Best five wins thread. Lineal / Ring Magazine heavyweight champions.

Jefferies

1. Corbett 1
2. Fitzimmons
3. Sharkey 2
4, Ruhlin
5. Jackson

Corbett 1 due to the fact that Jefferies had to come back after being outfoxed for so many rounds.

Fitzimmons is a close second

#5 was hard, I picked Jackson due to his great reputation even though he was past his prime.

 

1. Fitzsimmons 1 (an inexperienced fighter dominating a much more experienced champion)
2. Fitzsimmons 2 (say what you like, Fitzsimmons would have beaten any other heavyweight in the world that day)
3. Sharkey 2 (beating one of the best fighters in the world with an arm injury)
4. Corbett 1 (a come from behind win)
5. Ruhlin 2 (a dominant win over the second best contender in the world)

 

Perhaps you should include both Fitzsimmons fights?

 

that's a good point, I didn't think about that. I assumed we were picking one win per fighter.

 

Forgt Jackson, he's close to Jeff's worst win, the two Fitz, Corbett 1, Ruhlin 2, Sharkey 2

 

If it is close to his worst win, then that tells you a lot about Jeffries.

I can't think of any other great heavyweight, where it would be close to their worst win!

 

I think that his wins over Griffin and Armstrong could be mentioned as well here. If you want to pick a win over past great, I'd pick Goddard over Jackson as Goddard was closer to his prime than Peter.

 

Sharkey 1 and Armstrong are good wins, never felt fully comfortable with the Griffin fight. Jackson hadn't really had a fight for 6 years and was a dissipated alcoholic.

 

Obviously there were no rankings in Jeffries era, but we can still speculate.

Bob Fitzsimmons was the champion the first time they fought, so that is straightforward enough.

I think it is likely that Tom Sharkey would have been the #1 contender for their second fight, given his recent run of form.

Sharkey is probably Jeffries best pre title win, given that he scored some impressive wins after that fight.

Bob Fitzsimmons would almost certainly have been the #1 contender going into their second fight, following his back to back wins over Ruhlin and Sharkey.

I think that Gus Ruhlin would probably have been the #1 contender when he lost to Fitzsimmons, but that given his recent run of form, he would probably only have slipped down to #2 or #3 going into the second Jeffries fight.

Corbett might not have been ranked at all when he fought Jeffries the first time, owing to his recent inactivity, but his performance in that fight surely proves that he was still one of the five best heavyweights in the world.

The McCoy fight would probably have gained Corbett a high ranking, but he would have slipped down the rungs in the run up to the Jeffries rematch, as other fighters gained significant wins.

Jack Munro probably would have gained some sort of ranking, owing to his careful management, and recent run of form.

 

What about Mexican Pete Everet?

That looks pretty solid for a pre title win!