Just prior to Jacksons' abortive comeback against Jim Jeffries Sharkey said he was offered a fight with Jackson but declined ,he said he knew he would win because Jackson was by then just a shell but he did not want to fight a black man,he faced one, George Washington very early in his career, but not another.
Boxing fans never really know how much an older or inactive fighter has left until he enters the ring. The key is if the fighter can get back to or close to his old fighting weight, and looks sharp sparring during camp. Most of the time, the older fighter / inactive fighter fails badly, but every now and then he can come back from inactivity at an older age. See Eder Jofre, or Vitali Klitschko. In Peter Jackson's case, the Brooklyn Union, who had reported on the scene clearly stated that Jackson regained his form, and looks good. He's own people thought so. He was at his best fighting weight as well. Do you think they were purposely lying in this reporting? Jackson had a very good round one vs Jeffries. He was looked sharp. Reports say so. No one said he was shot at that point. In the round, two Jeffries hurt him with left hooks and floored him twice. Jackson was done for in round three. It wasn't stamina or conditioning related, it was durability related. That's how it went down. Considering the lack of recorded fights for Jeffries and how quickly he dispatched Jackson, it was a good win for him.
I'm not playing the game even if the thread starter's bias is as transparent as a new piece of glass. Just reporting what was seen by those covering him. I like Jackson. He was a gentleman type and held the Brittish Empire title, which at the time was roughly equivalent to the USA heavyweight title. The press liked him too. Had Jackson beaten Sullivan or Corbett for the title, I do not think there would be anything close to riots. Jackson fought good competition in general. Sullivan, of course, would not fight him. IMO Jackson's resume of fighters beaten and fought is greater than Sullivan's. I never read opinions on who would have won from the boxing people of the time.
When you consider the abuse Jackson put himself thru , his age, his inactivity and the fact that Jeffries remains almost unknown through out his career for early KO's I say it was brutalizing a name opponent that was far past his best ..
No need to debate this it is self evident to all who know anything about him and there are reams of copy commenting on his tragic decline ,going back to his stay in the UK 7 years earlier when the Times said Jackson was an alcoholic with trembling hands.Sharkey called Jackson." a has been," and Jeffries said after their debacle, "he was just a shell". Everyone knows Klan Man and his vanilla agenda by now , let's leave it there.. Sullivan, then past his best, would not entertain defending against Jackson. Less excusable was prime Corbett's ducking of him whilst champion. Corbett would only consent to fight Jackson in Jacksonville Florida ,and Jackson, fearing for his life ,refused to challenge him there. The NSC offered to stage the fight but Corbett would not fight there ,nor anywhere else. Once Jackson had returned to Australia, Corbett crawled out of the wood work calling Jackson a cowardly cur. I had a similar experience with a poster here. who regained his courage when he was safely esconced back in the US:think Corbett was a racist a**hole and sadly there are still some about.
Jackson had not fought for 4 years ,was 37 years old ,an alcoholic and consumptive ,7 years earlier the LondonTimes reported on his pitiful condition saying he could be seen on a daily basis walking along the Strand they commented that his hands shook. You could not bring yourself to admit he was a wreck because you need him to be in good condition to boost up your old racist hero Jim Jeffries. Sharkey called him," a has been," before the fight.Jeffries called him ,"a burnt out shell ,"after it. "After 1892 Jackson was unable to obtain fights.Past his prime,he was debilitated by fast living and probably even then tubercular.In March 1898,he was sacrificed to Jim Jeffries,who flattened him in 3 rds,and next year he suffered the 3rd of his losses in 37 fights,at the hands of a 4th rater in Vancouver.Money was raised to send him to Australia,where he toured with Fitzgeralds Circus,but was too ill to box." From Black Dynamite "Regarded as the greatest boxer of his era, Jackson had met ,in Corbett,his equal,at least in cleverness.Those who witnessed the affair,were unanimous on two points,.Corbett was a far greater fighter than the American public had credited him with being,and that , Peter Jackson,had passed the meridian of his fighting days,success had gone to Peter's brain,he had been living the life that an athlete could not afford to go through,without injury to his body." I took this from Boxing Scene.. In ,1892 he fought Frank Slavin,stopping him in 10rds,during this fight,however ,he suffered 2 broken ribs,which punctured his lung,this led to his tuberculosis". His most famous bout was a sixty-one round draw fought against James J. Corbett in 1891 at the California Athletic Club in San Francisco. By that time, however, Jackson was experiencing, like other black athletes, the effects of this countrys intolerance of interracial sport. He was repeatedly denied a rematch with Corbett and was never successful in arranging a bout with John L. Sullivan for the heavyweight championship. Both fighters drew the color-line against Jackson and continually dodged the challenges that the famous black boxer hurled at them. Frustrated by it all, Jackson spent the last few years of his life touring as an actor in Uncle Toms Cabin and traveling throughout America, England, and Australia searching for people to fight. His once beautifully proportioned body became ravaged by drink, late night hours, and forced inactivity. Finally, in July, 1901, Jackson died in his beloved Australia, bitter at being denied the opportunity to fight for the world title he so richly deserved. " However, by the time Jackson fought Jeffries, he was past his prime. Inactive, debilitated by fast living and probably already suffering from tuberculosis, from which he died in 1901, Jackson was no match for his younger opponent. Jeffries hurt his man with a hard blow to the body in the opening round. Embarrassed at being hit by a relative upstart, Jackson was goaded into trading toe-to-toe in the second round and, caught by two big left hooks, was dropped to his knees. Before the end of the round, he was down again but managed to rise and survive the second. In the third, Jeffries bore in and had the living legend out on his feet against the ropes after landing a devastating left-right combination. Not wanting to permanently injure his opponent, Jeffries turned to the referee, who stopped the fight and gave Jeffries the biggest win of his career thus far. " There is one contest I want and that is with Corbett. This is the wish of my heart" (National Police Gazette 26 November 1892:11). Just a few months after Jacksons victory over Slavin, Corbett defeated Sullivan to become the reigning American heavyweight champion. Soon after the fight, Sullivans trainer, William Muldoon, had the following advice for the new champion: "If I was Corbett I would at once draw the color line and fight no one but white men. [...] There should be colored champions and white champions, and I would like to see the line drawn once and for all" (National Police Gazette 24 September 1892:10). Within a month after the Corbett/Sullivan fight, Davies issued a challenge on Jacksons behalf to the new titleholder. He was too late. The proud champion was already engaged in a touring production of Gentleman Jack, a play that had been commissioned especially for its star, James J. Corbett. Corbett defended his decision in an interview he gave to the Referee: f John L. Sullivan was permitted to go his way in peace for four years between each of his great battles, and reap a rich harvest during that time, I think I should have at least one year accorded me before being compelled to leave the harvest field and defend the championship. I am clearing now on an average 2000dol a week on my theatrical venture, and if luck continues should have 100,000dol to the good at the end of the year. (25 January 1893:10) Corbett ducks Jackson re-match Despite the offer from Londons National Sporting Club to host the match, the only place that was acceptable to Corbett was the Jacksonville Athletic Club in Florida. Peters response was related by the San Francisco correspondent for the Referee: "I have nothing against the southern sportsmen," said Jackson to me. "I have met a great number of them in New York and elsewhere, and they are as thorough-going as the northern set. It is not the sporting men proper that I am afraid of, but the rabble. No one in this country needs to be told of the intense hatred of my race that exists south and I firmly believe that if I whipped Corbett, or any other white man down there, I would be shot before I could leave the ring." (19 September In negotiations with Jackson. As Jackson retired to the more hospitable climes of England, Corbett gloated that the black boxer had "sneaked out of the country like a cur," a "rank coward" who was chased from Americas precious shores by the champion who now openly declared "I bar nobody" (Referee 14 November 1894:6). Once Jackson was safely deposited thousands of miles away, Corbett challenged Jackson to fight, in London, knowing full well that the National Sporting Club was no longer willing to host the match. Perhaps sensing Jacksons broken-hearted state, challenges to Jackson multiplied from fighters who never before would have dared to cross the black champions path. To all of these, Jackson remained "in a state of quiescence, neither throwing down nor taking up challenges, or giving any sign that he was in the business" (Referee 9 October 1895:6). Reports of Jacksons poor physical condition increased, with not a few attributing Peters decline to the inevitable fate that strikes those who dare to fly too high: "Black Peters" fighting days are about over. He has been petted and spoiled by the aristocratic sports on the other side. He has had too much prosperity, and the result has been an almost complete collapse. [...] The people who once regarded him in the light of a rival for the championship [...] are not now as sanguine of his ability [...]. (National Police Gazette 25 May 1895:10) Peter Jackson entered the prize ring only once more in his life, in an ill-advised match with Jim Jeffries in San Francisco in 1898. Having done little training except for a few sparring exhibitions, Jackson was unable to stand af- ter the third round. The thorough routing confirmed the skeptics opinion that Jackson was "broke up" and beyond his prime. In 1900, "Poor Old Peter Jackson" returned to Australia. He died a year later, at the age of 40. As Wiggins asserts: The cause of Jacksons death was officially listed as tuberculosis.
