Can we technically analyze James Jeffries

He has his strengths though he’s certainly not without his flaws. His punching is usually crisp, short and accurate, very effective body puncher, quick to react and counter with that parry left hook when Ruhlin throws and is quick to duck, throw a left hook to the body then go up top with a left hook to the head in the sparring footage with his brother. If you slow down his sparring footage against Sharkey you’ll see that he throws a very good body jab as well, in the Sharkey fight he shows that he has a solid uppercut alongside it. He’s quick to slip, duck and parry punches in pretty much all the footage we have barring Johnson. He has appreciable handspeed as well as some solid footspeed though his feet are practically cement-like when he’s on the chase; when he’s moving around rather than chasing like in the sparring footage with his brother his feet are actually pretty quick.

That said, he also has no semblance on how to cut off a ring. He’s clunky, awkward and slow on the front foot. His low left works if he’s countering but not really if he’s the one being aggressive.

 

Top post!

 

Can see a lot of fundamentals being utilized...jab, feinting, footwork, power combinations, very little clinching. Far better than what I've seen from McVey, Wills, Ketchel, Papke, Battling Jim, in what limited video is available of them.

 

well said. I second everything here.

 

We have the same problem with Jeffries, as we have with Johnson and Dempsey.

The footage from earlier in his career shows his best work, but it is of very poor quality.

The footage from later in his career is of a much better quality, so we can actually figure out what is happening, but obviously it shows an older version of him.

In some cases footage from after a fighter retired becomes an important part of the puzzle, simply because you can see the nuances.

 

I cannot see anything from any of the footage other than. Johnson which is not a fair assessment ... the next best is the training and take the for what you will ..

 

Watching Jeffries in the only piece of proactive film of him fighting we have ,[against Ruhlin],we see him doggedly following Gus around,his left arm down by his waist ,no cutting off the ring ,wide open for right hands.
Ruhlin back pedals quicker than Jeffries advances.

We see a man ruggedly tough,a big man for his times,a heavy hitter with a great chin.

A man prepared to take punishment to land his own punches.

This is a man as tough as the proverbial ,"old boots", but it is not a man who was a clever boxer,adept at defence.
It's a man who when he retired from the ring after 24 fights,had scar tissue above both eyes, a cauliflower left ear,and a thrice broken nose.
Today Jeffries would be a small heavyweight,and his MO , absorbing punishment to come on late and overwhelm his opponents,would be a highly risky strategy against modern sized heavyweights.
So let's keep things in perspective.

 

What the film tells me is the same thing the papers do; Jeffries is a far better fighter when countering rather than leading and giving chase. I'm not sure if contemporaries highlighted Jeffries being particularly vulnerable to right hands but we do see him rolling with Ruhlin's right cross near the end of the footage. We can also see him deflect his brother's rights with his shoulder like child's play, so it seems like he could get away with that low left lead when he's not the one advancing at least until Fitzsimmons supposedly made his offense whole when training him.

He's also a fighter whose willing to fight outside of his comfort zone at his own expense, it was clear to most that Jeffries was pretty clever when he was giving ground yet at many points in his career he did the exact opposite. We will likely never be able to fully judge just how clever Jeffries was on the backfoot or defensively without footage of the fights where he was described as such. He does duck plenty in the sparring footage, and I've read a sportswriter say that he ducked so much against Fitzsimmons in the first fight to a point where the writer thought that Fitz's lack of uppercut usage was a primary player in what led to his downfall. I also recall Delaney saying that Tommy Ryan had a genuinely difficult time hitting Jeffries in sparring. The skill level of smaller men is far more established from the period so make that what you will.

 

The problem with the training footage, at least as I see it, is that Jeffries is displaying a nimble style that he didn’t necessarily uphold in his actual fights - at least not generally.

He’s also only sparring his brother Charles “Jack” Jeffries - not the best measuring stick.

A year later, Jack Johnson flattened that same “Jack” Jeffries in 5 rounds and called out big bro (working as his sibling’s cornerman) straight after the fight.

As opposed to “Jack”, I would’ve preferred vision of Jeff sparring Bob Armstrong - rather than poor Bob be made to play the stooge for the not so hilarious medicine ball joke.

It would’ve been good to see Armstrong haul off and belt Jeff after that “joke”.

I think Jeffries clearly lacked a measure of confidence when it came to real time fights. Of course we know he bet against himself for the first Fitzsimmon’s fight for just one proof.

Perhaps Jeffries could’ve practically applied some of the agility he displays on the training footage - but, come actual fight time, it seems that Jeff’s applied style was that much more limited and accepting of punishment.

I’ll cut Jeffries some slack vs Ruhlin, in so far as it appears that Jeffries isn’t at all concerned by Gus’ potential return offence -

We see Jeff simply moving forward with impunity, which possibly isn’t necessarily exactly indicative of how he might fight a more dangerous opponent -

For a more mod. day analogy - see Leonard vs Kalule - that fight viewed alone might suggest Leonard’s defence wasn’t all that - but Ray was clearly not concerned by what Kalule was throwing back - Ray had far better defence than that but chose to walk through Kalule instead - not good policy at any rate but that was the context for that fight.

As far as the written descriptions go, I don’t believe Jeffries was as defensively adept as some literature suggests - literature that actually contradicts itself when it also describes Jeff’s ability to take lots of punishment at the same time. As if Jeff was somehow El Radar and Randall Tex Cobb as the same time.

 

You've come up trumps again Pug!

 

It's tough using one fight or very limited as any kind of tool to discover something. One fight of kid Norfolk who says he used any of that style vs other people. Leaping in the air against a super tall opponent. Most opponent's might not tower over him.

Jeffries certainly had no fear of Gus Ruhlin so he carried his hands low because he wanted Gus to throw so he could counter him, it's obvious he was "inviting" a punch to be thrown. Did he do that with everyone? Probably not. So he may have looked much different. Fighting against a guy you don't fear vs the opposite (you do) will look much different. Jeffries looks nothing like himself with the Johnson footage he looks as rusty as the titanic. Nothing of value should be taken, it's like Ali only surviving film is against Holmes, it's useless to judge anything from it.

I do believe Jeffries did invite in many opponent's so he could counter them & set them up with traps. The training footage his feet look very quick so i think he could adjust himself quickly to land a counter which is impossible to tell with such bad film.

Too me he could resemble Max Schmeling some in the way Max would simply paw with his straight lead left & never throw a crisp jab because he wanted you to react to it & then counter which I can see Jeffries doing. So I don't think Jeffries style is so faded that it didn't fit into a future decade.

 

@IntentionalButt Can you help me to do that one thing but from the other angle? Like, I want to do the joke but I can't figure out how to invert it. Help.

 

Jeffries carried his left in the same position against Sharkey,in their second fight.