Jack Johnson Vs Jim Jeffries - Is this Boxing's biggest fight ??

Whole of America and maybe the World took great interet in this fight..........Huge spectacle with the pride of the White race at stake.....An old Jeffries rustled out of retirement!!!!

This fight was so big that in other cities outside Nevada hundreds of thousands were gathered watching re-enactments by actors of rounds whilst the fight was in progress...........

For me this is Boxing's biggest fight...........with Ali-Frazier second..............

Poor Jim had a lot on his shoulders that day..........and a lot in front of him........

Youtube has a Johnson documentary........I suggest you watch it to see the sheer magnitude of this event!!

Certainly in the top three, along with Louis-Schmeling II and Ali-Frazier I in my opinion. All three fights carried some form of racial tension and/or transcended the barriers of the sport to prod away at the political conscience of America (or the world, in fact), but Johnson-Jeffries and Louis-Schmelling II more so than Ali-Frazier I, so I'd probably have the 1971 'Fight of the Century' in bronze medal position with the other two battling it out for gold.

It's amazing to think that Johnson-Jeffries was so big that President Taft was asked if he'd like to referee the fight, but I'd probably edge more towards Louis-Schmelling II. In retrospect, Johnson-Jeffries was almost too much of a political event and not enough of a fight for it to be number one. Jeffries might have been the betting favourite on the day of the fight, but that's only because Johnson's shunned former manager had been spreading rumours of a fix to all newspapers and fans who'd listen. The truth is, Jeffries was a complete shell and really had no business fighting for the title at that point.

I know that Louis-Schmelling was incredibly one-sided as well, but in this case I'd say it was more down to Louis' brilliance than Schmelling being an unworthy opponent. For all intents and purposes, Schmelling had as much right to call himself the world's best Heavyweight as Louis did in 1938.

I'd also say that Louis-Schmelling left a more positive legacy on the sport, and the wider world in general. So much of the Johnson-Jeffries fight carried a pernicious element; the lynchings which came afterwards, the way Johnson felt that quashing the great white hope made him exempt from defending against some proper, deserving challengers for the remainder of his reign etc.

On the other hand, the way Louis comported himself throughout the build up to and aftermatch of the second Schmelling fight did so much to make him basically the first American black to be considered a hero of sorts right across the country, and his victory symbolised good conquering evil in the eyes of millions - a victory which proved to be prophetic for the struggle ahead all over the globe. And that struggle was arguably the bigest event in human history.

Louis-Schmelling II, Johnson-Jeffries and then Frazier-Ali I for me, in that order.

Was schmelling as big a baddie as Jack Johnson.......

Interesting you very well might be right....Good post chris.