Fighters wrong and right predicting Reno and why ...

Jeffries had done what no heavyweight champ had done before him retired undefeated.The aura of invincibility was still there around him. Sullivan picked Johnson,Papke picked Johnson,Ketchel picked Johnson.
maybe Jeannette and Langford were trying to curry favour with the caucasion public?
I've never read anything positive about Johnson from Jeannette's lips, and it was only later in his life that Langford was likely to give an honest opinion of him.

 

Fighters had and have more recently had success coming back after layoffs. Fitz gave Jeffries the fight of his life after a 2 year layoff

It seems pretty obvious with hindsight, but imagine by some miracle Jeffries actually won. I bet we could find a way to rationalise that as the likely outcome.

 

The people who had seen what was going on in Jeffries camp all seem to have picked Johnson.

 

I will post some of John L Sullivan's observations, taken from Pollack II. Some of these were before the fight was signed, and some after:

"The negro is not being credited for what he has done. Neither is he given credit for being as good a fighter as he is. I think that when he meets Jeff - if Jeff ever consents to a meeting - the black boy will beat him to a frazzle. I am a great admirer of Jeff and would be one of the first to bewail the fact that a negro claims the championship, but I fear that Jeff is not the man he was five years ago and that he will be unable to cope with this wily Zulu. I don't like negroes any better than I did twenty years ago, but in this case I think that credit must be given to the better man, and I look upon Johnson as being the fighter of the day."

San Francisco Examiner October 28 1909

Take it from me that Jeffries can't come back. I know it, and nobody knows it better than Jeffries himself. I don't care what Corbett says, his talk to me has the same weight as the ash on a cigar. He couldn't punch a hole in a pound of butter. With Corbett as his trainer, it woudl be all off with Jeffries. Corbett, of course, is boosting the game, but that fight if it ever comes off, will demonstrate what I have said. Jeffries can't come back. If he intended to, he ought to get some husky youngsters, who would punch him around a little."

Richmond Planet February 5 1910

"Will Jeffries lick Johnson? No. Not unless Johnson lays down for him. None of the rest of us, was able to quit the ring and come back strong. Jeffries won't have the endurance."

Freeman February 12 1910

"This is the first time that I have ever seen the big black, and to say that he has impressed me favorably would hardly be expressing my meaning."

"What surprised me more than anything else in Johnson's work in the ring was his stealthy method of action. He seemed a good bit like Fitzsimmons in this respect. Apparently he does not move around on his feet and gives the impression unless you watch him closely that he is not judging distance at all; but when his opponent gets within the proper range, a short straddle gives slight advance forward as the glove goes out and then you can see that he has judged the distance to a nicety."

After visiting Johnson's training camp in June of 1910

 

Actually, Jeffries may really have been pretty sick from mercury in fish he was fishing all the time n Nevada.....still happens to this day......this was in " the last great prizefight "

 

Langford and Jeanette picked Jeffries based on who he was vs the Johnson they fought. Neither had a clue at how much Jeffries had lost.

While Jeffries worked his way down from 280+ to close to his old fighting weight, the 6 years of ring rust hurt. If he felt Johnson would lay down in a fix, that doesn't help with training. But the coupe de grace was Johnson Hiring Jeffries old trainer Billy Delaney who knew Jeffries as well as anyone.

 

Except the top guys in his corner right?

 

Total nonsense. So they picked Jeffries based on the Johnson they faced.... who licked them both easily. Yet neither faced Jeffries, nor were licked by him... but you think it's likely they picked a man they've never faced before, because the guy they did face licked them both, but that counts for less than never fighting somebody. Sure....

 

Talk about issuing a spoiler alert, this book is on my shelf after I finish the Ochs trilogy on Hurley.

Did Sullivan set some sort of record for euphamisms for black folk. Man, those were some sick days.

 

Prove that. If you read your stuff Langford was in awe of Jeffries long before the Johnson match was made. Do you want to explore this point more or is my word here good enough?

Also, Jeannette who was a novice had some pretty close fight with Jeanette. They drew and Johnson lost one via DQ when he went low. Johnson never whipped Jeannette. The Langford he fought was an estimated 20 years old and 156 pounds. He went the distance.

 

The picks can be read here.

[url]https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1910-06-26/ed-1/seq-51/[/url]

 

Dropping knowledge like Galileo dropped an orange.

 

Are Mercury levels high in Navada?