What weight is Fitzsimmons? Also, does Holmes have greater or fewer than 48 wins before the fight? If it's the latter, Holmes wins a wide decision; if it's the former, Fitzsimmons wins a split decision.
I think if I was unable to be KO'd hypothetically speaking I would beat Fitzsimmons in a decision. Fitzsimmons is decisioning no-one.
I respect Fitzsimmons' accomplishments and overall place in boxing history but this is a stretch....A big stretch at that. Holmes was the prototypical big skilled modern HW that just wasn't around in Bob's time. Too big, too fast and in this case, too modern. Holmes by ko and probably early.
The closest Fitz fought to Holmes was Corbett. The results were mixed. Fitz wore him out eventually and kod him. But Corbett did have Fitz in a lot of trouble. I get the feeling that Homes was a little bigger and hit even harder than Corbett, with little speed difference. Holmes was perhaps a tad more one dimensional with his left, but this is more than offset by a much higher workrate with that left Jab. I do get the feeling That Holmes was not as strong conditioning wise and in later rounds as corbett but again offset this by a stronger will to win and better chin. For Holmes, the closest he has fought to Fitz is probably Tyson. Holmes was not prime for this fight. He dealt with Tyson reasonably. Tyson had a very similar stle to fitz, in that he hit fast and hard, with true KO power. Leaving aside the weight question, I think this fight gets very interesting, if we assume that Fitz power is the equal of Tyson, it is very, very interesting. The lean back defence is not as bad as people make out. Larry faced this once against Ali, but while he did dominate (and i may be a minority here) I thought that mentally, Larry was very wary of runnong into a rope a dope tactic and struggled because of it. Against Fitzsimmons, i think he might do a similar thing, as the legend of Fitz KOs might just catch up to him. For Larry to win, he needs not to be dragged into a slugging fiight. It has been a while since i watched his main fights, but despite his great jab, didnt regularly resort to slugging against the likes of Witherspoon and Williams. Let us not also forget that he is officially 0-2 against all time great light heavys.
Why? Bob is a little taller, so naturally bigger. Tyson currentlly walks around at about 220 or so. Fitz when a little older walked around at 200 or so. Presumably, at this time, Fitz was training his weight down quite a bit more than Tyson currently is. When Fitz hit the best fighters in the world with clean shots, he took away their equilibrium and kod them, usually with one or two clean shots, no matter how good their chins were (this is not debateable). Same goes with Tyson. To look at things objectively, if Sharkeys chin was on Par with Berbick's the result was the same. If Spinks and Hall had similar chins or Bruno and Ruhlin or Biggs and Maher or Tucker and Jeffries (and remember we are talking chins not skills) then their power is pretty much on the same level. So, if this is the case, does it change anything?