Jack Johnson was stronger than Jim Jeffries

I´m not so sure about that. I think Jeff´s lifestyle during his retirement took alot out of him - I don´t believe he gained 100 pounds though.

And you have to consider, that there is a difference between training full 5 years, looking after your body, grooming it to top class machine and living the high life for 4 years and trying one year to lose weight and get into shape. I think the Jeff of 1905 was superior to the Jeff in 1910 in everything, including strength. I´m not saying he would be stronger than Johnson. Johnson was a very strong m*th*rf*ck*r, one of the strongest hws ever. But so was Jeffries.

 

Have you actually seen 20+ minutes of the fight? I have several full rounds. In the early rounds, when Jeffries had stamina, he was pushing Johnson backwards. When Jeffreis ran out of stamina, the reverse happened. Its easy to push a dead tired guy around. Those of the time consider Jeffries, not Johnson the strongest man to ever hold the title.

 

He had to loose over 100 pounds for the fight. When you get to be his age, loosing that kind of weight is terrible for your muscles and **** for your heart. It is also incidentally why Solis is never going to amound to anything- even if he looses the extra 50-60 pounds, is will be **** for his body at 30 years old.

There is no way to really know prime for prime who was physcially stonger. Johnson was a Giant for his age, but Jeffries was legendary for his boilermaker strenght. But judging Jeffries by thier fight is like judgeing Ali by the Hlomes fight.

 

Why do people keep repeating this myth when it gets pointed out time and again we have pictures of Jeffries in the interim and he was clearly nowhere near 100lbs over his fighting weight

 

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he looked pretty fat in 1909...not sure how much he weighted, but i guess it's a save bet to say that he was around 290ish

 

that would mean he outweighed his average opponents by 130lbs.

 

Nothing new there then.

 

:good

 

In my opinion jefries had bigger structure of bones(he was more brute by genetics), and jonhson was more muscular and better athlete. So i can´t say who was "stronger" because it was close. But jonhson had better pack

 

Highly scientific.

I like how the fact Jeffries was a renowned athlete in his time, with excellent marks in both sprints and jumping and prodigious strength, has no bearing on your conclusions. But that simply Johnson was the better athlete because...? Are we stereotyping a bit here?

 

I don't see how the answer can be determined, but ,on a side note, who did Jeffries ever bully and overpower in a ring?
Jeffries fought many men considerably lighter than himself ,yet there are no reports of him physically muscling them around.

 

I believe you have misinterpreted this.
It was Johnson's style to fight going backwards,when did he not?
After the first round , when Jeffries possessed all his stamina,Johnson said he knew Jeffries could not beat him for strength.
Johnson tied Jeffries up whenever he wanted to, Jeffries is never shown breaking out of a clinch, . In the footage that exists of the fight ,and I have seen all that there is.Jeffries is manhandled inside.
In the 8th round Johnson clasped Jeffries in his arms and walked him backwards , over to were Jim Corbett sat , saying to Corbett ,"where do you want me to put him ? "
Whether Jeffries may have been stronger than Johnson whilst in his prime, I do not know ,but he evidently was not his equal in strength on the 4th of July 1910.
Jeffries had 19lbs on Johnson ,and was only 2 years older, yet he was handled like a child.

 

Jim Carney, author of Jeffries bio. 'Ultimate Tough Guy' says that, in film of the early rounds, Jeffries and Johnson's upper body strength seems about even; Jeffries seemed to have more lower body strength and was moving Johnson.

 

His boxing skills and his reflexes might well have eroded, and he might have lost his fighting spark,

Isn't it reasonable then that his fighting strength might have eroded too? And doesn't having that "fighting spark" add to one's strength factor? It is well-documented that Jeffries was pretty much a depressed, lethargic hulk at this time who wasn't muscling ANYONE around in training camp or showing much strength. So why would he in a fight vs. the heavyweight champ of the world?

he'd been training for a year.

Yes, but he'd been dissipating for much longer.

I won't say who was stronger. I have my beliefs. But I have said before that even if prime Johnson were stronger than prime Jeffries I highly doubt that it would be to the extent that he could easily pin his arms behind his back and have a happy chat with Corbett or the ringsiders. To say otherwise is to severely underrate the type of fighter Jim Jeffries was in his prime.

Just something to think about

(sorry, but my multi-quote feature isn't working).