Jeffries on of the most misunderstood ..

I don't postulate what might have been, I judge a fighter on what he did in his own time,against his contempories .

 

Johnson went into the Jeffries fight with a cut lip, he received from Kid Cotton,we are not talking about superficial cuts we are talking about having your nose broken three times.I know about horsehair gloves ,I still have a pair, and I have boxed with them ,you trot out the same answer on this one to excuse Jeffries being cut to bits in some fights.
If it was that common how come Johnson,Fitz Corbett, went largely unscathed.Jeffries face is described in one fight as being a bloody mask Bob Davis said it looked like a peice of raw steak ,Choynsky smashed a punch so hard into Jeffries mouth his lip went between his front teeth and had to be cut out,now we may commend his incredible courage for accepting this punishment,and I do ,but lets not pretend he was any kind of defensive wizard, the amount of punishment he shipped would make any such claim farcical.

 

"When those fights happened, Sharkey was well past his best, and had just experienced a brutal beating by Jeffries"

1. Actually, he was 27 years old and had scored six straight ko's following the Jeffries fight--against Joe Goddard, Jim Jeffords, Jack McCormack, Tom Conway, Joe Choynski, and Yank Kenney. What is the evidence he was "past his best" other than that Ruhlin and then Fitz stopped him.

2. "Rocky never fought past his 32nd birthday"

Neither did Sharkey. Sharkey was losing often while still in his twenties. This is certainly a bizarre argument as 32 was not all that young in that era. Jeffries did not win a fight after 29. Tunney retired at 31. Dempsey had his last serious fight at 32. Tom Sharkey at 31.

3. Ezzard Charles' decline was at a much older age than Tom Sharkey's.

4. Even in his undisputed prime, 1899, Sharkey was knocked down and badly hurt by the middleweight Kid McCoy. This never happened to Marciano.

5. There is no basis in the record and there certainly is none on film to claim Sharkey was anything like the fighter Marciano was at any level. Sharkey was merely a solid contender who was defeated not only by Jeffries, but knocked out twice by Ruhlin and also by Fitz. He appears to have been fortunate not to have been charged with a ko defeat in his first fight with Fitz. Marciano was an undefeated champion who swept the best of his era.

 

Sharkey fought just three months later koing Joe Goddard ,he had a further five fights ,[winning them all by ko],before he got stopped by Ruhlin and Fitz he was actually on a roll .
Sharkey was only thirty when he he retired and that includes being out of the ring for two years, before coming back to fight Munroe.

Charles was 34 when he started losing to journeyman, and he ended up having 119 fights to Sharkey's 53. Bad comparison.

 

Old Fogey,

Great post. Let's see how HE and mendoza responds to that one.

 

1. Marciano had a better chin than Tom Sharkey. True or False?

2. I want concrete evidence that supports your opinion sharkey was "faster" than Marciano. Where is your evidence?




Don't avoid these questions HeGrant.

 

A few points to nobody in particular. No way was Corbett winning the first Sharkey fight, he was probably saved by the short duration of it.
Sharkey was hurt and dropped a bit during his career, no glass chin or anything but the big punchers he faced, Maher, Fitz, Ruhlin, McCoy did the trick, not sure about Choynski but I think he did.

 

Jeffries looked much closer to 5'11 than 6'2. Fitz looks taller than him in the photo.