Could Sailor Tom Cut It Today?

Ok then. Glad to hear. Lets keep it clean in this thread.

 

I was talking about their second fight. It is well known that Corbett was untrained for their first one.

 

The newspaper source I gave you says otherwise. As do others. I think we can take the word of next-day sources over that of a man who never even saw Sharkey fight; a man who was born 2 years before Tom retired.

First off, why quote a newspaper from a city Sharkey never even fought in and take it as though it outstrips the word of a newspaper from a town Sharkey fought in frequently?

All that aside, this is true. And obviously Tom agreed as the newspaper covering the first Jeffries fight clearly states. I don't recall hearing much about dirty work in the McCoy or Corbett II fights(both "important battles"), either. So the sentiments expressed by this sportswriter were obviously well taken.

 

Well, yes I do. Planes didn't exist back then as you know. Out of town newspapers tended to stay local and get their info from wire reports rather than take long train rides across the country. So unless you can find me a firsthand report from a Milwaukee paper then it is safe to say that this guy wasn't there.

And yet he managed to "govern" it just fine for the 1st Jeffries fight, the McCoy fight, the second Corbett fight, etc, etc, etc.

Um, no the bottom line is that you yourself have admitted that you haven't researched any fighter's careers, so you're stuck on the few things you've read about Sharkey and for some reason are either unwilling or unable to process new info given to you, even a next day source from the newspaper of the town where the actual fight took place.

Giving you a next day report from a SF newspaper on a SF fight can hardly be called "historical revisionism". Quoting me words from a guy who wasn't even born when Sharkey was in his prime is far more questionable.

 

You're not going to tell me anything on Sharkey that I don't already know. I've studied the man's career in depth (even went to the Dundalk library to see what I could find). Yes, he could be dirty. Yes, he had a bad temper. Yes, he was crude early in his career and even well into it. But to dismiss him as nothing but a face-first brawler with no defense (which you did) clearly shows that you haven't done the homework on Sharkey enough to realize that he did indeed have an evolution; learned some tricks, learned some defense and learned how to bob under an opponent's attack to get at the body and then come up to the head.

 

Then again, I may need to go back and reread the accounts of the McCoy and Corbett II fights to make sure my memory is serving me. Been awhile! But I'm pretty positive that he kept his fouling(if there was any) to a bare minimum. The point is, his style evolved from being an amateurish, face-first brawler. He would have never survived as long as he did had he not.

 

Fair enough. Can I still buy you a beer if I ever come to England? :cheers

 

At the risk of getting sidetracked, here is Referee Greggains score card:

1. even
2. Jeffries
3. Jeffries
4. Jeffries
5. Jeffries
6. Jeffries
7. Sharkey
8. Sharkey
9. Jeffries
10. even
11. Jeffries
12. Jeffries
13. even or Jeffries
14. Jeffries
15. Jeffries
16. Jeffries
17. Even
18. Jeffries
19. Jeffries
20. Jeffries

If this was fair and just, then we are looking at a somewhat different afair to the second fight.

 

Boston--yes. Sailor--no.

 

Correct, Jeffries was also injured early in the 2nd fight after flooring Sharkey, its something McVey never mentions, and IMO is a big reason why Sharkey lasted the distance in the 2nd match.