Could Jim Jeffries Plausibly Have Beaten Every Champ Prior To Louis?

My opinions

Jeffries had many quality wins--True

What about the size of opponents--Jeff was bigger than they were, but for the most part not all that important, except for two of his top opponents, Fitz and Choynski, being under 170, which raises questions about the quality of the bigger men of the era.

Corbett and Jackson were not his best wins--Jackson was gone, but Corbett is often listed among his biggest wins.

Sharkey and Ruhlin--both lost worse to Fitz.

Jeffries beat one of the best black fighters in the world as a child--No one claims this fight took place before 1893 when Jeff was 18 and probably already over 200 lbs. Hardly a child. We just had the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and there were guys taking part who were 18. But we don't actually know when this fight took place, so Jeff might instead have been somewhere in his early twenties. As for Griffin being one of the best black fighters, it would be more accurate to say he later became one of the best black fighters. He seemed to be a touring tough man at this point. After all, he was fighting a young man making his debut.

He had a lot more fights we don't know about--possibly, but this also means he wasn't that inexperienced when he struggled with Ruhlin and Choynski.

He beat Ed Martin and Frank Childs--Adam Pollack mentions an 1896 San Francisco newspaper article which alludes to a fight with Childs. So this one might have happened, but I think Childs was probably in the 150's in weight, so what really would it prove? As for Martin, some source would be nice. You are the first one I know of to claim Jeff fought Denver Ed Martin. As Martin was born in 1881, this fight would have had to have happened when Jeff was champion, but still we have no record? And if the two did get in the ring together, would it have been anything but an exhibition sparring match?

His resume is not that far from Marciano's--I agree, but he is slightly behind in quality and depth, and also in success. The argument that he started young and inexperienced could be rebutted by pointing out that Marciano didn't really start seriously fighting until he was 24, really old to become a top fighter.

Fighters with long layoffs trained hard to fight him--but layoffs are still a problem. Marciano's opponents were active and generally successful coming into his fights.

I would rate Jeff's record inferior to that of Joe Louis in all regards, and also to Jack Johnson due to depth of opposition and longevity, and to Marciano in quality and success. Still, his record is strong and I think he rates in the top 15 heavyweights if we are considering how good he was in his own time.

 

Fitz KOed Sharkey, but he improved a ton between the first Fitz fight and the second Jeffries fight, and I think the second Jeffries fight took a lot out of Sharkey, and perhaps so did the Ruhlin fight after, pkus Sharkey did drop Fitz in both fights.

 

Hello Mcvey,

Fitz was not an easy guy to negotiate with. He got his re-match. It’s not like the 1st match was close. Jeffries had other opponents in mind for title defenses most of whom were very qualified and a bogus Draw vs Ruhlin to address first.

 

I don't think Rainer is McVey.

 

Jefferies would have a very hard time with Sullivan, who came before him.

 

Perhaps Jeffries is ranked lower because he only fought 22 times and because he let a 5-8 wharf brawler like Sharkey stay around for 45 rounds and because he was taken to deep waters by a semi-retired 34 year old 180 pounder...

Jeffries was an athletic outlier for his time, and for that we can give him credit... but he would get housed a mere decade later.

 

McVey isn't even banned. Why would Rain be him