James J Jeffries talks about boxing.

I'm not surprised he didn't give Johnson any credit.

 

He didn't speak highly of Johnson at all in Two Fisted Jeff. Called him one of the most overrated fighters ever. He also claimed he was doped before the fight with Johnson.

 

Looks like he was trying to read from a script. At the end he hesitates and says
"well I've blown it again". No teleprompters in those days...maybe someone was
holding up a large set of poster boards?

 

Crazy how Jeffries here had no real conception of the best practices for film.
It was still so new.

Contrast that with the ubiquity of everyone carrying around a smartphone and posting on Instagram.
Pretty crazy being able to see that cycle occur by watching footage like this.

 

Yeah drugged tea wasn't it?

 

That's what he suspected.

 

Joe Choynski said that Jeffries lost his nerve against Johnson and went into melt down.His wife described him pacing the floor all the previous night, hardly an ideal preparation before challenging the best man in the world.

 

You would have to wonder who would administer the drug.I think it was an excuse he seized upon because he couldn't handle being beaten up and , most crucially and humiliatingly , by a back man! It's nothing new Fitz was convinced he was drugged before the first Jeffries fight.Dempsey said there was an attempt to poison him with rancid olive oil before the Tunney fight.Foreman said he was drugged against Ali.etc

 

I agree. Athletes have always seemed imo more inclined to favor conspiracy theories for failure. I was always surprised at how fervently Foreman believed the fix was in in Zaire. There are some today who impugn Zack Clayton's credibility because of these seemingly unfounded accusations. Just read a Fitz book where he talked about being drugged before that first Jeffries fight.
Michael Jordan's epic "flu game" sickness was attributed to pizza delivered the night before to his hotel room causing food poisoning.
I'm usually a "lone gunman" theorist. But I've seen in boxing just how much money is to be had in fixing fights, from the days of Franky Carbo to today's farcical scoring in Canelo fights, so I can't dismiss completely out of hand one or more of these allegations is feasible. Maybe not probable, but not entirely improbable either. After all, as far as I've read, Jeffries and Fitz weren't the Chuvalo types blaming a myriad other reasons instead of just admitting they lost to a better man.
Are there any substantiated poisoning/drug attempts to sabotage a boxing performance ? (Ingested, not a topical irritant like in Walcott/ Marciano or Liston/Clay).

 

Harold Johnson was given an orange laced with barbiturate before his fight with Julio Mederos.
http://boxrec.com/media/index.php?title=Fight:60466

 

I would think in a conversation about the best he ever fought, the guy who gave him the worst beating of his life and who he admitted he could never beat even at his best would be mentioned.

 

Jeffries refused to shake Johnson's hand at the signing of the contracts for fight, in the ring before the fight started and afterwards when he was beaten.
I wouldn't expect him to be honest or objective about Johnson .

 

I've seen film of this type many times over the years. Some showing each take as the fighter makes an error, filming stops, and the dialog tried again. So this is a scripted event.

 

To be fair, Johnson himself once called Fitz the greatest ever.

Fighters tend to revere technique when describing their past opponents, and those that give them a tough winning fight often make an impression.

 

Johnson said Fitz was the best of the heavyweights up until he died in1946