Jeffries vs Johnson. The picks before the fight.

I think you are egging the pudding about how well Jeffries did,but never mind,it would have been a miracle if he had won that fight ,imo,the weight loss must have robbed him of his stamina,never the most elusive of boxers he depended a great deal on his durability to wear down a man,that wasn,t going to happen to Johnson who allways fought within himself. I don,t think Delaney had much imput ,with Jeffries what you see is what you get,and Johnson didn,t need any coaching from anyone.Do you think Jeffries would have done much better if he had a warm up say a 10 rounder with some one of the calibre of a Bob Armstrong,would the chance to shed the ring rust have made much difference ,do you think?,maybe Jeff would have been exposed as shot and the fight cancelled what do you think?

 

I am convinced that part of the reason so many people picked Jeffries is because they did not have the endless cases of once great champions coming back and taking a beating that we have to reffer to.

 

Plus he was undefeated,the previous three Champions had all met defeat.By the standards of the day he was a mighty impressive physical specimen,and would get noticed today,there was an aura about him ,"the strongest man in the world".

 

I do not consider it a given that Jeffries did not fight between the Munroe fight and the Johnson fight.

It is possible that he had a warm up fight against Sam Berger (the Audley Harrison of his era). Some reports indicate this.

 

We have all seen the fight ,or what is available ,and read the reports,you intepret it differently to me ,[and others],so you are not necessarily right,but I,m not looking for a rematch just exchanging views,if Jeff had had a tough 10 rounder against a fringe contender ,maybe his confidence and timing would have benefitted,he complained during the fight that his distance was off ,and his arms felt ***** ,usually symptoms of tension.Ive never read an account that gave Jeffries more than a couple of rounds ,and even then its,suggested that he won them by default,[Johnson being his usual lazy self],this isnt a refection on Jeffries,,not trying to tear him down ,he was "gone " as a serious contender,as was Jackson when Jeff belted him out ,or Fitz when Johnson stopped him.

 

The feeling before the time of the fight was the same as when Tyson fought Lewis in 2002:

While Mike had not been away for 5 years, he had treated the last 5 years in the ring as a joke, but many still urged that 'Tyson magic' to follow through into the healthy, active and formidable champion in Lewis.

Back to 1910; weeks before the bout there was all kinds of hyper bowl coming from Jeffries' camp about how he was killing sparring partners like 'the Jeffries of old'. It felt good to believe that Jeffries had got himself into decent shape and take what the papers said to heart rather than with a pinch of salt.

Jeffries' team got a once great fighter, but ultimately a retired farmer, into decent shape, but that was it. Jeffries in 1910 was just a poor imitation of the great champ he once was.

As it happened, Johnson carried and punished Jeffries to bump up his motion pictures share until he saw fit to let go of his dead carcass.