James "Boilermaker" Jeffries - The ORIGINAL "Great White Hope" Appreciation Thread
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Dude was built like a tank. His Wikipedia page says he could also run 100 yards in just over ten seconds, and high jump over 6 feet.I saw a couple docs that featured the guy and, as I recall, his story went pretty much exactly like Sergey Kovalev's.
Kidding... kidding.
Actually, he seemed like an alright guy, aside from the racism (which I just chalk up to the times). The great white hope fight was a joke as Jeffries was something like 5+ years retired and horribly out of shape. He was never going to beat Johnson in that fight. But, I like the fact that he later said he never would have beat Johnson, even at his best. Classy words from a guy who previously refused to fight black men because he felt they were too far beneath him.
Hopefully, I'm remembering all that correctly.
Check out this pic. He looks short there but was was reportedly between 6' and 6'2". Talk about being built like a brick shyt-house! Damn! The guy was walking around on tree trunks. Could only imagine what he'd look like in today's boxing environment (take that as you will).

It makes me laugh when some posters claim that the old timers would lose to current fighters because they didn't have the benefits of modern strength and conditioning coaches.
This guy was in better shape than Tyson Fury or Andy Ruiz will ever be.Comment
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Ok but its only fair that anyone joining this bandwagon should find out what a boilermaker is!Before his legendary fight against reigning champion Jack Johnson on the 4th of July 1910, James Jeffries was quoted dropping the following savage statement:
"I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a negro."
oh snap!
Where my dudes don larryx and Tunney aka Freedom. at!?
The ORIGINAL Great White Hope!!
:boxing:
****tails used to be fine expressions of taste and leisure. Even stuff that sounds bad, is actually really good, Egg whites make a silky smooth ****tail, and things like the Martinez and Ramon Fizz were delicious and then you had the biolermaker
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Its really sad: jack London, the famous author, a working class hero, author of the great pet books (white fang, etc) and socialist theory, dock worker and hard CORE rascist! Turns out that As a reporter London was responsible for helping talk Jeffries out of retirement due to his grudge with Johnson, who he referred to as "the laughing Ethiopian" and who he made rascist comments about, with cartoons as well. Smart as he was there was the rascism, despite his progressive beliefs about the working class, and he actually thought Jeffries would win!
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