way out it makes me cringe.
Perhaps I'm too harsh without knowing all the facts of the relationship but I think the fact Johnson was remarried in three months shows an awful lot of lack of character to defend him. The man was a creep. Jeffries was a jerk.