Jeffries isn't very highly regarded on the forum (well, depending on who you talk to), and Fury certainly isn't either after his performance against Ngannou. Could Jeffries beat this version of Fury?
Yes, of course he could, especially if it was a long fight of the kind available to Jeffries in his era.
No. Fury is too big. And Jeffries is too used to fighting much smaller older people from the earliest era of gloved boxing. If Furys having a bad night Jeffries would be having an even worse one.
Based on the premise of this thread, the question becomes: Do you think James J. Jeffries was better than Francis Ngannou is? My answer is: Jim absolutely was better. I cannot imagine anyone thinking he was not, but everyone is entitled to an opinion.
Jeffries, to some extent, is a victim of a somewhat too distant past. I am of the opinion he’d be in more discussions if he’d come along around Marciano’s time - & possibly he was a bigger, better Marciano. He does also have the trouble of all the smaller men - but lots of more recent fighters often get the benefit of the doubt to overcome opponents & challenges they were unproven against. It’s a tough one (rating him). I do rate Jeffries & think more people would too if he were born thirty or forty years later, but it was not to be. I’ll take a punt though that he could beat the Wilder of at least that performance.
My Grandfather was fond of saying: "Not many Heavyweight Lineal Champions would be happy looking across the ring at their next opponent and seeing James J. Jeffries standing there." We did not always 100% agree on everything Boxing but I sure 100% agreed with him on THAT!
