Bob Fitzsimmons vs Rocky Marciano

Still studying him. From what i seen so far based his record and footage .hes a hard hitter for sure very accurate dude hits hard for his size. And he makes those shots count

 

Possibly .. or possibly Fitz, the faster, sharper and possibly harder puncher lands first and does a number on him ..

 

That time frame is roughly 2 years and only 6 fights. Or 12% of his career. That's a pretty narrow window for his supposed prime and even smaller than what some of the mist extreme Tyson fans claim.

I'm aware that his back was giving him issues and he had financial grievances with Al Well but the cutoff for when his prime began and when it ended, from 28 to barely over 30, seems odd.

 

Mostly odd because he started so late (24) and was extremely raw. Had he started at 18 his prime would have been much longer I’d assume.

 

Ok but you do realize that makes it even more strange right? If he started at say, 14-18 years as an amateur and had a long career as a young man competing in AAU, golden gloves, etc, then turned pro at say 20-22 that would be understandable.

Starting at 24 with an incredibly short number of amateur fights, being a slugger/swarmer who tended to end things inside the distance and had "good defense" and wasn't hit often (your statements, not mine) and ended his career at 32 means only 8 years of action.

The only logical conclusions are

-he must have had a terrible body for boxing and not very durable.

-Your estimate for when his prime began and ended is off.

 

One thing is sure - Fitz had much longer prime than Rocky, despite competing in as much (if not more) wars and brawls.

 

One thing about Marciano not often mentioned here is he never intended to box to long. He knew a local boxer growing up that was punchy and he was nervous to get involved in boxing and vowed not to stay in it long. That and he hated his manager. those two things are the main reasons he left early even admitting he still had fights left in him. And everyone’s body breaks down after 30 lol with a few rare exceptions.

 

I'm currently working on a fictional project where I put the gloved era heavyweight champions against each other. One of the tools I use to help me draw conclusions (aside from extensive reading and watching fights) is using the fight night boxing games to create characters resembling the boxers and having them duke it out.

How would you best categorize Bob Fitzsimmons style? There isn't a lot of footage and I haven't read much on him. I know he hit abnormally hard for a guy his size. Would you say he was a brawler patiently waiting for one big hit and willing to eat a few to land it? A swarmer applying constant pressure? A counter puncher who happened to hit very hard? Boxer puncher? Something else?

The impression I get is that he may have held some similarities to Quarry. A smaller guy who had technical skill but didn't hesitate to roll up his sleeves and slug or counter to take down guys much larger than himself.

 

If you want to check him out, there's really no way around looking through old papers.

https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/
You can find a lot of New York ones for free.

 

It is hard to compare Fitz to anyone because there was no one like him he was unconventional in many sense. I actually think if forced to pick someone most like him I would think more Tyson than anyone else, though probably post Douglas. He seemed to throw the switched footwork which Tyson was so good at (known as the Fitzsimmons Switch). I think he loaded up like tyson did. Throwing 2 or 3 combos with KO tendencies (not like prime Tyson which was more like 5 or 6 at a time). He was a smaller fighter obviously than Tyson, although technically i think he was taller and with a bigger reach. I dont think he had the same chin as Tyson, but this is offset by him probably being more alert and better at recovery. I think (forgetting about differences in stance) he stalked opponents the same way this version of Tyson did.

He was also much more concerned with his setting traps and making the other guy play into his hand. This is often ovelooked because it allows him to land cleanly more often. Prime Tyson did it with Speed, Aura and Power. Fitz was much more calculating and cannot be overlooked. In this regard, Old Foreman is the closest we have seen to this, in his fight against Moorer. But you would expect Fitz to have more success than him because he was so much quicker than Old Foreman. And cagier for that matter.

An Ali comparison is another. Particularly 70s Ali. His ability to improvise and find a way to win when things arent working appeared to be on par with that of Ali. Also, like Ali, the ability to comeback from being knocked down and change it up and find a win is something very similar.

On the minus side, his chin wasnt terrible but it wasnt great yet. Maybe something like Floyd Patterson level. Certainly he was capable of being caught, although he was rarely KOd.

His defence was also unconventional. His stance was not copied by anybody (no weight on front foot) and you would think that this would have badly hindered his movement in defence. He also did the Strike defence where he would deflect punches by actually striking the forearms as they were delivered. (I dont even know who to compare this with. Maybe Bruce Lee?) It was unconventional, but not bad and certainly noone really solved it too much, plus his offence acted as his defence more often than not. I am not really sure who to compare this type of defence to, maybe a Jerry Quarry level of defence is a good description.

Stamina is another one to consider. He never rally was taken deep into fights until he was old so he is largely unknown. He did where out when old against Jeffries and Lang. He was certainly well conditioned particularly when compared to most of todays superheavys and not having to carry as much weight is an advantage, as opposed to the disadvantage it causes in other areas. Maybe Chris Byrd might be a decent analogy.

Not sure if you can make a character reflecting that, or even if anyone will agree that it was accurate. I would be interested in some other analogies.

 

Fitzsimmons stops him on cuts

 

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first round Ko for the Rock...film speaks for itself

 

I don't know man i just saw that film. Bob really can hit. I think he can make rock hit the deck worse than archie moore .

 

Many fighters thought the same before starting the fight and they indeed ended up in 1st round... on the canvas

 

Anyone who looks at Fitzsimmons and laugh at his style is very ignorant and arrogant. He fought like nobody else before or since, but he proved that with right attributes his style could be effective. He was very powerful of course, but people forget that he also had excellent reflex and timing. He used head movement to defend himself from head blows and he defended his body with arms and elbows. On top of that, he used one armed blocks, something very rare in boxing but quite often used in other martial arts.