The murderous punching Foster would put the theory to the test! Who and why gents? It's at 175lbs, 15 rounds.
At 175 lbs. I give Foster only a puncher´s chance, Fitz at this weight hit murderous, he would early KO Bob IMO...
Fitz was the kind of fighter where if you had a weak chin you only had to blink and you were gone. Foster would have some sucess early but he would walk into a trap and then BOOM!
Fitz, anytime he wants to. One shift, one solar plexus left up into Foster's spindly body, and let's go home.
Fitzsimmons? A great boxer for his day and in his context. Yes, for his day and in his context. His hands were too low. His stance was all wrong for a fighter of Foster's caliber -Leaning back as a way to lure boxers in has happily not survived the natural evolution of style over the past century. Same with carrying hands low. Combinations as we know them were rare then and Fitzsimmons would have had no answer for it. He hurled haymakers well against defensive specialists of the day like Corbett -who usually leaned back and away or ran away. But Foster would step inside of these and shoot shorter, faster, and better leveraged shots off his chin. Foster would KO him early.
The greatest middleweight against the greatest light-heavyweight. I have to go with Foster by decision.
These guys were both Frail looking Heavys but big shouldered Lightheavys with sick one punching power, Foster was the modern of the 2 but Fitz fought Corbett,Jeffires and split and Foster lost to every heavy he fought ......tough call or should I say anybodys fight
Nice pick JohnThomas1. I have always given past fighters the benefit of the doubt when it comes to conditioning and technique. Conditioning would not have been as big of concern talking of a 70's fighter, but technique would. I think if Fitzsimmons was in the same time of fighting someone head to head, I think it is only fair to give him the same technical knowledge. Fitz by ko. He could really bang for a small guy. He allegedly killed his pet lion, or knocked him out, or whatever.
It seemed to work okay for Muhammed Ali, didnt it? But quite a lot of fighters still do carry their hands low nowadays. Usually after about 30 seconds of the round. And most boxers who through the lean back style, do carry low hands, because there head is hard to hit clean and they need to protect the body. by the way, you do realise that, like all fighters, he did raise his guard when he was being attacked to the head, he didnt just stick his chin out and wait to be hit, dont you? You dont think Corbett could combinationt punch? Or choynski or many of the others that Corbett fought. As big hitting as foster was at light heavy, he isnt going to hit any harder than Jeffries and Fitz took Jeffries punch more than a few times. This is a good fight, but Foster doesnt have the chin to stand up to Fitz' big shots. No one kod a prime Fitz early. Foster does well to last the distance.