Bob Fitzsimmons was born in Helston, Cornwall, in 1863, the youngest of 12 children, and in 1873 his family made a 93-day voyage on the ship Adamant to Timaru, New Zealand. A storm wrecked his plan to sail on the Isabella Ridley, so he went to work in his father’s forge with his brother Jarrett, building enormous shoulders and arms on notoriously skinny legs. Bare-knuckle legend Jem Mace held a tournament in New Zealand where Fitzsimmons knocked out four men for the lightweight title and five for the middleweight title, and Mace taught him footwork and precision. He turned professional in Australia in 1883, once winning a fight while unconscious after Edward “Starlight” Robbins broke his hand.
In New Orleans in January 1891 he knocked down middleweight champion Jack “Nonpareil” Dempsey at least 13 times, begged him to quit, then carried him to his corner. In 1897 in Carson City, Nevada, at 167 pounds, he dropped Jim Corbett with a solar plexus punch in the 14th round to become heavyweight champion. After losing twice to James J. Jeffries, he won the new light heavyweight title from George Gardner in 1903 at age 40, becoming boxing’s first three-division world champion. He died of pneumonia in Chicago in 1917 at 54.
- Sparring partner Con Riordan died hours after a knockout in an 1894 Syracuse exhibition, and Fitzsimmons was acquitted of manslaughter.
- Wyatt Earp refereed his 1896 fight with Tom Sharkey wearing a Colt .45 and disqualified him for a low blow.
- Enoch J. Rector’s film of the Corbett fight ran over 90 minutes, the longest motion picture released up to then.
- He wore long woolen underwear in the ring to hide his thin legs.
- He and his third wife, Julia, starred in a play called A Fight for Love.
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