Apart From A Few Exceptions No Heavies Pre 1960 Beat Todays Men

bwwhhh schtup

where do these things come from?

 

Ferguson
Jeffries
Jeffords
Kaufman
Russell
Klondike
Martin
McCormick
Griffin
Battling Johnson
McVey
To name a few.

 

I watched the full Willard fight a few months back; Johnson was throwing flurries that would’ve got him sparked against big guys of later eras. Willard didn’t have the tools that big guys of later eras had that could really make Jack pay for his mistakes, sure Jack’s a very impressive athlete for going 26 as the much smaller man at 37 years old but I don’t think he had the right style to adapt to beating elite skilled larger fighters judging from the film. However I am also aware that there were some fights where Johnson used his evasiveness and speed like against Hart, which might help his case if we had film of it. He was pretty elusive and mobile against Ketchel but he was also clearly not taking Stan too seriously either.

I think odds are Jeffries’ strength deteriorated tremendously by 1910, let’s ignore the weight cut as you’be shown he lost it a year before the fight; Jeffries spent the first half of his thirties drinking excessively and overeating which (especially back then) is a period of an athlete’s life where you can’t risk self destructing like that. Much harder to get away with treating your body like **** in your 30s especially for 5 straight years