Jim Jacobs on Jack Johnson Vs James J Jeffries

Yes I can actually ,when Jeffries came back from taking the waters at Carslbad he was weighed .Good enough for you?

Or do you want to argue with Adam Pollack on this?

 

Show it to me in a media print. Not too much to ask for. Everyone pretty much says Jeffries had to lose a lot of weight, expect for you. You think he was 230 pounds a few months out, meaning he lost a grand total of 3 pounds for the fight.

 

He was, and Pollack;s book confirms it.

 

No problem.Pollack's book will give you all the details and info you will need .Until you have this information, you will always be the half blind man leading the blind!

 

It makes sense that Jeffries during his vaudeville exhibitions got himself in much better shape. I doubt Jeffries would sign a contract to fight Johnson without the knowledge that he could pare down to a fighting weight. He was not stupid. The article gives a very good rundown of the events from the beginning of 1909 to the signing of the contract as well as the fight itself.

 

If you look at a photo of the contract signing Jeffries does not look 300 pounds. You can see his cheekbones very well defined.

 

Whatever you say Mcvey. I asked for a news paper clip I can read. Why is that so hard to produce? You're hiding behind book that likely doesn't list the source in detail. It's a story at best.

Look -- Jeffries was the hope. News stories said he was in great shape. No he wasn't, he just shed fat, sort of like Ali did vs Larry Holmes to fool the odds makers He was old and slow, and didn't do well in sparring. The stories were made to hype the fight, that has not changed in over 100 years. If Jeffries stepped on a scale in 1909 and it read 300 pounds, most people would not be excited about the fight.

Jeffries was in the gym in 1909 under the watch of Van Court, the person who introduced him to LA boxing, and Van Court said he was nothing close to what he was and should stay retired.

 

These are all first hand accounts of the fight before, during and after. They cannot be dismissed.

 

This is the promotion poster. Jeffries looks pretty heavy here.

[url]https://picclick.com/Scarce-1910-Jack-Johnson-vs-James-Jeffries-Original-141493799493.html#&gid=1&pid=3[/url]

 

Look at the contract signing photo. In either case he is not 300 pounds.

 

He would not have signed the contract while he still weighed 300lbs.

 

That article says Jeffries trained down from 275 pounds and was in poor shape. This is what I'm saying. He was old and slow, not the ma he was and with 6 years of ring rust. Yet if you watch the films, many of the rounds were competitive.

 

Jeffries was obese when he referred some of Tommy Burns's fights.

I am not going to try to guess how much he weighed, but he clearly had to drop a lot of weight.

 

There is no question Jeffries was not the fighter he was. The account I posted was first hand from ringside and the bout was not described as competitive. The word “competitive” is never used when describing this bout.

 

Here is a snippet from a newspaper article: the Syracuse Post Standard from Dec 20 1909:

“Jeff said at Cincinnati Monday that he weighed 230 pounds. Johnson weighed in New York the other day and tipped the beam at 185. He is lighter now than when he fought Ketchel. Jeff says he weighed about 225 when he fought his benefit fights.”