Hard to say. Jeanette won the most famous fight of the two in the 49th round overcoming 10+ knockdowns, but that was pretty much a finish fight. Some old time historians rank McVey in their top ten, but I have never seen Jeanette placed in anyone's top ten. With the one lone film of Jeanette vs Langford ( Confirmed, and Langford knocks Jeanette all over the ring! ) under tight wraps, itÂ’s hard to say how good Jeanette really was. I think Jeanette's long suits were stamina, surviving, and counter punching. McVey was a legit heavy with a KO punch.
I had Jeanette higher last time i did a list, but they're neck and neck in my view. I agree with Mendoza that McVey has the better straight up attributes, but Jeanette is an interesting product of his era.
Jeanette was defintley better. Mcvea got absolutley dominated by jack johnson each time so badly that mcvea refused to ever fight him again. Jeanette gave jack johnson some very close battles, johnson later called him the best fighter he ever faced. How does Mcvea have better attributes? Jeanette could sock too, but he was the much better boxer.
I haven't studied their records in a while, but I think McVey might have done better against common opposition. Who won their series? I'm too lazy to look it up, and I'm also leaving. It would be nice if I had an answer by the time I got back. Yep. Pretty nice...
All you need to do is compare how they did against the best man of the era..Jack Johnson. Its not even close, Jeanette clearly wins that arguement.
I agree with you that Jeanette should be edging it, and that he did better against Johnson, but i think you have to go a bit further with the case than that. There is a styles issue here, a slugger is going to get ruined by Johnson about 100 times out of 100 because of his style, never mind the rest.
Do you think the fact than McVey was a teenager with less than 15 recorded fights has something to do with him losing vs Johnson three times? I think that is a fair point. Johnson stated that he felt McVey was better than Jeanette. However its hard to say if Johnson was being honest. Why do I say this? McVey was from his home state of Texas. When McVey died young, Johnson paid for the funeral. Jeanette's harsh words about Johnson drawing the color line agaisn this old friends likely irked Jack. I tend to think that Jeanette was more of a professional in temrs of staying in shape than McVey was, but maybe McVey at his best was the better heavyweight.
