New Book - In the Ring With James J. Jeffries

When a fighter like Jeffries retires at his peak, if we do not count the Johnson catastrophe, it leads to a lot of what if's, but the plus side is that Jeffries lived a long and healthy life.

 

I don't think ,even a prime Jeffries beats Johnson ,but he would have given him a hell of a fight .The winner would automatically have had his standing enhanced, imo.
Jeffries was a somewhat taciturn , surly man ,but he was a good friend to the people he liked and respected,like Sharkey and Fitz.Jack Dempsey allways spoke highly of him as, "that grand old guy".

 

Got through the chapter on the Sharkey defense. Ryan and Delany didn't get along to well (if I may 144-ly understate).

Both came out of the fight with bum left arms, though I'm inclined to think Jeffries hurt his a lot earlier in the contest.

Mildly controversial decision, but no more than mild; would probably be more controversial today but, hey, they both knew a strong finish would count for a lot; if they knew otherwise, Jeffries might have fought a bit different.

Kinda scary to think of Jeffries, coming in a bit light, going 25 rounds under the arc lights, and taking champagne .... sounds like a perfect storm for a real tragedy.

 

You would not last 30 seconds...

 

If you compare and contrast many of the same fighters they fought, Jeffries did better vs Griffin, Munroe, Choynski, and Everett.

Johnson himself called Jeffries the greatest, along with Dempsey, Corbett, Langford, Sharkey, Burns, et al.

Judging by Johnson mediocre results when Jeffries was champ, he's not going to win.

The record shows that when Johnson was matched vs. Men close to his size than could hit a bit and were neither old or green, he lost. See the Choynski, Griffin, Hart, or Klondike matches....and recycle your bag your excuses.

As champ, Johnson was in fact out boxed a bit by middle weight O'brien, should have lost via TKO vs. Battling Johnson if the fight was scheduled for 20 rounds as the Cyber Boxing Zone reports, was floored by middle weight Ketchel, and had a close points win over a Moran. I have all the news reads, and have seen more film on him than you have.

 

I think a prime Johnson-Jeffries match could go either way. I find it difficult to rule out a possible victory for Jack or Jeff.

I wonder if the past his prime Jeffries could have done anything different to improve his performance against Johnson when they actually did fight. Probably not. I believe Jeff did not have any significant tune up fights when he came out of retirement before he met Johnson and if Jeff had won a tune up fight it would not mean much unless it had been against someone of Johnson's caliber.

Many thought Jeffries could defeat Johnson at the time but I can recall an interesting example of some of the doubt that was apparently out there. It was a newspaper photo of Jeffries in training and I think the caption said "Jeffries Tortures His Middle Aged Body Into Shape".

 

You have not seen more film of Johnson than I have .
As to the rest of your tired spiel , I can't be bothered to respond ,its the , "same **** ,different day".You are The Classic's equivalent of " Ground Hog Day", get a life.

 

Read the chapter on the Jeffries-Sharkey film. There were two films, Edison's and Biographs. Sounds like Biograph was cutting edge for its day. A shame it wasn't well preserved. Apparently the fight looked more even yet on film than in person. Jeffries cut it prettty close. On the other hand, it showed he could use his right with some versatility when he had to. Interesting that Sharkey was said to be the better infighter. Again, it's hard to judge Jeffries on this fight, given that he might have (I think probably did) reinjured his left in the 2nd round. I'll be curious, in upcoming fights, how viewers evaluated Jeffries inside work.
It's interesting to see Sharkey elevating his game, strength-conditioning-wise, to contend with Jeffries. I suspect it will be the same with Corbett.
Earlier in the book, Jeffries states he's stronger heavier but faster lighter. The little bit of browse-ahead I've done suggests that he was slower in the crouch, faster upright. So he probably could have been stronger, and just as fast, heavy and upright. So the rationale for the crouch was probably Jeffries was harder to hit. It will be interesting to see if his opponents adapt to Jeffries crouch; if they do, and if the crouch looses its distinctive advantages, will Jeffries do more upright fighting? We'll see -- I'm just wondering if the crouch will be a bit like a new fangled NFL defense that stumps the whole league one year, but eventually the offenses adapt, so that the defense in question becomes just one option among many. Again, we'll see.

 

To whom it concerns The Jack Johnson v's Jim Johnson fight was scheduled for only ten rounds.

 

How about a knife to the throat? :think

 

Do we have any french sources that support this?

 

Yes. From memory, L'aero and several others, Equipe and more for the days leading up to the fight. I'll check them out.

 

Oh yes I have. We have already been the fact that you have not seen the full 20 rounds of Johnson vs. Moran, and you missed quite a bit on the Willard fight too.

There is a good chance you never saw Johnson spar with Kid Cutler either. But I have.