Black & White footage of British Boxers

hahahaha thought I'd throw some humour in there, I realised after I posted it that there was another b and w fight on yt of him vs a dude called Maurice Cullen too.

 

haha, nah, it's Ruben Navarro. It's a good performance by Ken, not as eye grabbing as some of his fights, but if you want to see the master at work for fifteen rounds then there you have it.

 

No worries, you're welcome.

 

Bob Fitzsimmons (because, lets face it, he was British)

Universally considered one of the greatest punchers of all time, Bob Fitzsimmons was a lanky awkward Middleweight champion who knocked out the best Heavyweight of his era.

On the 26th September 1894, at age 31, Bob Fitzsimmons returned to the Middleweight division (moving down from Heavyweight) to defended his Middleweight title against Dan Creedon, knocking him out in 2 rounds. Upon entering the ring, Fitz weighed in at 155lbs according to Adam Pollack. With 24 hour weigh ins, Fitz could have conceivably made the Welterweight limit of today (he would have needed to lose only 8 lbs). His weight is particularly interesting as, just 5 months earlier, Fitzsimmons knocked out Alex Kilpatrick who weighed in excess of 200 lbs. By this time, Bob had already defeated the great Australian Jim Hall in just 4 rounds, Joe Choynski in 5, Millard Zender (a 300lb opponent) in the first round, Peter Maher (a cruiser weight by today's standard) in 12 and the great Middleweight Jack Dempsey in 13 brutal one sided rounds according to newspaper reports.

Following the Creedon fight, Fitz would go on to knock out James J Corbett (188 lbs) to claim the World Heavyweight Championship in 1897, and, at age 40, outpointed George Gardner to win the Light Heavyweight Championship, as well as knocking out Philadelphia Jack before finally being stopped by the great Jack Johnson at the ripe old age of 44.

Fitz vs Corbett

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVwNVzqQeeg[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU_sT_FvyWU&feature=related[/ame]

What we notice from the footage

The first thing that springs to mind is Bob's awkward style. As he advances on his opponent, Bob (bald head), arches his knees and back, and bends backwards. This makes it incredibly difficult for Corbett to land anything of note. We also notice that the grappling up close (which Jack Johnson almost made famous), doesnt play into Bob's hands. He much prefers to messure his man. At 3.20 of the first clip, Bob shows his power with a 3 punch combination which stuns the champion. While the pace is slow, bare in mind that Fitz is already 34 years of age. From the 6.20 mark, Bob steps up the pressure and lands some good right hands to the champion. The elusiveness of Fitz remains apparent.

Moving on to the second clip, Bob unleashes some impressive work early on. Hooks with both hands stun the champion, who responds by wobbling Bob at the 1 minute mark. At 1.25, Fitz is badly staggered and remains hurt for about 30 seconds, before being knocked down. Bob just beats the count, and the two trade in the centre of the ring at 2.50 until the end of the round. Fastward to 8.45, and we see the knockout blow. Unfortunately, the footage gets extremely grainy here, but in the slow motion replay at 9:25, we are able to make out Bob drawing Gentlemen Jim into a lead left hook, which sends him down. On one knee, with one glove keeping him from falling flat on his face, James Corbett is counted out, and Bob Fitzsimmons in the new Heavyweight Champion of the world.

Unfortunately, the only other footage we have of Bob is him being made a mere punching bag when nearly 50 years old against Bill Lang. For anyone wanting to see an old man get beaten up, here it is:

Bob Fitzsimmons vs Bill Lang

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5clfV1gZV0A[/ame]

Surely there will never again be a 'Welterweight' who will win the Heavyweight world championship by knocking out the universally recognised champion, and most other contenders along the way. By today's standards, he thought in 7 weight classes if we include Welterweight, 6 if we don't (he had thought as low as 153 lbs.)

This record makes Bob Fitzsimmons stand out alongside the very best fighters boxing had ever produced.

 

And to think, Bob is 37 by the time he fights Jeffries first time! Crazy! Absolute crazy.

The first hall fight is a strange 1. Bob hadn't fought in about 8 months, and was apparently promised more outings should he throw the fight. It seems strange that he losses, and he is out again 3 weeks later. It also seems strange that bob would rather admit to being a cheat than being knocked out.

I'm honestly on the fence with it. He turned down an awful lot of money if he agreed to take a dive. But he won the rematch *so convincing, I wouldn't put it past Bob, who also had a reputation of clowning around in the ring in his earlier years.

 

Buchanan vs Cullen isa great performance. Hewon the British title on it, and ullen was world famous becaus of his jab and Ken aggressivly outjabs him. Amazing ****

 

Nopedont think there is, about 99.9 per cent sure. All I got is his fight with Chegway Torres

 

only just logged on for first time in a while, great great thread! :good, only checked the first couple of pages so far, but for the rest do we have encyclopaedia entries lads? if not why not?

 

Yeah I sort of got that he liked to fabricate things as well (particularly from reading Pollack's book anyway).

I think he once said that he beat Hall the night after behind closed doors, then said he was confident of winning a rematch etc. it all doesn't add up I suppose