Bob Fitzsimmons Appreciation Thread

If this story is true, Fitz actually opened up a cut to the body when he layed out Ed Dunkhorst. Is that unheard of?

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5015,4635125&dq=dunkhorst&hl=en

 

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I have been looking for this report everywhere. Here is the early loss to Mick Dooley.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/art.....|titleid:52|||l-decade=188|||sortby=dateAsc

 

who do you rate in that position.

 

THANKS bOILERMAKER, GREAT FIND.

 

These were not official fights, but rather 4-round sparring exhibitions. It is true that Dooley did better and was considered to be the superior fighter at that time. However, Dooley was a heavyweight, whereas Fitz was a small middleweight, more of a welterweight by today's standards.

 

I've had the same thoughts but of Welter.

His legs would look shocking at Lightweight though He'd make Ali Funeka look like Naseem Hamed!

 

B, I truly think that to really appreciate Bob Fitzsimmons, it should be
]"required' reading for ESB posters, to read the great take on Ruby Robert, by a man who SAW Bob Fitzsimmons fight many times, and all the following champions til after Joe Louis. He was the great American poet
Edgar Lee Masters,who wrote an aricle in "The Book Of Boxing", by Heinz and Ward. Page 228...It will enlighten you !

 

The middleweight limit was only 150 at the time, and only a year or two earlier, Fitz had actually won the NZ lightweight championship so I think you are definitely correct with the welterweight call.

I do also agree with the exhibition Calls, and you can never really know how serious they are, but i do think they are interesting. I would love to get a report on the Fitzsimmons Lees exhibition/ND.

 

I am not sure if the link to that article is in this thread. I know there are a couple of good Edgren articles in there, but i havent read the book you are referring to.

 

Joe Louis did it to Tony Galento.

 

Was Dooley a heavyweight in these matches against Fitz? I thought they were close in weight at this time?

 

Fitz likely weighed around 150 pounds; possibly less. Dooley was more along the lines of 170-175; possibly more. At that point, Fitz was boxing as a middleweight, whereas Dooley was taking heavyweight fights. Actually, at that point, the middleweight limit was 11 stone, or 154 U.S. pounds. Fitz was easily making the middleweight limit. The middleweight limit was only later moved up to 158 pounds. That was where it remained for quite some time, not the 160 we think of today. And these guys had to make weight the day of the fight, not the day before. Sometimes they even had to make it immediately before the fight, depending on the contract.

 

Yeah, it was 11 stone when Fitz was champ'. Definitely would've been at least a Welter today with a day to re-hydrate.