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

Lots of fascinating details. Excellent!

 

Great read, in depth and very informative.

Unfortuantely if Jefferies were active today and this were posed on the greater Boxing Forum of ESB he would be called a bum, over rated, question his fitness, calls for his retirement or would he beat Pacquiao if they fought at a catchweight.

What a difference two sides to the forum makes.

 

Generally, Pollack writes in detail up to, but not including, the preparation for the fight in which the champions looses the title.

So, for example, 'In the Ring ... Corbett' is written in detail up to the preparation for his fight with Fitzsimmons; 'In the Ring ... Fitzsimmons' has the detailed coverage of both Corbett's and Fitzsimmon's training, and their fight.

(Also, Pollack's books cover the continued careers of fighters featured in the previous books, so that, eg, 'In the Ring ... Jeffries' has considerable coverage of fights such as Corbett-McCoy, Fitzsimmons-Ruhlin, and even mentions some exhibitions by Sullivan).

In Jeffries case, Pollack writes in detail about Jeffries up till the point Jim announces his retirement.

Pollack's books are concieved as a series and, if he is able to continue to the point of writing an 'In the Ring with Jack Johnson', we'll find out plenty about Jeffries comeback.

 

That makes sense .Pollack has had only good reviews I beleive. :good

 

I believe Jeffries was the best of all-time-I have caught some **** here for this statement but still believe his record and H2H's clearly make him #1. His only loss was coming off nearly a 7 year break against one of the best fighters ever, Jack Johnson(Johnson was in his prime and Jefferies clearly was not).

* Jeffries won the Heavyweight Championship in only his thirteenth fight
* He scored the quickest knockout in Heavyweight Championship history - 55 seconds
* He was never defeated during his prime
* He was never knocked down during his prime
* He offered to fight his top challengers - Bob Fitzsimmons, Jim Corbett, and Tom Sharkey - all on the same night. They refused.

Jeffries could run 100 yards in a little more than ten seconds. He could high jump over six feet. Blessed with abnormal physical strength, he was considered a natural phenomenon.

Many boxing people rated him as the best heavyweight ever - Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson (Johnson called Jeffries the best ever after the 15 round fight was over., Jim Corbett, Tommy Burns, Tom Sharkey, Jack Root, Willie Ritchie, Patsy Haley, Dan Morgan, Joe Woodman, DeWitt Van Court and Hugh Fullerton - to name a few.

Most of this info is from http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/cyber.htm

Jeffries incredible exhibition/amateur record can be found the as well.

 

And a lot of it is bull****.
At the 1900 OLYMPICS the gold medal for the 100yds went to a time of 11seconds.
The fastest ko 55 seconds ? Yes and the victims record was 1-2-2, what the **** was he doing fighting for the world title?
Jeffries signed to fight two men in one day after the first fight he could not continue because of damaged hands and it was called off .Offering to fight 3 men in one night is publicity.Jeffries had his work cut out to beat two ex retired champions in their late 30's Corbett and Fitz.Don't be so gullible.

After the fight with Jeffries ,Johnson said" he never hurt me ,he can't hit, I could go another 20 rds".
Hugh Fullerton was a fan boy who wrote an atrocious biography called Two Fisted Jeff that made Jeffries into Davy Crockett, in it he stated, the reason Johnson beat Jeffries was because Jeff was drugged and Jeffries signed his name to it.It was an "as told to me by Jeffries", tome
Jeffries was a great fighter ,but he was NOT ****ing SUPERMAN. atsch

 

Brian123,

McVey seems to post a lot of negative stuff on Jeffries. The records are just that. Jeffries does have the fastest KO win in a lineal title match. He did run at Olympic level speeds ( and might have won the 1896 Olympics 100 yard dash ).

Mcvey needs to tell me what was false in Fullerton's Two Fisted Jeff? When you quote a fighter you do just that. When the author makes stuff up, that's an entirely different story. Besides, I doubt Mcvey read Two Fisted Jeff as it is a rare book.

Corbett was 33 in his first fight with Jeffries, this is hardly one's late 30's. The first Fitzsimmons and second Corbett fight were easy wins for Jeffries, not hard as McVey suggests.

As I often tell Mcvey he should read the news reports and work on getting his dates and timeliness right.

 

Paddock smashed the world record 100yds dash in 1921 his time was 9 and 3/5's of a second.Yet you believe Jeffries was running just over 10 second sprints in 1896?
I used to run this distance in college, so I am familiar with it.
Jeffries is your hero ,that's fine.You want to believe all the stories ,that's fine too ,just dont ask me and others to.

 

I am pretty sure i am correct in saying that the Olympics in those days did not feature the best runners in the world, like it does today. Let us not forget, for a start, that professionals were banned and one would expect that professional runners would be quicker than amateur runners, although i think they had handicaps for the pros, so most of them would have been often dogging and not running the full 100metres. Although i confess that i know little of athletics. Although my great uncle used to run under a professional and amateur name but i think this might have been more like the early 20s/late teens.

Also, wasnt Jim Corbett the fastest heavyweight sprinter ever? I am sure i read an article about him beating Jeffries in a beach sprint, although i might be wrong about who it was that beat Jeffries. It would be interesting, for sure, to see how fast Jeffries actual recorded times compare to todays athletes, especially current boxers. (Perhaps allowing for similar running equipment and tracks). I actually think that it is a bit of a shame that professional running isnt still a decent sized sport. I actually wouldnt mind following it a bit from time to time, but i guess times have changed and nowadays it is easier just to grab some takeaway and put on some awful rerun movie on tv.

 

The Olympics of those day were in yards not metres.
What would be interesting is some actual proof that Jeffries did these things ,ie Jumped over 6 foot high from a standing start, ran 100yds in around 10seconds, carried a full grown deer for miles at a jog trot without stopping.
Fullerton's book is an "as told to me by JEFFRIES" hero worship, load of bollocks. FULLETON NEVER QUESTIONED ANYTHING OR ASKED FOR CORROBORATION,OR VERIFICATION. Jeffries said he lost to Johnson because of "drugged tea", bull****.
Fullerton wrote a very good expose on Baseball on which he was knowledgeable, apparently,I say apparently, because the game is a mystery to me.Fullerton wrote ONE book on boxing the Jeffries biography and its a lamentable fan's tale.

 

Maybe Jeffries was the fastest runner in the world at the time.
I dont understand how that has anything to do with his greatness as a fighter.
It's as relevant as how many beers he could drink.

 

72 bottles was his record.
That was the night he got back to camp carrying that 2000-pound buffalo on his back as he ran 5-minute miles through the woods and up the hill.
After he'd eaten half the animal, he had the 72 beers, and wrestled a grizzly bear, leaving him a bit bloated and heavy and a wee bit drunk - to the point where he could only manage a 10 second 100 yard dash before turning in for bed, where twenty-five nubile concubines awaited his services.

The next morning he was up at 3.30 am, and such frivolties as had gone on the day before were abandoned, as he entered his serious training phase.

 

There is no doubt that in terms of time and place Jeffries was a very strong champion and in a historical sense can be rated very highly. The fact that he did not defeat a top fighter after the age of 28 weakens his case a bit.

"He scored the quickest knockout in heavyweight history"

This is not as impressive a feat as it sounds, and also it is not true. Jeffries knocked out an unworthy challenger, Jack Finnegan, who had no business being in with the champion, in a fight which should have been an exhibition but somehow is considered a defense. It took him 55 seconds.

Joe Louis knocked out Johnny Davis, an unworthy challenger who had no business being in with the champion, in a fight which should have been an exhibition but somehow is considered a defense. It took him 53 seconds.

 

For this reason, I never know weather to credit Louis as having 25 title defenses or 26... The boxrec entry lists this as being a valid defense according to the New York Athletic Commission, but don't know if the world sanctioning body recognized it as such.. Frankly, I think it would be ridiculous to call this a true title defense, given that Davis had no standing.

Back to Jeffries.. I agree that he is worthy of historical recognition as an all time great champion.. He won the title with very few recorded fights, had a fair number of defenses, defeated two all time greats ( albeit past their primes ), and retired initially undefeated. He was also a true advocate of top conditioning, and according to what I've read of his training regimens, may actually have been ahead of his time in this department.