Which heavyweight champion hurt his legacy the most by retiring in his prime or near

Oh please. You said yourself Jeffries as champion defeated Johnson.

:deal

Sam McVey was not very good judging by a 1913 film of him. He was raw then. Just imagine how bad he was starting out?

Jeffries did fact fight Hank Griffin, famously known for beating Jack Johnson and drawing with him twice. Jeffries toyed with Griffin in 4 rounds as champion flooring him several times. If Griffin somehow knocked him out, he's the next lineal champion. This proves the color line could be passed by for the right terms.

There are articles in print where Jeffries mentioned Johnson's name as a potential opponent. What a fighter says and does can change if enough money is up.

I actually think Jeffries biggest mistake was not fighting Johnson in his prime. He would have knocked him out and retired un-defeated.

Johnson could stand and fight with Marvin Hart for 20 rounds.

 

LOL, so Johnson would be better in 1906? If Jeffries is active he smashes him, and you know it and said it.:deal

Cox has his own website, wrote articles for Ring Magazine, and is a well-respected historian. You don't know much about that.

As for the last question, Cox might not have seen a prime Jeffries on film, so the question is difficult to answer. I can say Jeffries hit harder than Ketchel, who floored and according to papers buzzed Johnson, and had more skills than Willard based on the historical input of the times.

Neither Ketchel or Willard were skilled, yet they dramatically did something to Johnson as Cox showed. :deal Using the data and his theme I would guess he thinks whatever skills Jeffries had were more than enough to do the same.

PS: I see you always forget to mention Hank Griffin, who beat Johnson, and fail to mention Jeffries easily defeated Bob Armstrong with a broken thumb.

 

Jeffries did tot think much of Johnson while he was the champion. He's the got that got whacked by Choynski, quit in fights, and according to him " could not draw files."

Johnson was offered a private fight with Jeffries while asking for a title shot. Johnson declined the private fight. Maybe he should have taken his lumps, then fabricate what happen to lure him in?

If there was a Reno like purse in 1899-1906 you can't say for certain what Jeffries does as 100K is 3x more than what he usually made for his best title defenses.

 

Box rec says 24 fights, but it was far more than that. Many of Jeffries fights are not verifiable today but were mentioned in other reports. Such as he already defeated 20+ men prior to beating Fitzsimmons! So add about 9 fights.

Jeffries, when he went abroad also KO 'd ten men as reported by the historian of the cyber boxing zone. We just do know the names. And he went on tour with Fitz, taking out Joe local types.

If I were to guess, Jeffries likely had 40+ fights for money. The 24 he has have few soft touches. He fought quality straight out of the gate.

 

In news reports Jeffries KO'd:

Frank Childs, Kid Cotton and Denver Martin. Those are three recognizable names. The Martin win could be viewed as Jeffries 5th to 7th best if it happened as mentioned by the news press. Childs was smaller but decent enough for the time.

West coast fights where Jeffries was based are harder to track down, and many of the newspapers went defunct long ago. Finding a news write up of the fights today is the issue.

I tend to believe reported fights happened.

It is estimated that only 10-15% of boxing matches can be tracked down today. Names are forgotten. The good news is new fights are " found " every now and then. I have never heard of the Jeffries vs the MMA guy in France, yet it happened. While this isn't a boxing match, it is an example of what's out there.

1896-05-22 San Francisco Call (that's prior to his first pro fight listed at boxrec) wrote that "Jeffries has fought and whipped twenty men during his short career as a prize-fighter, and is now looking for big game."

 

Nothing says exhibitions, just reported Ko's on his record in the press.