Roy Jones Jr vs Jim Jeffries

No PP,the monstrous hitting lou del valle put paid to jones on that score....:smoke

 

The account of the fight in the Durango Democrat was NOT written by Corbett,its on Box Rec,and gives Corbett a handy lead at the time of the stoppage.

 

How can you judge a fight like this?

 

Not according to the Durango Democrat.

 

Weight-draining complicates the matter somewhat. Odd though it sounds to us, Corbett drained water weight for his heavyweight bouts because fighters in that period believed that a "dry" fighter fought better. Corbett was a bigger man than Jones--even weightlifting 191 pound Jones. Look at the guy's frame when he's 60 years old and sparring with Tunney. The "Jeffries beat smaller men" argument works with Tyson-Jeffries or Foreman-Jeffries, but not RJJ-Jeffries.

And for those who think that Jones would KO Jeffries: well, it's possible, but you have to assume two things first:

1) The early 20th century talent pool was tiny.
2) Jack Johnson was a wimpy puncher. He needed 15 rounds to wear Jeffries down with some really vicious, snap-the-head-back punches using basically MMA gloves.

Of course, boxing has changed tremendously since Jeff's era, and without wrestling, Jeff would have trouble. Jones is a better pick than most, especially if he used the rules to his advantage. In his own era, Jeffries beats Jones. In the 21st century, this is hard fight to pick.

 

A 39 year old Fitz weighing 172, who hadnt fought for 3 years, goes 8rds with Jeffries.
A 167lbs Fitz goes 11rds.
A 33 year old Corbett weighing 183 who hadnt fought for 2 years , goes 23rds.

Is it out of the question that Jones could be competitive?

At least as much as the two inactive veterans that Jeffries faced.

Can we get a form line from how Jones would do against Corbett?
I haven't made a pick just thinking out loud.

 

This is a pretty good article too!

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9506E6D91E31E033A25751C1A9639C946197D6CF

It has a good round by round as well!

 

Jones was never that hard to pin on the ropes. He was extremely fast with his legs as with his hands, but would often concede territory rather than attempt to go off to the sides. That wasn't a problem at 175 or below, because charging Jones was a recipe to get knocked out, but I'd imagine that it would be against a big Heavy who would be willing to take one to get one in.

 

Fitz and Corbett proved hemselves much more durable than Jones. Ruiz landed some shots on Jones what would have happened if Jeffries would have been the one landing instead?

 

Have they?

Remember that Jones fought 180-190lbs opponents during his entire LHW campaign. In other words, they were just as big as 90% of the classic heavyweights. Jones got layed out when he was older, but so did Fitz. Like Jones, i think Fitzsimmons' most apparent weakness was his jaw. Corbett i'll give you.

But think about it. Jeffries still needed 10+ rounds to put these smaller guys away, wearing tiny gloves. What happens if Jeffries lands his punches instead of Ruiz? Who knows. Maybe Jones spends the next minute staring at the rooftop lights. Maybe Jones takes it. All we know is that Jeffries often needed a lot of rounds to wear his opponent down. Can he do that with modern rules, i.e. only 12 rounds with little wrestling?

How Corbett looked in his 60's has no relevance here. "Marciano weighed 230lbs in his 40's!" So what? When Corbett was in fighting shape, he was around 185lbs, just like Jones was. They even look very similar:

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(i wonder which of those photos will look more ridiculous, 100 years from now)

I agree.

Champions are a product of their time. Call it evolution if you will - though that is a misleading term, because people associate it with improvement over time, which is wrong. It's adaptation over time.

A guy like Wladimir Klitschko is a typical product of our time: his body size and athleticism as well as style is perfectly suited for 12 rounds and months of time between fights to recover (bigger people are more injury prone). But how well would he fare in 20+ round fights with tiny gloves and a lot of wrestling? I'm sure he'd have his share of success, but i guarantee that his career won't be as good as it currently is.

The same thing goes for Jeffries: he was great under under the ruleset of his time, but how would he handle a 12 round limit, large gloves (meaning different boxing technique, glove blocking, combinations, etc), and the fighters being separated during a clinch?

 

modern rules and jones puts on a clinic. sorry, i saw that someone wrote jeffries was "an all around athlete" and although this may be true hes not nearly the natural athlete that jones is and gets completely outboxed by jones.

 

I made the comparison because Marciano got fatter as he got older, while Corbett stayed in pretty good shape. Check out his footage playing around with Sullivan, McCoy, Courtney, etc. and you'll see the same thing.

With anything close to comparable training, he would have been bigger than Jones. He had a larger frame to work with.

Come to think of it, Jones vs. Corbett would be an interesting match. :think

 

Im not sure who the bigger '****' is in that picture? :smoke

 

Some good points, I sill think Fitz is has he beter chin. Jones didn't fight punchers like Jeffries, Choinsky or even Johnson. And Fitz took some heavy shots from them.

Well, Jeffries needing time may very well be due to the fact that the fights were scheduled for a longer disance and thus the workrate was lower.
Jeffries was a much bigger puncher han Ruiz. I have no doubt that one solidly landed punch from him on Jones' chin would end it.
I don't think Jeffries would do exceptionally well when he just would have been put from his era into today's but he would hold his own. Every great would be able to hold his own in any era imo - there are exceptions of course. With some time and preperation I'm sure he would have a rivalry with the Klitschkos for hw dominance.
But this is all speculation.

:good