Jeffries cleans out the division as champion

Using Matt's excellent yearly rankings, how did Jeffries do as champion? Did he fight the best out there regarding opponents that were highly rated, or did he avoid them in favor of easier marks?

Green = Defeated in a title match
Yellow = Draw.
Red = Loss.

1899
Champion Jeffries

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4. Maher
5. McCoy
6. Corbett
7. Kennedy
8. Ruhlin
9. Childs
10. Martin

1900
Champion Jeffries
2 Fitzsimmons

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4 McCoy
5 Ruhlin
6 Sharkey
7 Childs
8 Maher
9 Kennedy
10 Martin


1901
Champion Jeffries

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3 McCoy
4 Childs
5 Sharkey
6 Root
7 Martin
8 Maher

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10 Gardner


1902
Champion Jeffries

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3 Ruhlin
4 Martin
5 Johnson
6 Gardner
7 O’Brien
8 Root
9 Hart
10 Carter


1903
Champion Jeffries
2 Fitzsimmons
3 Johnson
4 Ruhlin
5 Gardner
6 Root
7 Hart
8 O'Brien
9 Armstrong
10 McVey


1904
Champion Jeffries
2 Johnson
3 Hart
4 Root
5 O’Brien
6 Gardner
7 Ruhlin
8 Ferguson
9 Martin
10 McVey

I'd argue Munroe, who 10-1-1. with wins over Sharkey, Maher and a draw with Griffin should be rated in 1904, but okay. 1904 was Jeffries last year of activity until he came back in 1910.

From 1899-1900. Jeffries fought and beat the #1 guy, Fitzsimmons, Sharkey, and Corbett in slightly less than one years time. Such a feat, I think has never been duplicated in Heavyweight boxing. Simply amazing.

Historians alive from 1890-1960, generally view Corbett and Fitzsimmons as All-time top ten greats, and Sharkey was good enough to make the hall of fame.

Cap it off with beating Ruhlin, and you could argue Jeffries faced four #1 ranked guys in a row, make that 5 #1 rated opponents in a row with the Fitzsimmons rematch in 1902.

 

I think Fitz was #1 in 1902 after losing to Jeffries, he came back strong icing Ruhlin and Sharkey. Nothing wrong here.

Corbett deserved a re-match based on the first fight and got one. Having already beaten three guys on the list on the 1903 rankings, ( Fitz, Corbett, Armstrong ), why not? Most champions have an unranked title opponent or two, but as long as they faced the best before, which Jeffries did, I'm okay with it.

Munroe I think should be top 10 in 1904, Matt doesn't see it that way.

Jeffries said he'd fight Hart after he bet Johnson in in 1905 if the public wanted it ( Live gate ) but the demand was low, with most people thinking I'm not going to pay a lot of money for a blow out. Too bad there wasn't enough demand, or it would have been another #1 ranked defeated as champion.

 

The consensus is the behavior of his predecessors, and the times made mixed race title matches dicey in the early 1900's. The only one to do it was Tommy Ryan in 1899, defending his middle weight title. There might be another example...not sure.

However, Jeffries did beat Hank Griffin, Peter Jackson, and Bob Armstrong, three known top African American fighters of the time before he became champion, and did face Hank Griffin as lineal champion in 1901, flooring him a few times. So technically he did cross the line as champion in 1901. If by some fluke Hank Griffin, who had beaten Jack Johnson in 1901, defeated Jeffries by knock out, Griffin is the new champion.

There are reported KO wins for Jeffries over Martin and Childs. Never saw a fight report on either. If they happened, I wonder when.

What boxers say and do when there is enough money can quickly change. As for 1904, Jeffries vs. Johnson, are you kidding me? Johnson could not deal with Hart, losing in 1905 so how would he last vs. Jeffries in 1904? Had Johnson KO'd Hart in 1905 ( stay with me on this hypothetical ), and there was a Reno like purse for Jeffries ( $100,000.00 ),who knows if he takes the match or not.

No one felt Hart would beat Jeffries. I guess if Hart happened to be black, Jeffries would not get the same pass, but if there was enough money Jeffries said he'd meet Hart.

As for Johnson he was Ko'd by Choysnki in 1901. Something tells me the Fitzsimmons Jeffries fought would have also beaten Johnson from 1900-1903.

Corbett in 1900, might have out boxed Johnson as well, and Sharkey who I view as better than Choynski also would have likely beaten Johnson in the late 1890's to 1900.

The consensus here is Jack Johnson became better around 1906-1908, but that time the old guard was gone, replaced by the likes of O'Brien, Hart, and Burns. Johnson in three matches vs these guys is 1-1-1 if you count the news draw with O'Brien, and no historian I ever saw says the above three men ( O'Brien, Hart, and Burns ) were in the same class of Fitz, Corbett or Sharkey.

 

The draw appears be iffy as it was meet with hisses and boo's. Ruhlin was down in round four. Jeffries was the better in the second half, and had Ruhlin down and out in the final round, but Ruhlin was saved by the bell!

[url]https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18970717.2.69[/url]

 

Wait a second, are you saying Jeffries didn't clean out the division? He most certainly did from 1899-1901. I think the entire board agrees on that. I'm not sure if anyone cleaned out their top 3 contenders as fast in the history of the division.

Fitzsimmons was not easy to negotiated with, but he got his re-match. After beating Fitz in 1899, Corbett was in line next. Then Jeffries fought Ruhlin in 1901 ( Rated #1 by Matt ) and then Fitz in 1902.

Asking any champion to fight their #1 and #2 in the same year, seems a bit much to ask, yet your asking for it and we saw it from 1899-1900!

Johnson was bypassed? Maybe in 1904, but as soon as he lost to Hart in 1905, he went down in ranking. the interesting thing to note is Jeffries after blowing out Munroe, and losing money in the process considered Johnson as a possible title opponent in the press.