Bob Fitzsimmons Appreciation Thread

I have this book excellent read ,and a cracking article.

 

Does he have any living relatives who are women?

 

The best short piece I ever read on Fitzsimmons was written during the white hope era. The article matches former champions vs. the white hopes, and the author feels Fitz would have literally killed them. A great read.

 

Many years ago in an OLD ring magazine , I read a quote by an old time heavyweight named Sandy Ferguson...Ferguson drew with Sam Langford in the early 1900s and was one of Bob Fitzimmons sparring partner...He was quoted as saying that Fitz would have kod Langford with body punches..Ferguson felt convinced of that...For what it's worth.!
What old Fitz must have been in his prime, at the age of 25 ? WOW...

 

There are sharp hitters who surprise with speed. There are thudding hitters that have a lot of power. Fitz was both a sharp and thudding hitter, but what made him different is he also planted his punches through their target with shifts of weight and momentum. Such punchers are rare.

The fact Fitz he had an uncanny knack for landing in the right spot made him extremely dangerous.

As for Fitz's age, many of his fights are missing. Fitz himself claimed he had 300 fights. I think his first recorded stuff is winning a Jim Mace tournament.

 

I don't understand why modern fans have a hard time understanding how these transitional gloved boxers could hit so hard. they look so 'primitive' on film, that stuff would never work today etc etc etc.

the gloves they used were the same size (or smaller) than the gloves mma fighters wear today. watch enough mma fights and you see things that make you question their chins: knockdowns off jabs, horrible roundhouse swings that level guys, and other light looking punches that seem like they kill people.

take the same concept but make the mma fighter a turn of the century boxer, who all they train is throwing punches, along with the theory and skill to place their punches and it's not so far fetched to believe that a 155 lb man could have the science and strength to ko guys much larger than he.

in all fighting sports, a lot of the person's success comes down to the physical qualities of the fighters. some legends of the ring in boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, judo etc were one in a thousand physical specimens, whose physicality enable them to do things that average men can't explain, let alone duplicate.

I believe from the reports I've seen that bob fitzsimmons was such a man. argue what you want about technique or other things, but when bob fitzsimmons hit men lesser than a james j. jeffries, they folded up like accordions.

 

is he the skinny looking dude who was a blacksmith?

 

Equal to Ezzard Charles between 5 and 6.

 

A verry high pound for pound ranking can be justified.

No fighter since him has established lineage at middleweight, light heavyweight and anything north of 175lbs.

I also think that a case can be made for ranking him among the top 20 heavyweights of all time based on acomplishments relative to his era. There will always be questions about how he would have fared against top heavyweights from later eras due to his size but he basicaly beat everybody except Jeffries.

 

There was also a time when he was probably the best lightweight in the world! Well, at least, if not the best, he was a never beaten prospect who beat the best in his country!

Also, no fighter has ever won a World Heavyweight title fight while weighing in at the middleweight limit!

Actually, the only other fighter who has ever won a world heavyweight title, while weighing in as a light heavyweight was Tommy Burns! And that was against Marvin Hart, (who was not really the universally accepted world champion) and his defences against Jim Flynn and Jack O Brien, who themselves weighed under the light heavyweight limit! Unbelievably, i have just found another fact which surprises me and raises the efforts of the Great Bob Fitzsimmons. Will it ever end?

I think anyone who has him outside the top 10 lb 4 lb simply has not read much about him or is not considering him, because of lack of film. Realistically, it is very hard to see anyone who has good knowledge of what he did rating him much lower than top 5. Personally, i rank him at no 1.

 

I strongly ENCOURAGE you to read that piece listed above by Edgar Lee Masters, who saw Fitz ANd all the heavyweights since...
Then you will be better equiped to judge Ruby Bob Fitzimmons...Why guess about Fitz when we have a great eyewitness of this 160 pound boxing marvel!.
Please do yourself a favor and see what Bob Fitzimmons was really like, by a boxing expert who SAW them All !!!...b.b.

 

An interesting viewpoint.

We tend to rank Fitzsimmons bellow dominant champions like John L Sullivan and Jack Johnson, but it is not a given that they would have beaten him at his best.

 

I think the best in the world is abit of an exaggeration.