Jim Jeffries Turns Down Offer of $20,000 To defend Against McVey In 1903.

Champion Jim Jeffries turned down a $20,000 offer to fight Sam McVey in 1903.

Stating McVey, having been recently defeated by as he put it "little fellow Johnson ",was not of championship class.

Three years earlier he had defended against John Finnegan 180lbs 4-2-4 who ,a few months prior to his challenge, had been floored 7 times and kod by Gus Ruhlin.

Less than a year after refusing McVey's challenge, Jeffries defended against Jack Munroe ,8-3-2.:think


http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc/cgi-bin/cd...srpos=17&e=-------en--20--1--txt-IN-Sam+McVey----#

 

Agreed, but neither had Finnegan ,or Munroe.
Jeffries stated he lost money on the Munroe defence , so if the merits of his challengers was secondary [,as Finnegan and Munroe show], why not take the $20,000.:huh?
For the record, Finnegan ,and Munroe lasted a total of 4min 10seconds.
I think Sam McVey, who had kos over Denver Ed Martin, Fred Russell ,and Kid Carter on his record, might have been able to improve on that.

 

I would make him a hot favourite to beat Mcvey at that time,and favourite to beat him prime for prime. $20,000 missed ,imo.

Still if he had beaten McVey, he could hardly have then excluded Johnson on grounds of colour ,could he?

 

All his defences were voluntary ,there were no ratings , no official bodies in the US ,so no mandatories. Finnegan ,and Munroe had one essential qualification, I think you can guess what that was.

 

Given that Jeffries stated he lost money defending against Munroe and Finnegan was a nobody, I don't see where the groundswell of suport comes from?

"In his first contest of the 20th century he faced relative novice Jack Finnegan who was outweighed by 50-60 lbs, the Brooklyn Edge described Finnegan as looking like a boy when compared to Jeffries. The fight would be stopped in the first round after Finnegan had been down 3 times in quick succession".


"Jeffries was matched with the relatively unknown palooka Jack Finnegan at the Cadillac Athletic Club in the old Masonic Hall at First & Layfayette in Detroit, Michigan. Finnegan's sole claim to fame was a previous quick knockout at the hands of Jeff's rival, Gus Ruhlin. When Jeffries pummeled and knocked out his victim in less than a round it proved the perfect hype for his fight with Corbett, which took place just five weeks later " .

Not much ground well of interest there.