I have him #15 on my list. Great size, endurance, power for his era. Great dominance, 8 successful title defenses and well over 5 years of time as champ, both top 12 for HW's all time. Has an ATG win in Corbett, and some other top wins for the era. Didn't exclude on racial basis as much as most era whites. Only loss was to ATG Johnson 6 years after his last fight, was ridiculously shot. Doesn't have the acclaim or historical impact that Sullivan or Johnson had, so he doesn't fair as well on my ranking. Was well regarded by his era, but has been a bit forgotten. I doubt he'd fair well at all in the modern era H2H, but probably better than just about any other pre WWI HW.
I'll just drop my whole list on this thread.. 1. Joe Louis 2. Muhammad Ali 3. Lennox Lewis 4. Larry Holmes 5. Wladimir Klitschko 6. Mike Tyson 7. Rocky Marciano 8. George Foreman 9. Evander Holyfield 10. Joe Frazier 11. Sonny Liston 12. Vitali Klitschko 13. Jack Johnson 14. Jim Jeffries 15. Jack Dempsey 16. Ken Norton 17. Harry Wills 18. Rid**** Bowe 19. Ezzard Charles 20. Max Schmeling 21. Gene Tunney 22. Jersey Joe Walcott 23. Max Baer 24. Floyd Patterson 25. Tim Witherspoon
:good Very good list. Not all that different from mine. I'm going to wait until all the polling is done before I drop mine, but you've only got a couple that aren't on my list, and we're usually within about 5 spaces for HW we have.
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but thanks! And you've been posting quite reasonably in what I've seen from you in the last few days.:good (Hopefully that won't make you decide you're doing something wrong and change)
He beat Peter Jackson when Jackson was as shell of himself from tuberculosis, but I don't hink he every defended against another black man, did he? Anyway, 15 is a good ranking for beating Corbett, Fitsimmons and Jackson. The Johnson loss was fair and square since he did not giv ethe man as shot when he was prime. I believe he even admitted after that Johnson was just a better figther.
aha took you this long to notice I post pro wlad posts. Its just an observation, wondered what the reason was for several of them at once. The natural question is why right now? Concerning the topic here - I am not entirely sure Jeffires is an ATG. He had a long, decent defence record for his time plus a few scalps which perhaps gets him in outside the top 15 (and quite possibly outside 20), but there are too many with much more to rank him higher.
He defended his title against Hank Griffin, and was generally willing to break the color line for the right kind of money. He talked about defending his crown against Johnson, but Johnson blew it by losing to Hart.
