Prime Jim Jeffries vs prime Mike Tyson

He was more outstanding than Munroe .If Munroe and McVey had been matched in1903 /4, who would you have picked to win?
Jeffries took advantage of the colour bar to avoid his two top contenders in the last two years of his reign, that is my take on him.He wasn't alone Corbett ducked Jackson, but let's not pretend it wasn't the case.

 

Knowing what I know now, I would pick McVea.

Knowing what was known then, I would honestly see it as a pick em fight.

Munro claimed that he bested McVea in an exhibition incidentally.

Jeffries made it very clear that he would not fight a black contender, and he made it very clear why, as we have both pointed out.

He has made things very easy for us in that regard.

I doubt that he saw Martin or McVea as much of a threat to him.

He basically refused to fight them, in case he had a heart attack in the ring, and suffered the dishonor of losing the title to a black challenger.

It is possible that he saw Johnson for what he was, before most of the media did, and decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

He was a good man, who did some bad things, but he was still and exceptional champion.

 

Tyson by TKO.

 

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McVey was promoted heavily as a top challenger for Jeffries because he was near his size,the public recognized the size advantages Jeffries enjoyed,and wanted a challenger, who could match him physically. McVey would have given Jeffries as good a fight as Sharkey did imo ,which would have been a little too close for comfort for the Boilermaker. The only time Jeffries was in danger of a heart attack during his career, was the night of July 3rd 1910!

 

You have the benefit of knowing how these fighters entire careers played out, which people at the time obviously didn't.

Put a mouse mat over the portion of McVea's record that took place after the dates when these fights could potentially be scheduled.

Just pretend that everything after these dates never happened.

Does McVea or even Johnson look like such a standout challenger now?

No, I do't think that Jeffries was a protected fighter.

I think that he became champion in a comparatively weak era, when the division was dominated by older/smaller men, and that he retired at a time when it was not entirely clear who the stars of the future would be.

 

I know that McVea was an incredible young talent, and that there was significant interest in seeing him fight Jeffries, but I think that the man that Jeffries really needed to fight was Johnson.

With anybody else it would have been within his discretion as champion to refuse.

 

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