It is fairly reliably established that Jeffries had a serious injury to his left arm going into the fight with Sharkey, and that this injury limited the use of his left arm. How would Sharkey have fared if both of Jeffries arms had been fully operational? Would Jeffries have broken the sailor down and stopped him?
True, but Jeffries was not near his peak, and Sharkey probably wasn't either. It seems to have been quite a dull afair compared to the later fight, with Sharkey fighting safety first.
Sharkey fought half the fight with a broken knuckle, and the last few round with broken ribs. How about if he was sound? Below is report of the lead up to the fight. Jeffries was 10-8 favourite ,and Corbett bet $1,000 on him. http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAAIBAJ&pg=1148,3472554&dq=tom+sharkey&hl=en Below a report of the fight. http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAAIBAJ&pg=6382,2145081&dq=tom+sharkey&hl=en
Jeff inflicted grievous injuries on Sailor Tom with his less vaunted right alone, even putting Sharkey on the deck. Given a healthy left arm, yes, Jim stops him before the final bell, just as he avenged his draw with Ruhlin in their title rematch.
The next-day primary source report. Not a dull fight at all, but a torrid, "exciting" and "bitterly contested" fight(though maybe, as you stated, it was dull "compared to" their later fight) : http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l...key&y=12&x=8&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=5 And I think we can agree that Jeff was closer than further as far as peak is concerned considering he won the heavyweight championship of the world a year later:good He definitely wasn't considered "green" at the time.
Just for the record, prime for prime I think Jeff beats him every time. But Sharks always gives him a rough day.
Isn't this comparing apples and oranges, though? Sharkey's injuries came from the fight itself. Jeffries was injured before the fight, while Sharkey's injuries came from punching Jeffries' thick skull and getting hit in the ribs. Sharkey would have presumably received similar injuries regardless of whether Jeffries was one- or two-handed, whereas Jeffries with a healthy left arm would have remained two-armed throughout the fight.
I somewhat like a 100% Jeffries to stop Sharkey late, 1899. Not a sure thing, though, as the 'Tommy Ryan' Jeffries was rather the cautious type, and had not the punching form of the 03/04 model. The previous meeting with Sharkey, it was reported prior to the bout that Jeffries hands were in bad shape. However, I don't fully dismiss the fact that their previous meeting had gone a 20 round distance. I guess, given a 100% Jeffries in 1899, I'd give him 3-2 to stop Tom in 25. No more than that, though, because Sharkey was a tough cookie, and again Jeffries wasn't as active or manually skilled as he'd be in a few years.
My point is fighters get injured, Jeffries got his arm injured in a training session someone threw a medicine ball to him ,and he twisted his arm catching it.He also had a rash come up on his face. Jeffries was not 100% for Sharkey ,for much of their fight Sharkey was not 100%,how these things occur does not alter that fact. http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...613,4421729&dq=jim+jeffries+injured+arm&hl=en
I think that a clear distinction has to be made between an injury that happened in training, and an injury that was caused by a punch during the fight. It is definitely to Jeffries credit that he took the fight at such a disadvantage.