The most under rated thing about old time heavyweight champions is....

I would look good against lil' Noah.

Big Jim is pretty light on his feet but he would be a ham n egger today. Seriously.

 

Do you believe their athletic capabilities are that far behind the likes of John Ruiz, Chris Byrd, Nikolai Valuev, Oleg Maskaev, Sam Peter, Lamon Brewster, James Toney, Monte Barrett, Calvin Brock, Hasim Rahman, Fres Oquendo, Jameel McCline, Eddie Chambers, Sergei Lyakhovich, all men who have recently held titles or done very well on world level?

Would you say that any of those fighters could dominate the late 1800's/early 1900's eras of boxing in more impressive fashion than either Jeffries and Johnson managed?

 

Well said.

 

In all seriousness, watching a 180lbs Jack Dempsey bend at the waist with speed and dexterity, grace even, to then swoop out of that considerate movement with irresistible fury is something you could not squeeze out of the best of fighters.

Some guys possessed an X-factor that was all their own. What you may sample on Youtube is a portrait of harnessed ability. Working on railroads, in hotels and farms will do wonders for your physical ability. Boxing just about everyday doesn’t hurt either.

The very word 'modern' is an ugly marker-pen, ignorantly striking through unknown quantities. These men had supposed disadvantages that they would turn into an advantage, if you fancied your chances that is...

 

No, I think each of the above mentioned would whip the two of them in same night. Honestly.

Athletic abilities? Am I supposed to be impressed Jeffries high jumped 5-10 when I did that at 13 years old? An oaf.

 

If only he had swooped out of the way of those punches that so often put his ass on the canvas.

Overrated.

 

High jumping then wasn't what it's now. The techniques were entirely different. Even the top high jumpers of the day were only jumping about the same amount so Jeffries could have even competed in the Olympics with that result.

So the thread starter's question remains, could Jeffries (or Johnson) compete today with their athletic talents if they were introduced to modern techniques? And you can be sure that Jeffries would be jumping a lot higher with today's technique.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN0lu3KCvFw[/ame]

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Don't tell me about high jump, son. I got to university on a long jump scholarship (24-2 as a junior) and know plenty about it. 5 foot 10 aint **** for even a 14 year old boy.

And the second of the pictures you post is of the STANDING HIGH JUMP not the traditional running high jump.

Sure, Big Jim was light enough on his feet but he was no Jim Thorpe. A fair athlete. So what? There's been thousands of those since him. Color me "not impressed."

 

Your post still doesn't say anything. Jeffries did not even jump with the same techniques of today's athletes, so how could you possibly compare them? You're going to base his ability to be a boxer on how high he jumped?

I'm pretty sure if you put all the men on the list of modern fighters that I provided earlier, the chances are they wouldn't prove to be exceptional at high jumping either. Some of their results could be almost comical. Doesn't devalue their worth as boxers.

 

Yeah, I don´t like the description modern too in that circumstances! It´s like saying the guys of today were better but that´s just not the cause. They fight under different rules and their techniques are more adept to them. That does not make them any better.

 

Me, for one.

 

How high can you jump, under Jeffries conditions?

 

5-10 drunk and in my sleep. I tried the high jump maybe 3 or 4 times and went 6-5 in a meet using the flop and a real heavy foam pit. (Though Vladimir Yashchenko went 7 foot 8 1/2 using the straddle technique so don't discount that.) Granted, I was not to the zoftig weight that I am now. However, I have dunked a basketball weighing an even 200 and scaling a towering 5 feet and 11 inches. And I ain't or weren't that special of an athlete. Jeffries' supposed accomplishments do not overly-impress me. Compare him to a real athlete of his own era like Jim Thorpe, who high jumped 6-6 with no training at all, ran a 10 flat 100 yards... oh, and was one of the greatest AMERICAN FOOTBALL players in history as well as baseball exponents... That was a real ****ing athlete.

And more protean to the discussion, Jeffries power in the ring was somewhat if not extremely overrated, whacking those old feeble middleweights into submission (finally)... I feel he would fail extraordinarily against the real heavyweight boxers of the epoch d'moderne.