Fitz won three world titles ,middle,heavy and lhvy , an astonishing feat, but the opposition did not have a great deal of depth to it,does he make the cut ,or does the shallowness of the pool he was swimming in prevent him becoming top five?
Depends on criteria. If you go off accomplishments within an era, or domination of an era he really has to be amongst the very elite. Resume can be questioned but only by those who look into it enough I guess. H2H is harder to say. He had the power to beat any one in history but it's doubtful he has the ability to be favoured over the more modern protagonist.
His claim for world championship title at middleweight is debatable, it's more like an American version only. Light heavyweight division was basically non-existent.
The question would be "based on what could he claim the world championship title?" McCoy-Creedon has much stronger credentials to be considered the first world middleweight championship bout under MoQ rules.
Upon what do you base the notion that bob's claim isn't legit? Nonpareil was very well respected in his era and the loss prior to Fitz was basically a foul at a catch weight wasn't it?
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/98233334?searchTerm= mccoy creedon&searchLimits= McCoy talks about his fight a little bit here. It doesnt really sound like he considered it the first World middleweight championship.
Fitzsimmons lost the fight for the Australian middleweight title (fix or not, is irrelevant). Dempsey didn't beat best fighters from other continents to claim the world championship title. Some experts still considered Dempsey and, consequently, Fitz, the world champion, but that was a typical egocentric American view, they considered Dempsey the best middleweight out there, so they didn't think he needed to prove that by actually meeting the champions of England or Australia or South Africa. Associated Press writer, for example, after his win over Dempsey called Fitz the middleweight champion of America and Australia, although based on what there was involved the Australian title he didn't clarify. Some called Fitz the "first middleweight in the world", which is not the same as world champ, but rather considered the best middleweight in the world, potentially, in their opinion. Some wrote "middleweight champ" without ever mentioning word "world" in their report. McCoy previously had beaten Tommy Ryan for American championship and Bill Doherty for South African championship. Creedon previously had beaten Frank Craig, the British champion. While McCoy didn't beat Australian Billy Edwards, who was the Australian champion at the time, both Creedon and Doherty were former Australian champions, who didn't lose their title in the ring, but vacated it.
What about Fitz's victory over Creedon in 1894? The Police Gazette mentions it as being for the middleweight championship.
Place him where you like. There's an argument that no other fighter so perfectly captured the essence of pound-for-pound. While Greb dominated bigger men, Fitzsimmons destroyed them. Victories against Gus Ruhlin and Tom Sharkey read like misprints. A devastating puncher, yes, but only because of the talent which sharpened his aim.