Jeffries 1910 Reno Or Jackson1898 ? Who Was Farthest Over That Hill?

You will often find that the more time passes, the larger the stories grow. At the time they will say his ribs were sore. Then years later and they'll say his ribs were fractured. Then more time will pass and they'll say his ribs were cracked and punctured his lung. The stories just grow and grow.

 

For the reasons that others have given, Jackson was further past it.

I do think that Jeffries inexperience at the time of the Jackson fight, should be noted in his favour.

 

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The night of the fight, Sharkey's people claimed two broken ribs. A doctor examined Sharkey on the following morning, and he confirmed that there was a fractured left sixth rib. So there was one rib fracture. Sharkey did say his ribs badly hurt. But I don't think his rib was sticking out of his skin or anything like that. Sharkey confirmed and claimed the rib injury, and actually used it to explain his limited performance towards the close of the fight, saying it handicapped him. Jeff's left arm was badly hurt, so he resorted to using powerful rights to the body.

One other thing you have to give Jeff is the rapidity in which he stopped Jackson. Peter was considered a master at ring generalship, so it was surprising that a guy with his vast experience got caught and taken out so quickly. Of course, when you fight a puncher, if you get caught, anyone can go.

 

I think you would have to agree that Jeffries fought in an era where fights were generaly billed as fights, while in Jackson's youth they were often billed as exhibitions.

Either way, Jeffries cannot have had much more than ten profesional fights under his belt when he fought Jackson.

 

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That’s pretty green however you slice it.

 

After Griffin, Jeff was forbidden to fight pro. Hence, he was mainly gaining experience sparring at the LAAC. If he participated in smokers, it was in sparring exhibitions, which were amateur in nature and would have been 3 or 4 rounds. Hence, Jeff would not have gotten in trouble with his mom for such bouts. Truth is no one has found many reports of Jeff in these smokers, so I doubt he did too many. Technically, even the 1895 the Hank Lorraine bout was a smoker bout, only scheduled for 4 rounds, so some hyper technical folks might even question whether it should be on his pro record. But no matter, because Jeff stopped him quick, so it wouldn't have mattered if it was scheduled for 20 rounds. But fact is he was in the gym at least and gaining knowledge and sparring experience, which he says did him a lot of good.

Back then pro fights in Los Angeles were 20-round bouts. Hence, fighters did not have as much experience in terms of number of bouts, but they had a lot of experience when you consider the number of rounds. Plus they did not fight as often, owing to the fact that it was a real pain to have to undergo the intense training required in order to be prepared to potentially go 20 rounds, as well as recover from the damage. Remember also, they were using 5 ounce gloves. So back then they didn't necessarily fight as often. Just think about it, a fighter today might have a bunch of 4, 6, and 8 round fights on the way up, against a lot of bums too, so when you count up the total number of rounds, their experience might be paltry, plus the quality isn't there. Back then, if they were paying you good money for a pro fight, they expected you to get in there with a live body, and if you were doing all that intense training, you wanted to get paid well. Hence Jeff was fighting guys they considered live or at least marketable in some way, because they needed rears in seats, and Jeff wanted to get paid real money. In two back to back 20-round bouts (40 rounds) Jeff gained more quality experience than guys today might do in the first several years of their career. Going 14 rounds with Griffin in his pro debut was impressive as well, which somewhat made him an underground star for several years before he re-embarked on his pro career. How many guys today could do that in their first pro fight? Hence, combined with his years of sparring experience, and given that they knew he was a real talent, he was taking real fights relatively quickly when he started taking pro fights again in 1896. Plus just look at the photos of him. He was a freaking Adonis, and absolute huge hulking muscular monster. You just look at a guy like that in the 1890s and can't help but be in awe.

 

They did have a 5-round exhibition at Central Hall, Holborn. From the description of it, there's nothing to suggest that either of them suffered any serious injury in their fight.