One reason why I rate Jim Jeffries verry highly among the great heavyweights.

I have often been asked why I rate Jim Jeffries so highly given his level of opposition. To help people understand one aspect of my reasoning, I am going to outline Jeffries pre title opposition, the timeline, and what the fights meant at the time. As with my reconstruction of the style of John L Sullivan, I am in significant part condensing the work of Adam Pollack down to manageable bites:

Hank Griffin (pro debut aged 19) KO14
Jeffries appears to have had some sort of amateur career although details are lacking. His first recorded professional fight was a fifteen rounder against Hank Griffin. The exact date is unknown but Jeffries appears to have been 19 when the fight took place. Incredibly, it appears that this was in fact his professional debut. Although fight records of the period are incomplete, several contemporary sources specify that this was Jeffries debut. Griffin was not at this stage the force that he would eventually become but he was a major player at regional level who had beaten some name fighters. He was lighter than Jeffries but had a significant reach advantage. The fact that Jeffries was taking on a fighter of this calibre in a fifteen round fight in his professional outing is nothing short of remarkable. Griffin dominated Jeffries and was handily out pointing him until Jeffries caught up with him and stopped him in the 14th. After this fight Jeffries parents made him promise not to fight professionally again until he was 21 and he was consequently inactive for the next two years.

Dan Long (the effective start of Jeffries professional career 02/07 1896) KO2
The effective start of Jeffries professional career seems to be a fight with Dan Long at the age of 21. There are however a couple of newspaper accounts that suggest that he fought and defeated Frank Childs before this date. After this fight Jeffries came down with a severe bout of pneumonia and was not expected to live. He made a full recovery but was inactive for a significant period as a result. None the less, I will take this as Jeffries effective professional debut and gauge the length of his career from this point.

Between this fight and his next professional outing Jeffries worked as a sparring partner for Jim Corbett. The fact that he was sparring with the current heavyweight champion in his first year as a professional is nothing short of remarkable.

Theodore Van Buskirk (9 months in) KO2
Van Buskirk was a solid gatekeeper who had beaten Joe Kennedy and would beat Joe Goddard in his next recorded fight. He was the kind of opponent a modern fighter would take on when they were stepping up to world level, which made him a very tough match at this stage of Jeffries career. He was also about the same size as Jeffries.

Henry Baker (10 months in) TKO9
Baker was a small heavyweight but he was also a seasoned pro who had been in with a lot of the best middleweights and heavyweights. He had a win over Joe Butler who won the coloured heavyweight and middleweight titles. Again this was a tough match at this stage of Jeffries career.

Gus Ruhlin (1 year in) D20
You all know who Gus Ruhlin was. Like Jeffries he was green at this point but he was 25 years old and had fought Peter Maher to a draw. Maher was a former title claimant, and at the absolute elite level at this point. I would have to regard Ruhlin as being significantly more developed than Jeffries when this fight took place. He was also a big man with a solid punch weighing 200 lbs. Jeffries appears to have had hand problems going into this fight and that is supported by a few sources. The fight ended in a draw but Jeffries scored a number of knockdowns and had Ruhlin in trouble on the ropes at the end. I think that Jeffries would probably have got the nod in an era where a knockout was not so important.

Joe Choynski (14 months in) D20
This was an absolutely merciless piece of matchmaking. Choynski was one of the most dangerous men on the planet at this point, and an absolutely devastating finisher. While Jeffries was about the same period of time into his professional career as Joe Louis was when he fought Max Baer he had a fraction of the ring experience. The same Joe Choynski mad quick work of a more experienced Jack Johnson. Choynski went into the fight as the betting favourite for obvious reasons.

People often make light of this fight because of Choynski’s weight but the reality is that he would have been as dangerous opponent as you could have put in front of the champion at this point. At 170 lbs he was not much lighter than the version of Marty Marshal that beat Sonny Liston or the version of Doug Jones that took Muhamad Ali to the brink of disaster. He was also heavier than the Billy Conn that fought Joe Louis. Above all he was a far more dangerous puncher than any of them.

The fight ended in a draw with Jeffries forcing the fight but Choynski landing the cleaner punches. Jeffries fought a lot more cautiously than usual. I personably suspect that this is the one fight on Jeffries record before he met Jack Johnson where the decision should arguably have been awarded against him.

Joe Goddard (17 months in) TKO4
Goddard had been an elite level heavyweight who held Peter Jackson to a draw when Peter Jackson was probably the best fighter on the planet. It is true that he was significantly past his best when Jeffries fought him but two points should be noted. He did go on to beat Peter Maher, and Jeffries absolutely demolished him This is a good win for a man of Jeffries experience at this time.

Peter Jackson (18 months in) TKO3
Peter Jackson was a living legend , who at his best was probably the No1 heavyweight on the planet for a few years. When Jeffries fought him he had been inactive and was badly dissipated by alcohol. Two points should be noted however. Jim Corbett had taken a lot longer to dispose of an equally dissipated John L Sullivan, and even people who knew about Jackson’s drink problems expected him to give the inexperienced Jeffries a long fight due to his defensive wizardry. Empty shells have done better against more experienced champions.

Perhaps people who question Jeffries power are too quick to overlook the way he disposed of Goddard and Jackson.

Mexican Pete Everett (19 months in) TKO3
Everett was a noted contender who had never been stopped. He had an advantage over Jeffries in terms of height and reach and was thought to be good on both offence and defence. Jeffries was expected to beat him but it was expected that Everett would make the bout competitive.

Tom Sharkey (19 months in) W20
Tom Sharkey had been discussed as a potential opponent for Jeffries since the Dan Long fight, due the potentially explosive clash of styles. At this stage Sharkey was one of the most dangerous fighters on the planet. He had 30+ professional fights and had bested Choynski and Goddard. He had also fought a four round draw with Jim Corbett in which he had decisively bested the former champion. Jeffries was installed as a slight favourite with odds of 10 to 9 but many observers tipped Sharkey to win.

Jeffries controlled the fight forcing the normally aggressive Sharkey to fight defensively and was awarded the decision.

Bob Armstrong (22 months in) W10
The plan here was that he would fight Bob Armstrong over ten rounds, and then fight Steve O’Donnel over ten rounds with half an hours rest between the bouts. Obviously a highly ambitious undertaking. Jeffries broke his thumb in the first round of the fight with Armstrong. He asked the fight doctor to inject cocaine into his thumb so that he could go ahead with the fight with O’Donnel but the fight doctor refused to let him continue.

Bob Armstrong is a guy who was described a second ratter by many scribes of the period. Some disagreed however. The San Francisco examiner identified him as a possible successor to Bob Fitzsimmons title. Armstrong was certainly a dangerous challenger with a height and reach advantage over Jeffries and he was a renowned puncher. It is worth noting that Armstrong, like Sharkey was an offensive fighter who Jeffries forced to fight defensively.

A shot at the championship
Jeffries went into his title fight with Bob Fitzsimmons half way through his third year as a professional fighter with only a dozen or so professional fights under his belt. At this stage Fitzsimmons had destroyed every heavyweight contender that he had faced and was thought by some to be almost unbeatable. He was naturally installed as the favourite to win despite Jeffries weight advantage. Jeffries found himself in possession of the title as an inexperienced fighter who was still on a learning curve.

Conclusions
Jeffries had 11 known professional fights going into his title fight with Fitzsimmons and all of his opponents had been either contenders or gatekeeper types. It is my contention that he was matched harder in his first two years than any other heavyweight champion. Joe Louis attained the title in a shorter period and fought challengers of a similar quality but had a lot more ring experience going into this title fight.

All but four of these fights had been won by knockout and five of them had been won inside the first four rounds. Given the level of the competition and Jeffries inexperience this is nothing short of remarkable

The average weight of Jeffries pre title opponents was 189 lbs. This is probably not a million miles from the average size of the pre title opponents of Sonny Liston for example. Jeffries also fought a significant number of punchers in his early fights.

I have to seriously question whether any other heavyweight in history could have fought the same pre title opposition as Jeffries under the same conditions without picking up a loss.

 

Judging a fighters weight in this period is verry difficult because there were no official weigh ins and they basicaly reported their own weights. Their claims were often inacurate and self serving, and were only challenged if the fighter had to weigh in under a given weight.

The SanFrancisco Chronicle gave Choynski's weight as 171lbs going into the Jeffries fight, though he had been cited as 167lbs by some papers earlier. In the case of the Walcott fight it is likley that he understated his weight because he was facing a much smaller man.

 

Perhaps if you include sessions where he took on all comers as champion.

Over the period discussed in this threas I can see evidence for two unrecorded fights and probably not a lot more.

 

On the first point, yes Choynski probably did give up the best part of 40-50 lbs.

Lets not forgett though that Choynski was a seasoned veteran who had a track record of butchering oponents the size of Jeffries. He was bigger than the Billy Conn who fought Joe Louis and probably hit harder.

Not a nice matchup at this stage of your career.

In terms of Choynski Walcott the reported weight difference is probably understated. Choynski was probably a few pounds bigger and Walcott was probably a few pounds smaller.