One reason why I rate Jim Jeffries verry highly among the great heavyweights.

The third Finnegan victim was Jack Bonner. a Very experienced and very tough fighter although again, mainly a middleweight. (WE cant forget that in these times there was no such thing as a light heavyweight, so choosing a middleweight fighter was really know different to choosing a cruiserweight fighter as an opponent or perhaps a light heavy). Anyway, Jack clearly was a good fighter. If he wasnt, i doubt he would have stepped up against world title claimant Peter Maher (apparently Matt Donnelen's book lists this fight). Bonner was stopped early though, but it shows courage.

A string of good wins included JOe Butler, Nick Burley, Dan Creedon, Australian Billy Smith lead to a fight for the undisputed middleweight title between Bonner and Tommy Ryan, in which Ryan got the nod over 20 rounds. This was followed by draws with Mccormick and George Byers and wins over Charley Sevenson and Dick Moore and Frank Childs. This actually saw Bonner as one of the top fighters of the time and in stellar form for his match with Finnegan.As with all his opponents, it seems that Finnegan wore out and ruined Bonner as a fighter. AFter the Finnegan fight, Bonner started most of his fights, some by ko to fighters he would have put up much braver efforts against in his prime. Still he did have enough left to take world class fighter like Jack O Brien, Jim Jeffords and Jack Blackburn. It is a shame that he was DQd against Marvin Hart, a win could ahve got him back on track.

Once again, the Bonner fight is a good result for Jack Finnegan. He has three good results leading up to the Jeffries match. This is enough for the likes of Golota, Ruiz or Holyfield to earn titles nowadays, so why is it not good enough for the fighters of yesteryear?

 

The Jack Kearle fight is the last fight for Finnegan and it is certainly Shrouded in mystery. It is the one and only known fight of Jack Kearle, and it is an impressive 3rd round KO of a future world Heavyweight title challenger! Was Jack Kearle a talented superstar who wasted it all, like Tyson or did he meet up with a fate similar to Stanley Ketchell?

I have no idea what happened for 5 years after the Kearle loss. There are a few rumours. One is that Finnegan and Kearle were arrested for throwing the fight and spent 5 years in a jail cell where Kearle taught Finnegan all his secrets and planned an ultimately unsuccessful assault on the undisputed world heavyweight scene.

 

Some new facts ,and they are allways welcome.:good

 

As a matter of interest matt, and since this thread is probably as close to a finnegan fan club tribute as we will ever get, what were the other fights you found?

 

It is a shame Finnegan retired when he did. If he didnt, he could have made the perfect comeback opponent for Jack Johnson to recover from the Choynski loss:admin

 

I seem to have hijacked this thread, but a quick scout of google shows that the earliest written record of the Michael Finnegan growing whiskers on his chinnegan was in 1914 when it was reportedly sung during the first world war. Common Sense would suggests that these sorts of songs sung are generally around about 10 or 15 years old when they are sung, so i guess that makes it fairly likely that the song is really about Jack Finnegan aka John Finnegan aka Michael Finnegan.

It would have made for one hell of a spine tingling entrance listening to Jack Come down to meet Jeffries to the Michael finnegan theme song. Bet that brought the crowd to life.

 

off the top of my head there was a 5 round win in 1898 over mike creedon

 

Well, you have convinced me. It had completely eluded me that Finnegan was such a legendary fighter in his day that a young Irish boxing fan, James Joyce, thought so highly of him that he later named the main character in his last novel, FINNEGAN'S WAKE, after him.

Of course, Johnny Davis was much better than his record would imply also. By common consent, Joe Louis was never quite the fighter after the Davis fight that he had been years earlier. Davis also ruined other good fighters. Omelio Agramonte after his fight with Davis went on to lose to Louis and Nino Valdes. Even more devastating was the impact of Davis' punching power on Bernie Reynolds. Reynolds was undefeated when he stepped into the ring with Davis. He went on to have an in and out career, ending up an easy victim of Marciano and Ezzard Charles. No wonder many top fighters like Walcott and Elmer Ray ducked Davis.

 

Probably have been too big at 185lbs, Jack preferred to take on welters , and middles ,didn't you know?

 

Was Pete Rademacher considered a fringe contender in 1957, when he fought for the title, with no professional wins at all on his record?

 

I wish I knew and had more footage of Jimmy Jeff, but I do not......... I always found him interesting......

BUT! As a pro fighter, his record stands like 18-1-2 (14) KO's or close to that.... I'm just going off my memory here.......... I have very little knowledge or info as to what he did as an amateur, if he even fought there........

Jimmy Jeff was a very solid and bulky man with power and finess for an early version of being a hulking fighter......... I rate him highly amongst the prior champs between 1887 thru 1960........ After '60, well, it gets tricky there........

Jimmy Jeff was the goods........... Is he really top-10 here in 2010? NO!!

MR.BILL

 

Good stuff. You should ping the editor at Box Rec.:good

 

I think i might have found the original lyrics for the Finnegan song.

There was a great man called Jacky Finnegan,
He grew iron cladding on his chinnigan.
Jim Jeffries came up and punched it innigan.
Poor old Jacky finnegan Finnegan.

Sorry, but i havent been able to stop singing the song all day, so i might as well try and get it stuck in everyone elses head for a while.

 

Excellent. Boxrec has Creedon's only loss as a loss to Kid McCoy by KO2. I am guessing that Finnegan might have ruined his career also!