Ray Robinson VS. Bob Fitzsimmons

Boxing's first 3 division weight champion, excellent sharpshooter to the head and body, a middleweight capable of knocking out heavyweights, good feinter and drawer by all accounts... This guy knocked out 7 men in a single night in under 19 rounds total. that is astounding. Different styles. Robinson was born in a completely different era, but that doesn't mean that a puncher as accurate, fast, and deadly as fitzsimmons wouldn't beat him at what would be a bout at middleweight.

 

Fitz is a counter-puncher and a patient one at that. SRR is speedy as hell combination puncher and that is a nightmare for a counter-puncher.

SRR by late round stoppage IMO, after comprehensivly beating Fitz up.

 

Something to consider is that Fitz was one of the nastiest tricksters ever at feigning distress, something of a lost art in later eras. Some of his most lethal countering came when an opponent was drawn into thinking he had Fitz ready to go. Faced with the speedy, elusive likes of a Robinson, Fitz would almost certainly make a spidery bid to spin and trap with a web of deceit. Much could hinge on whether or not Ray chose to snap at this enticing bait.

 

Robinson easily.

 

There's hardly any discernable footage of anything close to prime Bob Fitzsimmons.
All we can go on is his record and descriptions.

I dont see how anyone can come to the conclusion that Robinson beats him easily.
It's presposterous to say that if you look at what Fitzsimmons did, his record and the great reverence he was afforded in his time.

 

I stand by it. I don't think he'd cut the mustard technically and no amount of old dramatic romantic stories will sway me. I afford him that he was amazing in his day and demands one of the highest places in history but that's not the topic.

 

Either Fitzsimmons has the punch to take out Robinson, or he gets outboxed all the way. I can't see him being able to box Robinson.

 

They weren't "old dramatic romantic stories" at the time, just report and rating of a fighter.
I just dont see how he's going to be defeated "easily", once you accept how great, tough and dangerous he was.
Robinson struggled with some men who weren't even great.

I think it's illogical to believe Fitzsimmons was handicapped "technically" just because he fought in an earlier era. In the 1890s they were boxing with the same techniques they used in the 1940s, jabs, hooks, crosses, feints, parries, blocks, duck, slip, side-step, etc. ...... and even if you believe there was progress and tweaks in technique it's hard to figure how the greatest boxer ever had be made obsolete to the point of being a journeyman or easy fight only 50 years later.
It just doesn't ring true when you study the technical manuals and talk on boxing from different eras.

 

Robinson via late-round KO or on points. Speed kills.

 

not if it runs into a sledgehammer

 

Yes, but how fast was Fitzsimmons ?
We dont really know do we.

 

It wouldn't take SRR so many rounds to stop post-prime welterweight Dempsey.

 

I haven't seen footage of the Fitzsimmons-Dempsey fight, so I wouldn't know what sort of opposition Dempsey represents.

Also, how many rounds it takes to dispose of a common opponent is always irrelevant in gauging what would happen head-to-head.

 

I only mentioned that fight to show that Fitz's power is somewhat overrated.

 

I haven't seen the fight so I cannot comment with any authority on it.
I dont know the full details and circumstances.

I know that Fitzsimmons KO'd some big tough 180 - 200 pound fighters and was rated as the hardest hitter in the open divsion by many who saw him or remembered him, so your example seems a bit selective.
I dont remember Robinson KOing any big light-heavyweights or heavyweights. But maybe he could have, I dont know.