Order,order, that emaciated Cornishman you refer to ,is a national treasure to us boxing Brits.atsch:nono
We believe Jeffries to have a monster chin ,but, if we are honest it was never proved against super heavyweights.I am as you, I think Jeffries could absorb those shots from men 240/250 lbs, and muscle, not belly, but we cannot be certain . Plus he was in a terrible state against old Fitz, in their second go . Hype Igoe , who was there , stated, he never saw a fighter take such a beating ,and he included Willard at Toledo. today that would have been stopped , well unless the referee was Ian John -Lewis.
A freak of nature. A great and overachieving middleweight. Not applicable to modern day heavies, though.
hmm, and yet floyd patterson, jimmy ellis, chris bryd, james toney did pretty well in the modern era starting out as middleweights.
Fitz was no cutie along the lines of Toney, Ellis or Byrd. He was a counter one punch guy who liked to set traps. I just don't see that style working today against the larger heavies. And face it, the list above is not one of immensely successful heavies.
Speculations like these don't mean much to me. He could have just as easily decided that he was too small to compete with today's larger men, and gone the other way by losing 15 lbs to fight at cruiserweight.
Jeffries record may not be the level of quality of Jack Johnson's but it was enough to show he was good. He stopped Goddard. Sharkey said Goddard was the hardest puncher he ever fought. And Goddard put down Jackson when he was at the top. Jeff put away Ruhlin with a hook to the body. Choynski stopped Johnson and he hit Jeff flush and didn't muss his hair. The guy had a chin. I like his chances here. I think Klitschko's mechanical moving would be a big disadvantage. Against the older brother I think he'd have a tough time: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROUiZnnFfAw[/ame] youtube.com/eslubin
Is this where we insert the obligatory phrase regarding any of the heavyweight midgets or the 1890's or 1900's? Here, I'll do it for you: "He KO'd Ed Dunkhorst who was 260 pounds!" Yeah, I'm not so sure I couldn't have KO'd Dunkhorst. He was utter ****. I'm talking of quality modern-sized heavies.
Well, he seemed to enjoy a fighting style which involved holding and grabbing smaller men, so frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if he opted to competing in Mixed martial arts or even pro wrestling ( though he'd be too small for pro wrestling. ) I can't see him beating Wladimir Klitschko. He was too small and too unacustomed to facing bigger men with better skills... This would be a mismatch, regardless of what rules they fought under..