How long would Jeffries have held onto the title, if he wanted to continue

Assuming he continued drawing the color line, he certainly could have gone on for a few years. Who beats him? Hart? Burns? Flynn? Squires? Lang? Moir? He should be heavily favored over all of them. The downside for Jeff is that in history he was beaten only by Johnson who was the greatest fighter of the next era. If he plugged along, he would remain champion for a few years, getting old and probably fat, but in the end might have lost to someone like Burns, or even Flynn or Lang. What would that have done for his reputation?

Mike Schreck, who KO'd Hart in 1907, might have been the most dangerous opponent. Al Kaufman looked good until he suddenly fell apart against Flynn and subsequent opponents.

What strikes me is how mediocre the white field post Jeffries was. If Marciano had drawn the color line and only fought white opponents and kept going, he would I think have run into much tougher competition from Johansson, Pastrano, Harris, and Cooper during the late fifties than Jeffries would have in the pre 1910 era.

*I totally disagree with giving Jeff a pass for not defending against Johnson in 1904. Had he taken that fight and pulled off a win, which is ballpark although I have no solid idea how it would have gone and consider it a toss-up, he would have established an admirable standard for later champions to shoot for. Jeffries passed because of his racism.

I don't buy into thinking Jeff would win against Johnson in 1904 because the writers of the time favored him. The writers of the time have been wrong quite often, for example Ali versus Liston. The established champ is almost always favored until he fails.

 

"I am not into fighting ******s,Johnson may be able to beat the whole Japanese army but I will not take a chance on losing my title to a black man,when there are no more white challengers left to fight I shall retire."
Jim Jeffries White Heavyweight Champion.

 

I think that you clearly underestimate Jeffries here. He wasn't "take 5 to give 1" type of fighter, the only time he was convincingly outpunched and outfought was against Fitz the second time. Corbett didn't actually have big lead in their first fight and Jeffries wasn't a finished project then yet.

I'd like to see Corbett vs Burns. Corbett wasn't great champion at all, but I think he had right style to beat Tommy. Burns struggled against O'Brien who was similar in terms of style. I also can't see Burns beating Fitzsimmons at all. There is a story that before Lang fight, Fitz schooled Burns in sparring. Prime for prime, Burns would have no chance against him. I'm also not convinced that Burns would beat Ruhlin or Sharkey.

 

I'm just as much a boxing historian as anyone else is. And I've seen just as many of their fights as anyone else around today has. I think Burns beats the hell out of Corbett. And of course Jeffries would be a favorite. But favorites lose.

If we're picking who could've beaten Jeffries if he'd continued, a guy who followed him and had a solid reign himself as champ is as good as any.

Happened to heavyweights a lot better than Jeffries.

 

I would've liked to have seen it, too. Burns had a more modern style than Corbett. Would've been fascinating to see.

 

There is film of Jeffries before that fight and after. There is film of other fighters from that era. That statement is not factual or believable given what we can see ourselves. It's one man's opinion.

 

It sure has, but I think that this is one of the less likely scenarios.

Just look at a picture of Jeffries standing next to Burns, then factor in their styles!

I honestly think it much more likely, that Philadelphia Jack O'Brien would have been the man to finally topple him!

 

You could very well be right.

 

We know that, after all probably the best HW champion ever was a racist.

 

Not to mention that in one of them Jeffries fought with broken arm and in second one he finished visibly hurt fighter well. I don't think Jeffries looks bad in Ruhlin footage at all and he clearly improved after this fight.

 

Looking at Ali standing next to Marciano,and factoring in Rocky's lack of speed , finesse,and tendency to cut, doesn't stop some from picking Marciano to beat Ali.

 

I doubt Jeffries was more racist than many whites of his time,he did have a deep fear of losing his title to a black man and expressed it many times.Given the way the white public turned on him after Johnson toyed with him,it was a fear that was well justified.

 

Never read that Jeffries had a broken arm in any fight,to which one do you refer?