It’s troublesome to say how heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries would have matched up in opposition to extra modern boxers, however there’s little doubt he was a rare fighter. He misplaced just one match in his total profession and that bout, in opposition to the good Jack Johnson, occurred lengthy after his prime had handed. Sadly, it’s one in every of solely two of Jeffries’ twenty-four professional matches to ever be filmed, the opposite being his rematch in 1899 with legendary brawler “Sailor” Tom Sharkey. However the video high quality of the latter, and the actual fact the previous is of a combat happening after virtually six years of inactivity, imply neither offers us an opportunity to make a good analysis.
Jeffries had received the world title in 1899 from the good Bob Fitzsimmons at Coney Island, New York in simply his fourteenth bout. The larger and heavier challenger had bulled his manner contained in the smaller champion’s guard and inflicted a vicious physique assault, scoring 4 knockdowns and forcing a stoppage in eleven rounds. The rematch passed off three years later, after Fitzsimmons had put collectively a pleasant streak of wins capped by a dramatic second spherical knockout of the identical powerful Sharkey who had lasted 25 brutal rounds with Jeffries. That win set the stage for a rematch between “The Boilermaker” and “The Preventing Blacksmith,” and combat followers eagerly awaited Jeffries vs Fitzsimmons II.
However Jeffries made his rival wait a pair extra years and by the point the return lastly occurred, many puzzled if the 39-year-old Cornishman’s advancing age is perhaps an excessive amount of to beat. Apart from, Jeffries figured to outweigh the challenger by thirty kilos or extra. However those that backed the person who many right now nonetheless regard as one of many biggest energy punchers within the historical past of the game, cited the previous champion’s eagerness for revenge. Merely put, no combat had ever mattered extra to “Ruby” and hearsay had it he was so hell-bent on profitable he deliberate to load his gloves with Plaster of Paris.
“Let him do it,” stated Jeffries when advised of those reviews. “I’ll flatten him anyway.”
No plaster was to be discovered contained in the challenger’s gloves, however these watching in The Area in San Francisco might be forgiven for pondering there was, as from the opening bell the smaller man inflicted a merciless beating on the champion. As early because the second spherical Jeffries was shedding blood as Fitzsimmons utilized great stress, beating Jeffries to the punch over and over. Rudy’s onerous photographs opened up deep cuts round each of Jeffries’ eyes and broke the champion’s nostril. It was later revealed the challenger had in truth wrapped his palms with electrical tape as an alternative of gauze, with nobody from Jeffries’ camp objecting.
However the champion was nothing if not powerful and sturdy and regardless of the carnage, he refused to concede. As an alternative he waited for his likelihood to strike again and it got here in spherical eight. After a collection of exchanges, Jeffries cornered his man. Fitzsimmons then inexplicably paused, lowered his guard, and spoke to Jeffries. The champion’s response was to maneuver in and land a tough proper to the stomach adopted by a thunderous left hook to the jaw that put Fitzsimmons down and out.
When the challenger approached the champion a couple of minutes later to congratulate him, Jeffries, seated on his stool, peered up at Fitzsimmons by way of swollen, bleeding eyes and declared, “You’re essentially the most harmful man alive.”
The bout’s conclusion struck some observers as suspicious and discuss of a “repair” started to flow into within the days following, although each boxers dismissed the hypothesis. “The combat was received pretty and to the very best man belongs the laurels,” said Fitzsimmons.
Nobody is aware of what the Cornishman paused to say to Jeffries simply earlier than the deadly punches discovered their mark. Was it a taunt which provoked a violent response from the champion? Or, as some later asserted, a form of give up? One model of the odd ending has it that after seven torrid rounds throughout which Fitzsimmons had repeatedly landed his finest photographs, the challenger was exhausted. As an alternative of absorbing a beating because the match went on, “Ruby,” realizing he had nothing left, merely paused, dropped his palms, and advised Jeffries, “Hit me.” “The Boilermaker” obliged and the combat was over.
— Robert Portis
