Jim Jeffries v Jess Willard?

Munro yes (hindsight is wonderful of course), beyond that Johnson is not a contemporary issue.

 

That's not what she said.

 

If we are talking about the committed Willard of 1915, I see this one as being closer than most here.

The difference between the two is that Jeff always got himself into top shape and came to fight.

Willard seems to have had an indifferent commitment to boxing and turned in a lot of lackadaisical and not up to snuff performances.

But Willard fought guys as big or, I think at least in Morris' case, bigger than Jeffries. Jeff was certainly a far better athlete than the guys Willard was in with--with the possible exception of McCarty, and of course Johnson--but that Willard could easily handle big fellows does give this one an interesting twist.

Jeff beat the far better fighters other than Johnson, but all much smaller men. How he fares against a much bigger and stronger man in the infighting would be interesting. Jeff was washed up against Johnson, but his poor show in tight leaves a lot of questions about how he could handle Willard, and his vulnerability to Johnson's uppercuts certainly doesn't auger well against Willard whose best punch by reputation was his right uppercut.

One has to go with Jeff as the more consistent fighter, but this one does have the smell of a possible upset if the committed and in-shape Willard of 1915 shows up.

Of course, prime Jeff would be an easy pick against the old, fat Willard of the Dempsey and Firpo fights, but that Willard should be matched with the Jeff of 1910, and then who knows.

 

How many opponents did they face who were their size or even comparable? The answer is not many and perhaps even none. Both of their styles relied on imposing themselves physically on their opponents which works quite nicely when you're facing a man 4 inches shorter and 30 lbs lighter.

 

Not nearly as fair with Willard, if modern record sites like fightsrec are accurate.

Willard was a real giant, but he fought men close to his own size at times.

Willard was 236, Carl Morris 6' 4" and 234 for their fight.

Dan Daily was 6' 6" and 207 for Willard

Luther McCarty was 6' 4" and 203

Jack Johnson was 225

Frank Moran and Arthur Pelkey were inches over six feet and over 200 lbs.

In contrast, Jeff wasn't in against many over 200. Johnson, to whom he lost badly, and perhaps Munroe and Ruhlin. Nothing like the big guys Willard fought in either height or weight.

 

Thanks for that and I stand corrected. but would you say that Willard benefitted from "usually" being the bigger man?

 

He was always the bigger man,

and he benefitted from it.

But he would also be much the bigger man against Jeffries,

while Jeff was always the bigger man his own day, he would be smaller than Willard, and Morris, and would not have nearly the physical advantages against many of Willard's opposition he enjoyed against his own victims.

Jeff was a big man in his day. Willard was a giant.

 

It is important to remember that while they did generally have the size advantage, there were guys of similar size in the world title picture, who were not duplicating their results.

They weren't the only big man of their era, they were the best big man of their era, much like Wladimir Klitschko is today.

You also have to look at the common factors with the guys who gave them trouble, and they seem to have been troubled more by smaller faster fighters, rather than guys who minimised their physical advantages.

 

There were definitely a lot of people who thought that Jeffries should have fought Johnson instead of Munro, but I have never seen the same argued of Corbett.

I think the general feeling was that Corbett had earned a rematch, and indeed might have been unfinished business.

 

I suspect that there was a great deal of interest in a Jeffries-Corbett rematch, especially at the 20-round distance.

A lot of guys started fighting a lot less once the Horton laws passed in New York and all that east coast money left boxing. People understood it didn't necessarily mean the old guard was out of boxing, just that they didn't have as (financially) attractive offers to fight. Given the drama of the first Corbett-Jeffries fight, is Corbett going to immediately rematch for gates that are peanuts compared to what they were previously getting? If he waits a bit, trying to see if plum offers come along, is that unreasonable?