There was certainly a lot of legal trouble. Mitchell and Sullivan both had to flee the country after fighting in France, and there are tons of reports of police interfering with fights, not always stopping them entirely.
From what I've read, Sullivan was a very skilled, aggressive straight puncher. I think this would massively hinder Jefferies.
I think certain fighters have a viciousness, I think Sullivan had it, but not Jeffries, with the exception of the Munroe fight. Sullivan is hard to rate, but I think there's a good chance he was more skilled than Jeffries. Different types of fighter though, I think if I had to I'd pick Jeffries to survive an early onslaught and win the later rounds.
Fair analysis. Jefferies was a tank, after all. Jefferies doesn't have much of a size advantage though, like over fitzsimmons.
True, but Fitz's power was freakish, and I think he was more skilled than Sullivan, and he couldn't make a dent in Jeffries. And he would still have 10 or 20Ibs over Sully, and atleast an inch and a bit in height.
The gap between Sullivan and his contemporaries seems bigger than between Jeffries and his. Both in practice and the accounts of the time. Doesn't mean Sullivan wins, but I believe he was viewed as better than his peers, more so than Jeffries was (who was also viewed as being better than his peers)
Five feet eight, 185lbs Tom Sharkey gave Jeffries hell in 2 fights going a total of 45rds with him I think Sullivan was appreciably better than Sharkey ,for both power and durability.
Fair point. Sharkey is hard to evaluate though, he seems almost a totally different fighter in various fights. He still doesn't seem to have really hurt Jeffries, but landed enough to fight him close. Sharkey fought on the defensive in the first fight, Jeffries inexperience seems pretty apparent. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC1898...-20--1--txt-txIN-jeffries+sharkey----1898---1 https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDU1898...-20--1--txt-txIN-jeffries+sharkey----1898---1 Despite being known as a pure offence brawler, this really seems to have been something Sharkey switched to in later fights, being much more cautious in earlier fights. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1899-11-04/ed-1/seq-1/ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...arkey&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 They both seem to have improved considerably by the second fight, with the time Sharkey being the aggressor. Jeffries seems to have been able to hurt him, but according to The Sun, only his efforts in the later rounds won him the fight.
Jeffries never went 45 rds, in fact he never went past 25rds. He went 25 with 183lbs Sharkey. 20rds with an 185lbs Sharkey 20 rds with an 199.5lbs Ruhlin 20rds with an 167lbs Choynski 23 rds with an 188lbs Corbett
I know Sullivan actually fought more than half his fights with gloves, but "bare knuckle era" just seemed like the most convenient umbrella term to use for the time before boxing became more legal, organized, regulated and documented.
I personally would not say Fitz was inferior to John L .. he was a far superior fighter under M of Q rules .. I just think that size wise he may have been an inferior match up for Jeffries .
I worded that confusingly,Fitz was giving Jeffries 12 years and coming out of 2 years of inactivity I was referring to Sharkey.I think Fitz was the best heavyweight before Johnson.
