Well he had his nose broken by a man who would have been more or less a middleweight in a modern era. I don't know if that necessarily means that he would have been KO'd by anyone in particular, but I think given the rather lengthy list of great punchers over the last 100 years, my answer would be yes.
Well he certainly proved he was durable in his own time taking the shots of Fitz and Choynsky ,two very hard hitters ,but Fitz was a supermiddle and Choynsky a smallish Light Heavy.Could Jeff have weathered Dempsey's assault ?,Baers overhand right,Louis's precise correct bombs,Marciano's Suzie Q,Listons lethal Left hook,Foremans monster swings and Tyson's quick two fisted power?And what about the super heavies ,the Klitschkos,and Lennox.s right hand?We have to take a lot on trust,despite some Jeffries fans on here saying how elusive and defensively adept he was fight reports and the facial damage he shipped in fights suggest Jim was relatively easy to hit , that may be all well and good when its a 33 year old Corbett landing on you or a 167 lbs Fitzsimmons,but what if its a 245lbs 6 5 Lennox Lewis?
Any fighter can potentialy be TKOd in an enlightend era. It just takes a few good cuts. As for whether a reffere could ever count ten over Jeffries that is impossible to say.
Fraziers,power was a little below those I mentioned imo ,he tended to get guys out after a steady bombardment for some reason I think Jeffries might have been able to stand up to Fraziers left hooks ,but of course Ive nothing tangible to go on,Joe might have belted him right out of there ,he did drop the durable Ali with a thud.
One thing to think about. If Jeff weighed 220 back in 1900, what do you think he would weigh today? My guess is he'd be a lot bigger. Also, he was training for 25 round fights, which would have influenced his size, as well as his pace. So perhaps he'd be even bigger and busier if training for a 12 rounder. If you took a lot of past or present champions mentioned here and told them they had to fight 25 rounds, they too might have slowed their pace, and might have trained down in weight due to the long and laborious hours of endurance training and desire to be lean and efficient. Can anyone here imagine the Klitschko's or Lennox Lewis actully being able to stand up for 25 rounds, let alone win? Oh, and remember, these guys were fighting with 5 ounce gloves, sometimes without handwraps, they did not EVER stop fights on cuts, and they allowed fighting in clinches and punching on the break. In some way, these comparisons are apples and oranges.
Actually, Munroe's alleged flooring of Jeffires in an exhibition match was a fabrication Suzie Q. This is another example of poor research that has made it way into books and the web. The Bute Miner never said Jeffries was floored, and that was the primary source. Munroe was floored a few times in the exhibition match, but managed to last the four rounds. That was his claim to fame. After the exhibition match Munroe lied to the press. He managed to get a real fight with Jeffries and was destroyed in brutal fashion.
Jeffries was on tour with Fitz he offered 500$ to anyone who could stay 4 rds with him a local miner[Munroe] came out of the crowd and accepted the challenge though outweighed by 40 lbs he manged to stay the distance,in fact he was credited with the first two rounds,an angry Jeffries came out for business in the third scoring three knock downs,though shaky Munroe lasted the round and somehow got throught the fourth,to claim the 500$,whereupon the referee Duncan Mcdonald a local man ,as was Munroe , awarded the "fight" to Munroe .Munroe made hay from this ,to Jeffries fury ,two years later they met in earnest.for Jeffries Title Jeffries weighed 219 Munroe186,.Determined there would be no repeat of their first encounter Jeffries came out swinging ,his first punch a mighty left swing missed and carried him off his feet,Munroe feebly threw punches in the general direction of Jeffries in the hopes of keeping him off . Jeffries closed the distance and went to work,Munroe was floored three times in that first round,in a clinch he asked Jeffries to let him make a showing ,a vengeful Jeffires replied" like hell I will".Munroe came out for the second,his right eye closed his face a mask of blood,Jeffries belted him on the nose dropped him with a right uppercut and a left to the jaw,,Munroe went down twice in the second ,then with his knees giving way bent double from Jeffries bodyshots ,the referee Ed Graney stopped the fight before Jeffries could administer the coupdegrace,Graney saying "nothing doing Jim I dont want to see anyone killed". A mismatch. My sources are "Heavyweight Champions"by W W Naughton,and" Two Fisted Jeff "by Hugh Fullerton. The Naughton book is interesting because it was published inCalifornia ,Jeff's home state ,in 1910 only Five years after the fight took place.
Baer, potentially could drop anyone he his full on with his overhand right ,whether he could keep Jeffries down is something else again.
