If the 1941 version of Billy Conn challenged James J Jeffries? 20 rounds, can the Boilermaker beat the lightheavy over this distance?
But surely we can build a picture of what info we do have. We know his style of fighting, his build, how he did against most of his title challenges. We know that both Fitz and Corbett took him on and had moments of success. In fact didn't Fitz have him bruised and battered in the rematch before he managed to get him?
Imagine the only footage we had of Mike Tyson was his entire fight against McBride and scraps from the Lewis fight. People would be calling him a bum. Just saying.
The problem is that Jeffries style is confusing, based on verbal descriptions! We don't have any footage of Sullivan, but when you read enough descriptions of his style, it is fairly obvious what he did, and who since his time he was like. Jeffries style doesn't fall into such an obvious category, and changed more over time! What little film we have, doesn't really settle the question!
But we'd know that Larry was heavyweight champ for years and who also came close to winning the a belt at the age of 120! So by that we'd assume, mmmmmm Tyson guy wasn't all bad. And then we'd read how he once took a chunk out of another unseen heavyweight s ear...
I would pick Jeffries, based on the fact that he dominated an era, and Conn might just have had the style to bother Louis!
20 rounds is a long time to go with a man who's 3x stronger than you, has an unyielding gas tank and outsped and out boxed James J Corbett Jeffries stoppage
