Fitzsimmons' Style In-Depth

Thats how i see it, he leaves hismelf quite open when punching so since combination punching was rare in those days counter punching suited him well

 

Interesting that the first thing I saw was an elbow block. I've known people to be skeptical of oldtimers expertise in that area.

You can see Fitz interest in drawing in the opponent, adding his oppenents strength to his own. Bob was good at eliciting head-on-collisions.

Looking at the Johnson fight, Bob was very old and also had a very bad arm injury the day before the fight. My understanding ('The Ultimate Tough Guy', Carney) is that Bob insisted his injury be made public before the bout, so people would not bet on him on false pretenses; and that the first two men approached to referee the fight refused to have anything to do with it, in light of Fitzsimmons condition.

 

Fitz was ancient and had been considered "done" for some time before he fought Johnson. I'm surprised that fight would even enter the picture here.

 

I was at the boxing gym today and was learning afew of the parries from that book. Specifically the one where you hit the left lead up and counter with a right to the body

 

Actualy some sections of the press gave Johnson a lot of credit for the win to his own considerable surprise.

 

Is there any fighter with more footage available you would consider has a resemblance to Fitzsimmons, i know Tony Canzoneri is often compared - any others?

 

For what it is worth, Fitz fought an exhibition with Jeanette a week before the Johnson bout, and Jeanette apparently had to ask him to ease up. This was before he allegedly broke or badly injured his arm. If this is true, then it was either an exceptional Johnson performance or the arm injury story is true. Looking at Fitz' result, this is an out of character performance and after this fight, Fitz took one year off (even from exhibitions) perhaps waiting for his arm to heal? and then he resumed with a first round KO. His next loss was a very creditable 12th round KO loss to World Title Challenger Bill Lang.