Janitors ten most historicaly important British fighters and a bit about each of them

Of course Langham did not have Maces natural talent with which to employ his new tactics. Mace had tremendous power for his weight and reflexes like a rattlesnake.

If you put Mace in with sombody like Joe Choynski or Bob Fitzsimmons in a gloved contest the only thiong they would have over him is the left hook.

 

Seriously compare the training regime of a modern fighter to that of Bob Fitzsimmons or Jem Mace.

It isnt even close.

 

The training regimes of early fighters are verry well documented. They had newspapermen in their training camp in the run up to major fights to document them. It seems to be you basing your asertion that Nigel Benn trained harder than Fitzsimmons on inuendo while I am using documented sources.

It should not come as any surprise that these fighters trained harder than their modern conterparts when you consider that they were training for much longer fights.

No, you can't tell whether a fighter has explosive muscle from photographs. You can infer that Fitzsimmons did from the fact that he knocked out men well over 200 lbs while weighing under 160 himself.

 

The matter is given much more thorough treatment in Adam Pollacks biography but here is an acount taken from the Mirror of Life, 1897)

Bob Fitzsimmons Training
Fitzsimmons is a marvel in point of endurance. He is accustomed to take a certain amount of exercise whether he is matched to fight or not.

Fitz is a great walker. Twenty miles for an appetizer is a daily event with him. This is at a gait which verges upon a run. It was this sort of training which used to surprise the early morning visitors to Central Park in New York just prior to his departure to Carson City.

In company with Yaroum, his big canine pet, he would start from the Bartholdi Hotel at Twenty-third Street and Broadway, dash up Fifth Avenue, the most fashionable thoroughfare of the metropolis with the Great Dane prancing ahead him. Around Central Park he would go and then back to the hotel for a rubdown and an hour with the punching bag.

The training which Fitz believes in differs from training the training of the average fighter. First of all he trains himself. He takes his own advice and regulates his own work and diet.

"I'll do no more 18 or 20 mile runs" he said in his initial week's work. "I'll start off and run six or eight miles and then I'll walk back at a good nice gait. Next day I'll walk out my distance and run back. Another day I'll run a mile and walk a mile, alternating for 10 or 15 miles. Another day I'll follow the telegraph poles. I'll run at a top speed between two poles, then walk between the next two".

According to his friends, Fitzsimmons is the possessor of no bad habits. Fitzsimmons has wisely remarked that if he couldn't keep himself straight with the prospect of a fortune before him no trainer could. Fitz had a visitor one time who wanted to know all about his mode of training. All Fitzsimmons did was to hand him the following schedule:

6.30am - Rises, bathes, dresses.
7.00 - Sherry and egg
7.05 to 8.15 - Rides on bicycle (15 Miles)
8.15 - Breakfast
9.30 - Goes 15 miles afoot
11.30 - Has rubdown and rests
1.00pm - Dinner
3.00 - Works in gymnasium
5.00 - Showerbath and rubdown
6.00 - Supper
8.00,9.00,10.00,11.00 - Bed


In the October 12 edition of the Dallas Morning News, it was reported that Fitz, after an ocean swim, a walk, a romp with Pat - his two hundred pound St Bernard, and some wood splitting, settled down to a breakfast table usually stocked with "oatmeal, muffins, steak, chops or chicken. He does not believe in diet or special foods." After exercising and a cold sponge bath there was a hearty dinner of "every vegetable the markets far and near can produce. These are flanked by generouis roasts of beef, mutton and pork."​