Sullivan, 1907, on himself vs. Jeffries

Jeffries and Sullivan come out fighting, A hip toss by sullivan puts Jeffries to his back. Jeffries gets back to his feet, and dives at sullivan knocking him back into the ropes. A big left hook to the head floors Sullivan. An Angry Sullivan gets up, swings a roundhouse bar room right hook that connects flush on jeffries chin sending him crashing off the stage onto a piano. Referee Ruby Goldstein counts Jeffries out.

Sullivan KO 1 Jeffries

 

Thanks for this. Interesting to see Sullivan admitting a change/advancement in styles. Did he ever say this about later fighters than Jeffries?

Be very interesting to see if he thought it advanced further after Jeffries.

 

He was grudgingly complimentary to Johnson after the Jeffries fight, it must have been a bitter pill for him to swallow.

 

Do you have any quotes, Mcvey?

 

It's funny to see him admit the change, yet some people will insist he could mix with the fighters today. Looking at that, if you could get his opinion on Klitschko, he'd either wet himself in fear or pure lust, yet some sentimentalist posters on here, will refuse to accept that they'd wipe the floor with him.

Great fighter, sure, but things change.

 

Unlikely, since Jeffries was a better wrestler than Sullivan. He trained with Ernest Roeber, who held the world championship at the time.

Jeffries probably beats Sullivan under any circumstances -- Queensberry, LPR, MMA, barfight...

 

I'd like to see it

 

Jeffries does not beat Sullivan in a bar fight if a piano is around. Sullivan is known for knocking people off stages onto piano's.

 

I am not so sure. The colour line was a marketing gimmick and not much more. I dont think John L was anywhere near as racist as he is portrayed. In fact, from all reports, when he did meet face to face with Johnson it was John l who broke the ice first, and both parties apparently got on quite well after that with no problems. I really think racism was a much bigger problem in general society than the boxing world.

I am even more confident, that it would have been a much bitter pill for John L to swallow, that he had got old and let Corbett win the title (despite more marketing garbage that he was glad an american won it) than it was to see any other fighter win the title.

 

Guilalah,


I pretty much agree with Sullivan’s assessment. Jeffries was a unique heavyweight champion as he was the lone champion to combine size, speed, and power in both hands, durability, skills, defense and stamina. There really was not one like him until Sonny Liston.

Sullivan in my opinion was a more durable version of Peter Maher, with a trifle more speed and skill.


Do you have access to all the LA Times articles? There is one I came across at a premium paid service where Jeffries was introduced to the press in May 1896. This to me is interesting as Jeffries has no recorded fights at Box Rec until July 1896! It is unlikely a major news paper would give press to a 0-0 fighter. My thinking is there is a chance the LA Times article in May 1896 might mention some of Jeffries earlier fights.

Can you check? The start of the article is below:

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Los Angeles Times (1886-1922) - Los Angeles, Calif.
Date:
May 25, 1896
Start Page:
3
Pages:
1
Text Word Count:
696


Abstract (Document Summary)


Prophets are without honor in their own country, and pugilists are sometimes treated to the same dose. It has remained for the San Francisco sporting writers to discover in "Jim" Jeffries, the heavyweight boxer of the...