No, it means exactly nothing! Experienced followers of boxing will almost without exception claim, that things were better back in their day - when they were young and just starting to develop an interest in boxing. That's simply a fact of life!
A 39 years old Fitzsimmons was described as being able to hit Jeffries at will, when and where he wanted in their rematch.Anyone claiming he had good defensive skills it either deluded ,a fan boy, or both. Of all the polls I've seen listing Jeffries high in their top ten,nearly all of those voting never saw him fight!They are just going by hyperbole written back in the day when there had only been 3 heavyweight champions preceding him. And of those around in Sullivan and Corbett's time how may actually saw them fight? There was no valid comparison for them to form an objective opinion on. Film of Jeffries actually fighting,poor quality fleeting excerpts ,from the Ruhlin fight and the same jumpy ,grainy footage of him against Sharkey are decidedly underwhelming.Against Ruhlin he follows him around left hand at his waist.Ruhlin looks the faster on his feet and the more skilled. Against Sharkey, he simply waits for the much smaller man to charge him counters,and ties him up , without the size advantage he might have come second in this fight.