PETER JACKSON … “FASTER AND SMOOTHER THAN JOE
LOUIS”
By Tracy
Callis
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Peter Jackson was tall,
smooth, and elusive on the order of the modern boxer yet he possessed the
ruggedness that typified the “Old School”. He had size, quickness, and
strength accompanied by great ring science. Jackson was among the
first of the heavyweights to fight up on his toes. A perfectionist in his
style, he developed as fine a “One-Two” sequence as the ring has ever
known. His punches had the kick of a mule with either hand.
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Grombach (1977 p 45) stated
“While he was of the old school, he used a powerful one-two punch in various
combinations which made him a tricky adversary”. Fleischer (1938 p 150) said
Jackson threw his punches with lightning rapidity while Lardner (1972 p 78)
wrote “Jackson’s two blows landed almost simultaneously”.
Always in a position to hit,
Peter could feint, counter, block, or slip punches by a few inches and avoid a
blow by the narrowest of margins. He was a master boxer and a stinging
hitter.
He was a gentleman in every
sense of the word and yet, John L. Sullivan, the man generally recognized as
Heavyweight Champion of the World at that time, would not fight him. Fleischer
(1949 p 103) wrote that Sullivan drew the color line in order to evade a match
with Peter Jackson and adds it was well he did because Jackson probably would
have won decisively just like Corbett did a few years afterwards (also see
Langley 1974 p 20 and Fleischer 1942 p 34). Grombach (1977 p 44) said Sullivan
ducked the fight by using the color line as an excuse.
Jim Corbett called Jackson one
of the most intelligent pugilists that ever stepped into the ring and said it
didn’t matter whether it was a box or slug affair, Peter could adapt himself to
it. He [Corbett] often said Jackson could defeat any fighter he had ever seen
(see Corbett 1926 pg 132 145 326). Corbett lived until 1933.
In describing Jackson, Lardner
(1972 p 77) wrote “He is considered by many experts to have been the greatest
heavyweight who ever lived”. He added, “Corbett ranked him with Jeffries as one
of the two greatest heavyweights of all time”.
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Corbett related that he
once saw speedy Joe Choynski spar with Jackson and not manage to touch him
with a glove. He added that on another occasion Jackson boxed with Bob
Fitzsimmons in an exhibition and it was like a professor giving a pupil a
lesson (see Fleischer 1938 p
123). |
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Corbett and Jackson fought
sixty-one rounds in 1891 in one of the ring’s greatest battles. Jackson entered
the contest with a cold and a sprained ankle. These two conditions caused him to
stop training ten days prior to the fight. Yet, it was Corbett who was more hard
pressed during the contest.
Frank “Paddy” Slavin, a
hard-hitting scrapper of the modern Jack Dempsey mold who fought Jackson in
another of the ring’s great fights, called Peter “unbeatable … the greatest of
all masters” (Langley 1974 p 60).
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Jim Jeffries once
commented on the stiffness of Peter’s punches – short, crisp, and hard.
Lardner (1972 p 77) said “Jeffries later used the memory of a punch
Jackson had thrown at him as the basis for comparison with all the other
single devastating punches he had received”. Lord Lonsdale of England,
early president of London’s National Sporting Club and namesake of the
Lonsdale Belt, said that although Jack Johnson was the best heavyweight of
his time, he [Johnson] never equaled Jackson for science and skill (see
Langley 1974 p 61). |
Carpenter (1975 p 30) called
Jackson “one of the great fighters of the time”. Durant (1976 p 30) said Jackson
“may have been the greatest ringman of any age”. Burrill (1974 p 95) wrote “One
of his time’s most feared and popular boxers”.
Fleischer (1938 p 159) said
Jackson was “regarded as the greatest boxer of his era”. He went on to say that
few fighters could be rated superior to Jackson and described him as a
sharpshooter and two-fisted scientific hitter. Nat described him as having a
powerful left, an excellent jabbing and hooking game, and a wicked right-hand
chop.
Arthur Chambers, the man most
often credited with developing the Marquis of Queensberry rules and perhaps the
foremost boxing authority in America at the time, (see Lardner 1972 p 79) said, “He’s a
wonder, make no mistake about his ability. He is one of the finest specimens of
fighting man I’ve ever seen” (see Fleischer 1938 p 141).
Farnol (1928 p 177) elaborated
on Jackson “Perhaps for his size the most finished and beautiful boxer ever
seen; magnificently shaped from head to foot, his every move was graceful; also
he was incredibly quick and very sure”.
Lardner (1972 p 78) described
Jackson in battle as moving out carefully, throwing punches with a pumalike
grace, stalking his man about the ring, avoiding blows with ease, and hitting
his adversary so hard it took a quart of whiskey to revive him.
He added Jackson was like a
hurricane tearing through the ranks of the Australian heavyweights, knocking out
everyone and later turning to “right-hand barred” exhibitions in which he was
not allowed to hit with his right.
Eugene Corri, who was considered
by many to be the greatest referee of modern times (see Grombach 1977 p 183),
called Peter Jackson the best boxer he ever saw (Farnol 1928 pg 179 180). In
other articles, Corri called Jackson the greatest heavyweight he had ever
seen.
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Jackson was a Muhammad Ali
“look-a-like”. He boxed rather than slugged and moved gracefully, quickly,
and easily about the ring avoiding punches. He was almost the same
physical size as Ali but never allowed himself to get as heavy as did Ali
in his later career. He even looked enough like Ali in his facial features
to be his brother. His personality was likeable and almost everyone who
met him developed a genuine affinity for him. He, perhaps, was not as
quick as Ali (but almost) and he hit a little harder. |
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Jackson was like Sam Langford in
that he was so good the champions of his time would not risk their titles
against him. These two powerhouse fighters were probably the greatest pugilists
never to fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World.
In summary, Jackson was more
scientific than Jack Johnson, was faster and smoother than Joe Louis but hit
just as hard, and possessed footwork similar to Muhammad Ali. In the opinion of
this writer, Jackson was one of the greatest fighters in the history of the
heavyweight division and deserves to be ranked among the all-time best men in
this weight class.
References
Burrill, B. 1974. Who’s Who
in Boxing. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House
Carpenter, H. 1975. Boxing: A
Pictorial History. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company
Corbett, J. J. 1926. The Roar
of the Crowd (James J. Corbett). New York: Garden City Publishing
Company
Durant, J. 1976. The
Heavyweight Champions. New York: Hastings House Publishers
Farnol. J. 1928. Famous Prize
Fights. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company
Fleischer, N. 1938. Black
Dynamite (Volume I). New York: C. J. O’Brien, Inc.
Fleischer, N. 1942. Gentleman
Jim – The Story of James J. Corbett. New York: The Ring, Inc.
Fleischer, N. 1949. The
Heavyweight Championship. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Grombach, J. 1977. The Saga
of Sock. London : Thomas Yoseloff Ltd.; Cranbury, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes
and Company, Inc.
Langley, T. 1974. The Life of
Peter Jackson. Leicester, England: Vance Harvey Publishing
Lardner, R. 1972. The
Legendary Champions. New York: American Heritage Press
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