"Black Prince" Peter Jackson

[Hawkins]

I've been doing some reading, and it seems he was a very skilled heavyweight for his time period. After he fought Corbett, and gave better than he got, it is said he was avoided even more by white opposition. John. L Sullivan, who didn't want to fight any black fighter is said to have taken extra precautions in avoiding a fight with Jackson.

Do you think, if given a shot, Jackson could have upended Sullivan? I ask because my knowledge of Jackson is very very limited.

[hhascup]

Jackson was a Great boxer and he would have had a good chance of beating Sullivan. I also read that Corbett actually had the better of Jackson when they fought.

Here's what Nat Fleischer wrote in his book "Black Dynamite."


After James J. Corbett’s great victory over Choynski and his easy defeat of Jake Kilrain, Mike Donovan and Dominick McCaffrey while on his tour through the South and the East, it became more and more apparent that in Corbett, rested the hopes of 'California for a world heavyweight king. Considered only a local fighter at the start of his career, Gentleman Jim had now reached the stage where his name was prominently displayed on the sports pages of the entire nation as well as in England and Australia. He had become an international figure and as such, a fight with Sullivan for the world title seemed imminent.

But how to get Sullivan to consent to such a match was the difficulty and the directors of the California Athletic Club, then the leading organization of boxing on the Coast, decided that it would obtain the consent of Corbett to settle other matches with the aim that should he be returned the winner in each, it would then be a simple matter to force Sullivan to defend his laurels against the Native Son. Accordingly ,Corbett was approached with the proposition to fight Paddy Slavin, the Sydney Cornstalk, and he readily accepted.


Slavin at the time was in England and the cable dispatches were sent to him asking him to fight Corbett in California. Slavin's figures were so fabulous that the club in disgust tossed the proposition aside and approaching Jackson upon his arrival from Sydney, asked him to accept the match with Corbett. There was no hesitancy on the part of Peter. He quickly gave his consent and within a short time articles of agreement were drawn up and signed. A forfeit of $500 was posted and the California club put up a purse of $10,000 and set May 21, 1891, as the date for the bout.

Jackson started his training in April but within a few days after getting into action, he had the misfortune to be thrown from a buggy. The accident caused him to remain in bed for two weeks. Though at first it was thought that his ankle was broken, he sustained only a strained ligament but the ailment was sufficient to cause him much uneasiness during the time that he was preparing for the test with Corbett. .

When the day of the battle approached, it became quite apparent that Corbett would encounter a tough problem despite Jackson's injury because Peter, during his training, was manhandling his sparring mates with vicious punching, something that Gentleman Jim lacked. In cleverness, the pair were about on an even keel but in ring experience and in hitting, the dusky Australian had it on the California Bank Clerk.

On the day of the fight, Jackson and Corbett got together with their managers and they accepted Hiram Cook as the third man in the ring. Jackson scaled 198 pounds to Corbett's 182 but in all other respects, the
two were evenly matched. Both handsomely built, each beyond the six foot mark, they presented the appearance of true athletes as they faced each other in the ring.

Little did the 500 spectators who crowded the clubhouse expect when they first entered, that they would be eye witnesses to one of the most momentous encounters in American ring history. They had expected to see
the Cocky 'Californian, as Corbett was so often called, battered to a pulp by the hard hitting Australiafi speed merchant whose sledge hammer blows and cleverness were unsurpassed at the time. Instead, they saw Gentleman Jim go sixty-one rounds with his opponent before Referee Cook, ordered by the directors to do so, halted the affair and called it "no contest" although later he declared the bout a draw.

Those fight fans had come to see a short and sweet mill in which Corbett, a three and four to one shot, would be knocked cold, but they saw a contest that lasted four hours and three minutes and was stopped only because the men could go on no further.

The fight began at nine o'clock in the evening and lasted through the first hour in the morning. It was a real test of skill and endurance. Corbett, the untried youth, came through triumphantly even though the bout was called "no contest."

It was a fight in which the rounds were of regulation duration--'three minutes and one minute of rest. The gloves were of five ounces, The affair during the first two hours was one of the most skillful ever seen in California but after that with two tired men attempting to carryon, it dwindled down to a walking match. Each had too much reputation at stake and too much regard for the other fellow's prowess to take any chances.

Corbett, who had hurt his hand badly, kept waiting patiently for Jackson's injured knee to give way, and that was the cause for the slowness of the mill after the second hour. Despite the unfortunate ending, Corbett had proved to the world that he was the greatest glove fighter in America and that John L. Sullivan would have to look out for his laurels.

Regarded as the greatest boxer of his era, Jackson had met in Corbett his equal, at least in cleverness. Those who had witnessed. the affair were unanimous on two points-that 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.

During the whole of the sixty-one rounds, there was not the semblance of a knockdown. The match resembled one in which the contestants seemed to be desirous of rolling up points rather than between heavyweights who were fighting for what they considered would be the right for a chance at John L. Sullivan.

Corbett showed a rare degree of cleverness but his style favored the avoidance of blows rather than the delivery of them. His speed and his shiftiness attracted considerable attention. For twenty-nine rounds the men fought like tigers and then slowed down to a snail's pace.

In the twenty-ninth round, Corbett drove Jackson to the ropes with a terrific attack, but Jackson, great ring man that he was, came back with stiff rights that caught Jim in the stomach and caused him to let up. Up to that round, Corbett had rolled up a big advantage.

Corbett's best blow was a left hook to the stomach which he used with frequency.. It was a punch never before developed but the 'Californian had mastered it and it proved his greatest asset. On either side, Jackson fought straight out and when his right or left went for Corbett's face, Jim either slipped the punches or ducked much to Jackson's amazement.

Throughout the whole affair, Corbett seemed the stronger of the pair. He was firmer on his legs and hit the harder punches. Jackson made frequent use of the heart blow but this punch which had stood him in such good need in the past, lacked steam. He did not seem to send his brawny right in on Corbett's short ribs with sufficient force to redden the skin.

Jackson certainly did the bulk of the forcing in the last half of the contest, but he was unable to corner Corbett or to induce Jim to mix things for any length of time. That Jackson was tired, was extremely evident. His legs
dragged and he frequently dropped his hands to his side as if to rest his arms. Corbett did not seem nearly so weary.

The punishment received by both on head or body, was extremely light. The lips of each were swollen from the smashes they received in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth rounds-the two best in the contest. Otherwise they showed no bruises nor abrasions.

All who had expected that Corbett would display the greater cleverness and Jackson the superior fighting power, found it just the reverse, Jackson's boxing was an exhibition of consummate skill but his fighting capacity was inferior to that of his lighter opponent who showed superior hitting power and gamer qualities.

[hhascup]

In the thirtieth and thirty-first rounds, Corbett drove the Australian into a corner and slugged him with straight but hard punches, When the battle was over, Jackson sank back against the ropes, limp and pale. He seemed
content that the affair had been called off.

Corbett on the other hand, objected to the battle ending in that manner. He insisted that the fight continue to a definite finish but was overruled. When Corbett argued the point, Referee Cook skipped out of the ring to avoid a conflict.

It was this fight that made "Gentleman Jim" a power and a factor in the American fistic field. It forced the issue with Sullivan for the fight that brought the crown to the 'Californian Adonis,

For almost a year Jackson had been trying by every means to get Sullivan to consent to a match, but when he saw the futility of going any further, he and Parson Davies went on to Chicago for a few minor engagements. He appeared' again in vaudeville and gave exhibitions, all of which were lucrative. On January 12, 1892, he agreed to stop two men in one night in Chicago, and be succeeded. He knocked out Al Fish in two rounds and Jack Dalton in three. Then he started for New York to engage passage for Europe where negotiations had already been opened for a match between Slavin and Jackson for the championship of the British Empire. Both were keen rivals before each had left Australia to seek fame and fortune in America and on several occasions a match between them seemed imminent, but something turned up to break off the negotiations.

[Underboss]

to make it smaller, yes he would've defeated the great john sullivan, he gave corbett a hard 3 hours fight which lasted a draw.

[Hawkins]

Jackson was a Great boxer and he would have had a good chance of beating Sullivan. I also read that Corbett actually had the better of Jackson when they fought.

Here's what Nat Fleischer wrote in his book "Black Dynamite."

>

Thanks h. Good to see that. Some of the things I've read had said Jackson got the edge but from the account you provided I guess they were wrong. I've actually got one of the volumes of the Black Dynamite books but it doesn't have Jackson in it.

[McGoorty]

In the thirtieth and thirty-first rounds, Corbett drove the Australian into a corner and slugged him with straight but hard punches, When the battle was over, Jackson sank back against the ropes, limp and pale. He seemed
content that the affair had been called off.

Corbett on the other hand, objected to the battle ending in that manner. He insisted that the fight continue to a definite finish but was overruled. When Corbett argued the point, Referee Cook skipped out of the ring to avoid a conflict.

It was this fight that made "Gentleman Jim" a power and a factor in the American fistic field. It forced the issue with Sullivan for the fight that brought the crown to the 'Californian Adonis,

For almost a year Jackson had been trying by every means to get Sullivan to consent to a match, but when he saw the futility of going any further, he and Parson Davies went on to Chicago for a few minor engagements. He appeared' again in vaudeville and gave exhibitions, all of which were lucrative. On January 12, 1892, he agreed to stop two men in one night in Chicago, and be succeeded. He knocked out Al Fish in two rounds and Jack Dalton in three. Then he started for New York to engage passage for Europe where negotiations had already been opened for a match between Slavin and Jackson for the championship of the British Empire. Both were keen rivals before each had left Australia to seek fame and fortune in America and on several occasions a match between them seemed imminent, but something turned up to break off the negotiations.

Not to take anything away from John L. Sullivan, who was at his prime a decade earlier than Jackson, but by that time when he was leading up to his fight with Corbett, the early 1890's........ Sullivan was past his best and had slowed down and was mostly inactive. Peter Jackson would have been too much, as Corbett proved in his one sided fight with Sullivan,.... Jackson and Corbett were better matched at that time....... Sullivan's profile will always be higher than Jackson's but Peter IS AN A.T.G.. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I wish there was more posts like this great one in the History section.... a great post mate.