Greatest Heavyweight Of All Time At Their Peak

That is my impression, yes.

I can only repeat myself; I don't think either one was more qualified than the men Jeffries fought, with the exception of Monroe.

 

Actually, Monroe was possibly more qualified than McVey. His victims were old though.

 

Surely not!

 

Best, and most qualified are not the same thing. Maybe McVey would have beaten the crap out of an old Fitzsimmons. But it's not the champion's job to ferrit out the best and match them, it's the contender's job to beat a path to the champion's door.

What did McVey do to earn himself a title shot between between 1899 and 1904? Nothing. Presenting him as a contender for Jack's title is a bit of a joke in all honesty.


Johnson has a better case, but basically his best scalp before Jeffries retirement was McVey. McVey was a physical talent and a good fighter, but he was a relative novice. These wins made no ripples at all. He made further progress after Munroe, but was eliminated by Hart in '05. Jeffries seemed to become properly retired sometime around this point - reason being, there was nobody who was seen as having any kind of chance against him, including Johnson.



You've gone out of your way to undermine Jeffries challengers as old, but they were great and old. There is also a school of thought which says that Fitzsimmons best performance at HW was his second fight with Jeffries. Either way, he was most certainly entitled to his rematch.


Corbett was well passed his best, but also a great ex-champion. I would guess that he was better than McVey at this time, though it's definitely hard to be sure.

Jeffries fought Corbett only twice, I don't know why you think they fought three times.

 

Well whoever said it was?! You're determined to undermine the newspapers of the time, the champion and his competition. I have no idea why. This discussion is about the perception of the fighter at the time, and what people thought of Dempsey has nothing to do with this. It seems you have some new objection with every new post.

Also, I disagree. Johnson was never, ever as lauded as Jeffries was - there may be reasons for this but it is fact. Nor was Dempsey. Viewpoints on him were far from as unanimous as they were for Jeffries. The guys who were seen as near-universally superior to their competition IMO -

Sullivan
Jeffries
Louis
Ali (Though it took ages)
Holmes (by the end)

And nobody since him.

 

As you wish, but what you will end up with is a list of fighters you personally think was best (inspite of your having not researched the era), as opposed to a list of men who were actually qualified to fight for the title. That being the case, you'll never be able to understand what actually happened.

Fighters aren't "the best available" because of their colour. White men do not fight for the coloured title. It is your assertion that is ludicrous.

Jeffries resume lacks big, young men. I pick Fitzsimmons to beat ever fighter Demspey beat as champ - and he fought young men and big men. I'm not interested in size and weight so much as good, but again, as you will.