For which performance do you think Jim Jeffries was at his absolute physical peak?

I think the Fitzsimmons stuff deserves mention. That little dude may have been the best he faced, and defeated, during his prime.

 

Physically?

Probably hanging in there for as long as he did against Corbett to come back and win.

Long, long time to be outboxed like that.

 

Jeffries continued to improve throughout his reign as champion.

The second Corbett fight and the Munroe fight were both measured destructions in which he outboxed his oponents. The press at the time noted an improvment in his technique and boxing skills.

Truth is we probably never saw the best version of Jeffries. He would perhaps have got better still had he stayed in the game.

 

I don't know that I've ever "seen" him in any great detail.

Yep, he had a very minute reign as champ to be sure.

 

His number of title defences and the quality of the opposition relative to the era puts him in the same general bracket as Dempsey, Marciano and Lewis. It puts him in a bracket above the two-three hit wonders like Liston, Frazier, Foreman and Tyson.

Nothing minute about that.

 

What did you ever "see" from him? I'm as fond as the next guy of placing myself back in time through the words of others. The only trouble with those words is that they can be biased or unbiased.. the trick is figuring out just what to believe.

One thing is for sure, we have video of Marciano, Lewis and Dempsey (although a little limited in Dumpsey's case)... I don't know that that is available regarding Jeffries.

 

When I say we didnt "see" the best of him I mean that he didnt reach his theoretical peak. That would probably have come in the two years after he retired.

 

The Fitz effort and both fights against Corbett immediately spring to mind here. What about Sharkey II, surely that one deserves big consideration?

 

I suppose this is an agreeable opinion.

Jeffries is a hard guy to rate, regardless.

 

I would say the quality of opposition clearly puts him below the likes of Marciano and Lewis.

He generally had 40 to 60 pounds on his key opponents, not to mention that Corbett hadn't won a fight in five years and was 36/39 years old, as was Fitszimmons.

 

Jeffries gained a good deal of skills as his career progressed. His two best performances were his two last fights between Munroe, and Corbett.

 

While there is very little footage of Jeff out there. Dempsey for a 1920's fighter has a lot compare to other fighters of that era. I think we have more fight footage of Dempsey, plus training film than any other fighter of the 1920's imo. Which is amazing because of how inactive he was, were compare to Greb or Walker who were very active. And in Walker's case, we have about 5 fights compare to Dempsey's 8 or so so fights. The thing that relly pushs Dempsey over the edged in this regard to film is training footage.

Dempsey vs
Willard
Brennen,
Carp,
Gibbions,
Firpo
Tunney 1 and 2
Sharkey.

And most of these fights you can find complete.