james j jeffries ATG NO!

In 1906, Sir Rotterer Tweedsniff, who had seen every fighter from Jem Mace down to Jeffries, rated Jeffries as the best, claiming him to be an "unstoppable, mechanized fistic wonder never to be equalled. Stout of loin and buttock, quick as a trolley and strong as a prized breeding bull"... If Tweedsniff says so, that's good enough for me. Jeffries is not an ATG; he is the ATG.

 

Tweedsniff was known to be partial to stout loins and buttocks ,in fact I think he did time for it.

He would certainly have put the" J" into Jeffries

 

Well Corbett, Fitz, Burns, Johnson, and Dempsey all felt Jeffries was the best. As did many of the judges and historians of the times.

Things like power, stamina, durability, translate into any era.

Jeffries was though of as a top 3 ATG up to the late 1960's. Then the people who saw him died out and all that is left is grainy films that run slow. Not that film is needed to be great. See Harry Greb.

 

This statement is over-egging the pudding a bit.

 

I believe it is putting butter on the bacon.

 

:good

 

I can understand your point I think we should keep in mind that greatness is relative to the time. I think we can all agree that the fighters identified as greats would have been relatively great in any era. For example had Jeffries fought in Foremans era he would have fought in the style of the time. Whatever the old timers saw in him in real time must be considered especially when they watched the greats that came afterwards and still hold him in the high regard they did.

 

As a racist himself he obviously can use it to justify his argument.

 

I never stated that Jackson was in his prime when he fought Jeffries. Only that they fought. I'm aware Jackson would die three years later from tuberculosis, not being a Doctor I don't know if that would have affected him at time of this fight but at 37 years age he was past it. Still Jeffries took him out with ease.

 

Once again, you are formulating a biased opinion without the data. I have 30+ archived lists of historians, and writers with dates. Jeffries regularity appears as #1, 2, or 3 right up to the 1960's.

It is also fact that Corbett, Fitz, Burns, Johnson and Dempsey ( 1892-1926 ) all agree that Jeffries was the best. Langford and others concur. So there you have it from the fighters' from 1890-1920

In the 1950's Jeffries came out #1 overall on the McCallum survey of 12 historians, which included Nat Fleischer.

 

I'll take Tweedsniff's estimation over any modern day keyboard jockey, thank you.