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

Fleischer first came out with the Ring Record Book in 1942. Here's what is in the 1957 edition about Jeff's career, letter for letter:

James J. Jeffries
Born, April 15, 1875, Carroll, O. Nationality, American. Weight, 220 lbs. Height, 6 ft. 1 1/2 in. Managed by Bill Brady.
1896
-Hank Griffin, Los Angeles...............KO 14
Jim Barber, Los Angeles..................KO 2
July 2-Dan Long, San Fran..............KO 2
1897
Apr. 9-T Van Buskirk, San Fran........KO 2
May 19-Henry Baker, San Fran........KO 9
July 17-Gus Ruhlin, San Fran.............D 20
Nov. 30-Joe Choynski, San Fran........D 20
1898
Feb. 28-Joe Goddard, Los Angeles.....KO 4
Mar. 22-Peter Jackson, San Fran.......KO 3
Apr. 22-Pete Everett, San Fran.........KO 3
May 6-Tom Sharkey, San Fran...........W 20
Aug. 5-Bob Armstrong, New York........W 10
1899
June 9-Bob Fitzsimmons, Coney Isl......KO 11
(Won Heavyweight Title)
Nov 3-*Tom Sharkey, Coney Island......W 25
*Title bout.
1900
Apr. 6-Jack Finnegan, Detroit..............KO 1
May 11-*Jim Corbett, Coney Island......KO 23
*Title bout.
1901
Sept. 17-Hank Griffin, Los Angeles........W 4
Sept. 24-Joe Kennedy, Los Angeles......KO 2
Nov. 15-*Gus Ruhlin, San Fran.............KO 5
*Title bout.
1902
July 25-*Bob Fitzsimmons, San Fran.....KO 8
*Title bout.
1903
Aug. 14-*Jim Corbett, San Fran..........KO 10
Dec. 19-Jack Munroe, Butte, Mont.....Exh. 4
*Title bout.
1904
Aug. 26-*Jack Munroe, San Fran.........KO 2
*Title bout.
Following his triumph over Jack Munroe in their return engagement, Jeffries, finding that opponents were scarce for title matches, decided to retire. He induced Marvin Hart and Jack Root to fight for his vacated title, which they did on July 3, 1905, with Jeff, the referee. Hart won and Jeff dubbed him the champion.
After Tommy Burns had proved his right to the vacated title by eliminating all challengers Jack Johnson beat Burns for the title in Australia and then Jeff came out of retirement in an effort to regain the throne.
1910
July 4-Jack Johnson, Reno, Nev-------KO by 15
(Heavyweight Title Bout)
1921
May 3-Jack Jeffries, Los Angeles........Exh. 3
Died, March 3, 1953, Burbank, Calif.

 

1943 RRB does not list the first Griffin or Barber fight. It does list Finnegan. Same with Everlast 1925.

 

Jeffries had his last fight as champion in April 1904.In that year Jack Johnson had 5 fights.
Black Bill
Sandy Ferguson
Sam McVey
Denver Ed Martin
Frank Childs
Johnson won them all ,I think he would have been a better opponent than Jeffries last defence, Jack Munroe.
In my opinion the statement ,"finding opponents were scarce for title matches", should be qualified by inserting WHITE ,in front of "opponents."

 

Didn't Hart beat Johnson around this time? Was there really a demand for a Jeffries-Hart match?

 

No that was a year later.
Of course Jeffries could have defended against Hart.In 1904 Hart had 5 fights a win and a draw with Ruhlin,a draw with Wille and Gardner and a win over Ferguson .

 

Okay...let me look it up:

Marvin Hart beat Jack Johnson in March, 1905.

Jim Jeffries retired, vacating the belt, in May, 1905.

So, had Jeffries not retired, I think Hart would have been the #1 challenger and next logical opponent for Jeffries.

 

Jeffries retired in March 1905 ,but his last defence was in April 1904, against a man not worthy of a title shot, whereas Johnson, in 1904 was.OK?

 

Thank you for catching that inadvertent omission. (That was a painstaking post to create.)

Officially a ND.

Actually recorded as a five round NC where the referee left the ring deeming them to be faking, according to boxwreck. (There's no entry for this in my Ring reference, although there are three for Ferguson and Johnson from 1903.)

Described in boxwreck as a poor fight until the last second knockout.

An impressive quick knockout win

Perhaps, but Jack failed to outperform Jeff against this common opponent when they did square off in 1905. Johnson sometimes suffered from a lack of aggression.

True. I wonder if this is identical to how Fleischer recorded Jeff's record through the first five editions, during Johnson's lifetime. (Fleischer and Johnson were friends, but it was a different social climate then.)

Johnson and Hart both failed to impress when the original "Marvelous Marvin" out hustled Jack over 20 rounds. Johnson had to show something more in the way of some fire than he had been up to that time.

I'm convinced Jeff would have out hustled Johnson at that stage of Jack's career. Johnson didn't seem to have one lit under him until after Burns claimed the title. Maybe it's better off for Jack that he didn't challenge Jeff at that early date. The press of the day savaged him for his performance against Hart. (They also ripped Gans mercilessly for quitting against Erne 110 years ago. It took Joe a long time and a lot of fights to recover his reputation enough to get another shot at Frank.)

Although it was before he became champion, the fact does remain that Jeff crossed the color line with Jackson as Corbett did, although it took Canadian Burns to finally provide a shot at the title.

 

In fairness to Gans, some fight reports have him virtually compelled to quit after an Erne head butt displaced an eye from its socket.

Interestingly, C. Moyle's Sam Langford book reports that, even after dominating Langford, Johnson's stock as someone who could fight Jeffries (already a couple years retired) fell with the press.

 

No criticism was intended, but I thought it was important that the fact that there were other,more suitable challengers out there for Jeffries, should be noted.
The sentence implied Jeffries retired with no further worlds to conquer,and I dont think that was quite the case.
You are entirely correct on the Ferguson fight .MY ERROR ,APOLOGIES.
I would agree,that, whatever the merits of the decision against Johnson in the Hart fight ,his performance was less than overwhelming, he picked the wrong time to loaf.
Its very possible that Jeffries would have beaten Johnson at that time stage,its possible he might have beaten him prime for prime. My point was that he was a more suitable challenger than Munroe, I would say Hart was too, even before he beat Johnson.

 

People who are "not worthy" for one reason or another get title shots quite often throughout history. The fact remains that, when Jeffries retired, Johnson was no longer the #1 contender for his belt. Hart was. Whatever your point is, I'm not getting it.

 

Ok .When Jeffries fought Munroe ,Johnson was the standout challenger.The thread implied that Jeffries retired because there was basically no one left to fight. I contend that Johnson and Hart were left, and were both more deserving of a title shot a year earlier, when Munroe received it

 

As far as the Hart fight goes, one factor was that prize fights were no longer legal in New York, purses in California were a lot smaller and didn't go nearly as far past training expenses. Jeffries was getting a bit tired of being champ, there wasn't the former financial reward, so he retired, as he had every right to do.

Hart and Johnson were more qualified contenders than Munroe; but Monroe was probably better $, 'cause of all the hoo-hah that had been written about his exhibition against Jeffries.

I think Johnson was viewed as a better contender than Hart, in the sense that more people thought maybe Johnson could make Jeffries extend himself. Some people didn't want a black challenging for heavyweight title, and some people were more in Johnson's corner than they otherwise would have been because they thought he wasn't being treated sportingly.

 

This makes sense to me. I doubt if Jeffries, or most others around in 1905, though Hart would stand much of a chance of lifting Jeffries' belt. As for Jim's 1904 defense against Munroe: I don't blame Jeff for going for the easier defense and where the most money was.

 

Interestingly, i just realised that Bonner went a total of 60 rounds with the murderous punching Kid Carter, who Kod Jack Johnson's conqueror Joe Choynski in a single round. And to prove it wasnt a fluke, he did it not once but twice. Finnegans stock goes up again.