Langford-Jeffries

When does the fight happen?

Their primes dont really overlap as such.

Are we going to use the time machine or find a neutral date?

 

You can hardly blame Langford for not wanting to fight Jeffries ,during Jeffries reign as champ Sam never scaled above 156lbs,and usually fought at around welterweight.As early as 1897 Jeffries was scaling 212lbs and steadily increasing in weight.By the time Langford had matured into a LH Jeffries was long off the scene.Langford at 156 took a hiding from an 185 lbs Johnson ,being floored in the process,why would he have gone looking for Jeffries?

 

I would take Jeffries in a close war of attrition, he was the natural Heavyweight ,it might be a little like the Sharkey fights with Langford scoring more than Tom , but ultimately taking heavy punishment from the bigger man.P4P I would put Langford streets ahead of Jeffries, but I think this match up suits the "Boilermaker"

 

bump

 

Give me Langford by 15-round decision.

Outweighed 195 lbs to 158 lbs, a 23-year-old Tar Baby was floored twice in the eighth by Jack Johnson, yet rose to, by all accounts, fight the Galveston Giant tooth-and-nail to a 15-round decision loss.

Some 4 years later, at 27, an age generally considered to be the peak age for a heavyweight, Langford would mature to near 200 pounds. I see this Langford decisioning Jeffries.

Jeffries brings, as mentioned above, holding tactics and an iron chin, in addition to tremendous power and stamina, but none of this is anything Langford hadn't seen before. Johnson was the quintessential holder of the smaller man, yet Langford went the distance. On the other hand, Jeff never saw anything like Sam.

Sam Langford had the power to put to sleep black juggernauts such as Jeannette, Wills and McVey, but he doesn't even need to kayo Jeffries. He was an excellent boxer and this would suit him perfectly to avoid and counter against the comparatively much cruder Boilermaker.

On the other hand, one well-placed punch and Jeffries might prevail.

A very well-paired matchup, indeed, and, yes, important historically. Some still consider Jeff the greatest of the heavyweights and Langford's status will forever remain uncertain due to the color barrier. But his extraordinarily successful resume, through the divisions and against all-time titans such as Gans, Ketchell and the great colored fighters, is much, much deeper than Jeffries'.

 

I think this would be a lot like the Fitzsimmons fights in that Jeffries would look like he had been through a threshing machine. I also think it is likley that Langford puts the boilermaker on the canvas.

Jeffries would be too strong even for Langfors so it is probable that Langford would use his mobility to set up punching angles andthat all being equal he would beat Jeffries to the punch most of the time.

I think that the outcome depends upon the rules. The longer the fight the more it would favour Jeffries. Jeffries should press for a 45 round bout here which would alow him to outlast and wear down Langford. A shorter fight likley sees Langford taking a decision.

I suggest that 20 rounds plus is the break even point for Jeffries.

 

Good post,while I disagree with the outcome ,it is very feasible.[Langford scaled 156 to Johnson's 185]

 

Langford.

 

What's your verdict on the book?

 

Sam had supposedly said that he would never fight jeffries because he was afraid of him. But it was thought at the time that he had said that to gain favor from the white boxing world. I'm not sure if its true or not, but Langford's manager had told a newspaper journalist that the night before jeffries fought johnson that langford and jeffries had sparred. He had said that langford knocked jeffries down 3 times in the second and stopped him either the 3rd or the 4th. Not sure if it's true or not and it probably isn't because as they had thought at the time, jeffries would not have fought johnson the next day if he had been so easily knocked out.
I also read that Stanley Ketchel had seen Jeffries training a few days before the Johnson bout and that he had planned to knock Jeffries out right before the opening bell to save Jeffries the embarrassment of being knocked out by Johnson. And when the promoter heard about this, he knew Ketchel was serious and this was why he wasn't allowed at the fight. Thoughts?