Did James Jeffries retire too soon?

Dempsey did not fight Harry Wills for 7 years in a row. Yeah if JEff wanted to, he could have not faught Johnson until a White fighter takes out a over the hill Jeff.

 

Jeffries is perhaps the only heavyweight champion who retired at his absolute peak.

Hell we might never have seen the best of him. To my mind the best we ever saw of Jeffries was the second Corbett fight and the Munroe fight. The day he retired he was as good as he had ever been.

 

People who criticise the title oponents of Jeffries and indeed Johnson forgett that the previous champion such as Corbett and Fitzsimmons had engaged in long periods of inactivity.

Compared to them Jeffries must have seemed heaven sent to the fans of the day.

 

I can't disagree.

 

Why wasnt he seen as better than the other black fighters of this time, when he had fought and beat them all?

Johnson had just lost to Hart, and there was no demand for a Hart fight, either then or now.

Johnson, Langford etc would have been great fights in hindsight, would have been very good fights back then. But they were high risk, low reward fights. In the case of Langford, he didnt really have that much ambition to fight Jeffries at that time.

Johnson is an interesting proposition. One has to wonder whether he was viewed as awesome at that time as he just after he won the title. Middleweight tommy Burns was prepared to risk his title, he had just lost to Hart, been KOd early by Choynski and no film of him existed to judge him. I wonder whether he was considered at the time a tougher fight than the money on offer to fight him, or a chance to make good money in an easy fight (overrated fighter) by most of the fighters of the time.

If Johnson had fought Jeffries and lost, even if prime Jeffries was head and shoulders above everyone else of his time black or white, it certainly would it have hurt the black fighters standing for a title fight in the next decade or two?

 

I agree ,they made money on the stage ,probably more than they could make against the white challengers out there,Jeffries didnt fight his black challengers, neither did his predecessors,Jeffries may have beaten Jeanette,and Mcvey,certainly I think he would have beaten Martin,I dont beleive he had the beating of a prime Johnson,but had he taken on a couple of the deserving black contenders and then retired his legacy would have been immeasurably enhanced,he was a fine champion and a great fighter,beating those mentioned would have probably put him in my top 8.

 

Jeffries retired before the Hart robbery.

Well then you think wrong. He was.

Sure he could, but it would definetely hurt his legend seeing as how there was an outcry for the fight as early as 1903 by true boxing fans.

I have him #7.:good

 

Thank you. tobkhan and Luigi1985 just don't get it.:-(

 

Agree 100%

 

My understanding of Jefferies fight against Finnegan -- this is based on reading Nicholson's 'A Man Among Men' -- is that Jefferies had been taking it easy while vacationing in Europe and he wanted to get in some rounds before facing Corbett. He took Finnegan on for a work out, not intending it to be a title defense. Then Finnegan's management insisted that the title be on the line. Jeffries got tired of arguing and basically said 'What the Hell, have it your way', then he iced Finnegan in under a minute.
Munroe was given a title shot because Jefferies had a grudge against Munroe's management, not due to his merits as a fighter.
I don't blame Jefferies for the Finnegan defense -- it was contrary to his intentions. Jefferies was more culpable in using the title as bait to pursue a personal vendetta.

 

How can you have Jeff, at 7. And not even put Marciano in the top ten?? Marciano did not used the color bar, and has beating evey worth wild contender out there in his era. That just makes no sense.

 

If that's the case, then your "money" argument doesn't work. If the outcry for this fight was as big as you say it was in 1905, then Jeffries could have made a lot of money fighting Johnson AND would have a better chance than he did in 1910. There would be no reason for him to retire and take a beating five years later in a fight he was doomed to lose.

So either:

1) The outcry wasn't as big as you say it was for this fight or...

2) Jeffries retired for another reason in 1905.

 

But he's posted in other threads about the same topic.:good