Fitz when they did meet and Fitz at prime was a step, probably two, ahead of Joe. Equal puncher, far better general, tougher, better punch resistance
I have to go with what Mat said here. Most people who fought them both, said that Choynski was the harder puncher, but Fitz was destroying guys who were fighting Choynski on pretty even terms, or beating him.
That's really interesting because I've never seen Choynski on any hardest puncher lists but yet I have recently been reading the same thing about Joe's power by common opponents.
So I've found more info since posting this the other day but I still need some help from the experts of this time period. Sounds to me like these two men had similar styles. I've found different opinions of this fight but nothing concrete. Found an interview where Choynski says Fitz was saved by basically by police storming the ring in round 5 as he had him all but knocked out. That being said does anyone have a link to round by round coverage by any newspapers of the time?
According to this Choynski floored Fitzsimmons in the third but punched himself out trying to finish him off and was helpless when the fight was stopped. Though it sounds strange that a fighter of Choynski's ability and experience could exhaust himself that quickly. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1894-06-19/ed-1/seq-1/
