He would have walked into any NFL side at the time (did any actually exist?) Jeffries was one of the top sprinters in his area. BEfore this, Jim Corbett actually was a professional sprinter. John L could have been a baseman for the Boston Baseball side. You actually have this back to front most of the pioneers were the true athletes.
Willard was a track star in Kansas and would break horses that were too wild for anyone else to touch.
I will always rank Jeffries very highly for what he did in his own time. He won the heavyweight title with very few fights, didn't draw the color line when a lot of champs opted to do so, and basically retired undefeated. Losing to Johnson after being out of the game for 6 years can only be held against to a very limited degree. With that said, I don't give him very good odds with too many champions post say Jess Willard. Sure he'd probably beat guys like Braddock, Leon Spinks and some of the weaker linear champs. But the reality is that he relied heavily on having a size and strength advantage that he simply would not have against most heavyweight champs. And even when he was overwhelmingly larger and stronger than some of his actual foes, he had his nose broken, struggled and was taken the stance in 20+ round fights by guys who were more or less super middle weights by modern standards and rather crude ones at that. I hate to pick a man who fights Carlos Molina and Artur Szpilka as title opponents to beat the great Jim Jeffries. But Deontay wilder was an Olympic medalist who has managed to flatten just about every one of his 37 or 38 opponents. He stands 6'7", weighs 230 lbs, is built like a brick wall and hits like a truck. Kinda hard to favor the man who had his nose broken by Jack Sharkey to beat him
chris areolla was a track star too. I made that up, but Jeffries has slightly better than the same punchers chance of any wilder opponent and not a lot more.
“Jim Jeffries, more so than Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, or even Joe Louis stands up well when compared to big modern heavyweights. Jeff was 6’2 ½ and weighed about 217-218 at his peak according to newspaper accounts. With his 25” thighs, 17” calf, 10” ankle and 18” neck and thick bone structure, he had the size and dimensions to be a solid 230-pounder if he were fighting today. This is about the same size and weight as both Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman both of whom scored knockouts over the giant Lennox Lewis. Gilbert Odd, a historian and boxing book author wrote in 1974, "James J. Jeffries was the strongest of all the heavyweight champions." According to those in Jeffries training camp, Jeff, "a lover of hunting, once killed a large deer and carried it on his shoulders nine miles to camp without stopping to rest. Friends who accompanied him had difficulty keeping up with him on the jaunt home." Jeffries had a lot more than just a modern heavyweights size and great strength going for him; he was also an outstanding natural athlete. John Durant, wrote in The Heavyweight Champions, “He was surprisingly fast and agile. He could run 100 yards in 11 seconds, and high jump 5 feet, 10 inches.” That is absolutely remarkable for a man of his size. Consider that Jesse Owens ran the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds a worlds record in 1936 (nowadays they run 100 meters). That a heavyweight boxer, not a track and field athlete, can accomplish such feats is the mark of an excellent athletic talent. Fleischer demonstrated that Jeffries had both the ability to absorb punishment as well as lasting endurance, describing him as a “Herculean form with lignum vitae jaw and granite body. His defensive work was very effective, and while he was not of the most aggressive type, he managed to win many important battles by knockout following the tiring of opponents.” Jeffries trained the same way as today’s boxers, running, hitting bags, using pulley’s and rowing machines, jumping rope, and sparring. However, he also practiced wrestling as part of his training regimen. This, fighters of that period believed, would make them better and tougher in the clinches. Jeffries was a very good grappler and was strong in the trenches.”
the fact jesse owens was a lot faster than him doesn't make him a bad athlete, not much evidence he was a great one in that tho. as far as the modern nfl, yeah, he doesn't seem that far off a full back, and perhaps tight end too.
Against Ruhlin we see Jeffries in his only aggressive fight on film whilst prime, he is stalking Ruhlin who back pedals faster than Jeffries can close the gap, Jeffries looks easy to hit with right hands here, but Ruhlin shows a marked lack of ambition and is retired on his stool after receiving a big wallop to the midriff . Ruhlin was just under 6'2"and 200lbs,with a 78.5" reach,Wilder is 6'7" with an 83" reach. For me it boils down to can Jeffries close the gap and dig enough shots into Wilder early enough to slow him down and render him a target for a body sand- bagging and a late stoppage. Jeffries can't win this by dec imo, he has to stop Wilder over 15rds ,can he do it ? Yes. Would he? Well, 167lbs near 40 years old reduced Jeffries face into raw hamburger, gashed him over and under both eyes and broke his nose in just 8 rds, before smashing his hands on Jeffries face ,sure the gloves were smaller, but it demonstrates the lack of defence Jeffries had. There's no getting around it, the contemporary newspaper reports stated unequivocally that if Fitz had been the same size as Jeffries he would have definitely won that fight,they said the size and age disparity was the deciding factor. Wilder is not under 6 foot and he isnt a super middleweight. Fitz was a heavy duty banger, but so is Wilder and he can deliver his artillery from a distance that would be a unique experience for a man like Jeffries who was used to fighting distinctly smaller men and enjoying a size,strength and age advantage over them . Wilder also has a fast and accurate jab that would find a home on Jeffries chops. Two scenarios suggest themselves to me. Wilder stays one step ahead of Jeffries crouching stalk busting the Grizzly Bears face up with long raking jabs and long right hands,and either wins a decision or forces the referee to intervene and halt the bout because of the facial punishment Jeffries has absorbed, resulting in a tko win for Wilder. Jeffries, refusing to emulate Tua v Lewis, stoically takes the punches he has to, to get inside and deliver his thudding hooks to Wilder's body and little by little Wilder begins to drop his hands to protect his elongated torso,eventually giving Jeffries the shot at his chin he has been working for,around the 13th/14thrd round Jeffries gets the opening and delivers his power,dropping Wilder who gets up only to be tagged and dropped again for the stoppage. I'm going for the Wilder win by decision, being persuaded that Jeffries would be entirely out of his comfort zone here,and also and crucially that I don't think Jeffries had tremendous power, he may have had a chin to rival Tua's but he did not possess his power imo, he was hitting on aged little guys for the most part ,and they were often going into the later rounds before being ground down by him. He absorbed punches from big hitters like Choynski and Fitz but the weight disparity was enormous in those bouts,and he was never in a position to be the little guy fighting the bigger younger opponent ,with more power,better boxing skills,[yes I believe that] ,who outreached him by6.5inches! Wilder then for me. ps Jeffries is far the greater figure in boxing ATM, time will tell what Wilder achieves, but his choice of challengers is pretty tentative to say the least.
Jeffries was 6 foot tall, significantly smaller than Tomasz Adamek for example , he would be a little guy in today's heavyweight division.
I think he could carry 230 - 235 lbs. today. He would probably be in the Peter or Brewster size range.
QUOTE="janitor, post: 18361954, member: 3871"]I think he could carry 230 - 235 lbs. today. He would probably be in the Peter or Brewster size range.[/QUOTE] I thought we were discussing a match up with two men as they actually were ,not some mythological,hypothetical chimera. Both Brewster ,and Peter are 6'2", 2" taller than Jeffries.
