The film of this fight that I watched was only six minutes long - not the 100 minutes running time given by IMDb. I don't know whether the entire film still exists, but the six minutes I watched suggest that what we're watching is something of a one-sided fight. Back in 1910, white boxing fans were apparently so desperate for a white man to overcome the undefeated black fighter Johnson that former world champion Jim Jeffries was persuaded to come out of retirement to challenge him. the outcome was sadly inevitable.
The print I saw wasn't in particularly good condition - very grainy and blurred, but the size of the crowd watching is unmistakable. Once Johnson gets the better of Jeffries, the white fighter is given no time to recover from the blows that initially felled him by the referee - who was also the fight's promoter, stepping in after President William Taft and writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle both turned down the opportunity.
The print I saw wasn't in particularly good condition - very grainy and blurred, but the size of the crowd watching is unmistakable. Once Johnson gets the better of Jeffries, the white fighter is given no time to recover from the blows that initially felled him by the referee - who was also the fight's promoter, stepping in after President William Taft and writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle both turned down the opportunity.