Jeffries Of Reno 1910 V Joe Jeannette Of 1910?

Most of what i said was more Jeffries reasoning than mine.

But here is one further thing i just looked at this morning (which i have never really considered) and that is johnson's record from 1901.

Johnson had started the year, having just knocked out Klondike Haynes which evened up an earlier knockout loss. Klondike was a good fighter but not really a tier 1 or 2 fighter, as can be seen by losses to Martin, Childs and Maher. Johnson's only other notable win was against McCormick who around this time(or maybe it was a year or two later) was actually knocked out by John L Sullivan of all people! He had to start this year as a 4th tier fighter or lower.

In 1901, Johnson had 7 fights for 5 draws and 2 losses. 1 of these losses was by KO to Joe Choynski, who really was a 2nd or 3rd tier fighter at best (at the time) and who had aged. The other loss was to Hank Griffin, who Jeffries actually fought in 1901! Jeffries outclassed Griffin and knocked him down and had already beaten him on debut as a teenager. Imagine this though, if Johnson had actually beaten Griffin, wo knows, we may have seen Johnson Jeffries quite a bit earlier. Either way, Jeffries version that Johnson wasnt on the radar here, has to be correct.

1902 is the start of Johnson's Golden run which is so great, with hindsight. But at the time, it is interesting that Johnson only drew again with Hank Griffin, who Jeffries had demonstrated such superiority over and who must have been thought of at least one but probably 2 or 3 tiers below Jeffries. Childs, Gardner and Russell were good wins this year but not enough to suddenly raise Johnson's standing to Jeffries level.

Interestingly, Johnson's best win (in terms of getting him a championship fight) this year, was at the start of the year when he stepped in as a late substitute for Hang Griffin and he won by Knock out. Johnson tried to use this as an angle to get a title shot (smart business move) but it ultimately failed. Certainly a Johnson Jeffries fight here would have been not much worse than the Monroe defence he would ultimately take, but Jeffries was quite rightly defending against Fitzsimmons who was tiers above Johnson at this stage.

this is around about the time of the famous basement challenge that people sometimes talk about. Jeffries says Johnson was a 4th tier fighter and not in the same class as him at this time and didnt deserve a title shot. He was right. He also says that his actions on this day were shameful and he simply took advantage of a young fighter who desperately wanted a title shot and who simply wasnt ready from a development point of view but who was developing and improving as a fighter. He was also correct about this. It is interesting that a supposedly racist man has admitted that johnson was the better "man" in this encounter and rates his actions as one of his biggest regrets.

1903 and 1904 saw Johnson rip through the competition and Jeffries reduce his fighting to once a year. Obviously Johnson was moving through the tiers and becoming a legitimate challenger. Still, there really was a perception (based largely on results to be honest) that the older generation like Fitzsimmons, Corbett, Ruhlin, Maher, Sharkey, Choynski were a golden generation and were a tier above all of the younger fighters. At this time, none of them were seen as a legitimate challenge for Jeffries (rightly or wrongly and probably wrongly). Johnson, for all his wins and great form, wasnt exactly knocking them out in Tyson fashion. It simply wasnt his style and he didnt have an exciting style.

When Johnson fought Hart, he had his chance to become the standout challenger. He didnt win, and he certainly didnt do enough to lift him onto the same tier as Jeffries where not fighting him could be considered a duck. To be fare, even after the loss, a Johnson defence would have been better than the Munroe defence and maybe the best fight out there. Or at least the best outside of Hart. It is actually a shame that Hart and Johnson didnt rematch. I can understand why Jeffries retired. He as facing a low reward high risk fight. I actually think he retired at teh right time, although i would have loved to see him take that one extra fight here against either Hart or Johnson (ideally both).