On this day in 1897, a skinny, heavily-freckled, balding bloke from New Zealand changed the course of boxing history with a single punch.
That night in Carson City, Nevada, Bob Fitzsimmons stunned the sporting world by decking heavyweight champ Jim Corbett with a devastating body shot to claim the biggest prize in sport.
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More than a century later, the finish remains one of boxing’s most unlikely title victories.
And that was just the start. ‘Fitz’ would go on to become the sweet science’s first three-division world champion, earning a fearsome reputation for his punching power and rising to international fame.
A FIGHTER IS FORGED
Born in Cornwall, England in 1863, Fitz’s family emigrated to New Zealand when he was a kid, settling in the tough-as-nails colonial town of Timaru.
Fitz found work as a blacksmith at age 10, a job that would shape the fighter, and man, he eventually became. Many thousands of hours swinging a hammer over the hot forge developed the enormous punching power in both hands that would later give his opponents nightmares.
He became obsessed with boxing, constantly scrapping with his brothers, and eventually began entering local contests.
Before long, he had built a reputation as one of the best fighters in the region – not just for his strength, but for his ring intelligence.
Fitz hardly looked like a natural heavyweight of the era. Lanky, broad-shouldered and awkward-looking, he rarely weighed much more than about 75 kilograms during his career.
The great John L. Sullivan famously dubbed him “The Fighting Machine on Stilts”, while other nicknames included “The Freckled Wonder” and “Ruby Robert”.
What Fitz did have on his side was a natural understanding of leverage and angles, extraordinary punching power, and a heart as big as Phar Lap’s.
Around the age of 20, he left New Zealand for Sydney, eager to find out just how good he really was.
At the time, the Harbour City attracted the toughest fighters in the colonies and it was here that Fitz sought the guidance of Larry Foley, the father of Australian boxing.
Foley, a bare-knuckle champion turned boxing impresario, had the reckless or genius idea of building a boxing hall behind his pub, the White Horse Hotel.
The heady cocktail of beer and boxing guaranteed a steady stream of drinkers desperate to test themselves against Foley’s stable of fighters. More often than not, they were found sorely wanting.
Foley had developed some of the finest fighters of the era, including Young Griffo, Peter Jackson and Frank Slavin. Ahead of his time, he stressed defence, footwork and ring strategy when brute strength still dominated the sport.
Under Foley’s guidance, Fitz honed his craft against the top local pugs and, in 1887, captured the Australian middleweight championship – a success that convinced him he was ready to face the world.
TAKING ON AMERICA
Fitz arrived in the USA in 1890 and quickly made a name for himself on the boxing circuit.
When he was granted a shot at the world middleweight title against champion “Nonpareil” Jack Dempsey in New Orleans, few gave the awkward-looking challenger much chance.
His strange appearance even drew a few chuckles from the crowd.
Nobody was laughing after the opening bell.
Dempsey had only lost one fight in almost a decade of fighting, but Fitz made it look easy, dropping the champion more than 10 times before finally knocking him out in the 13th round.
Pretty soon after winning the middleweight title, Fitz began taking on heavyweights, often giving up as much as 30kg to his opponents.
Such was his extraordinary punching power that the size difference rarely mattered. His most devastating weapon was a perfectly timed left hook to the solar plexus capable of flooring men far greater in size.
Fitz popularised the phrase “The bigger they are, the harder they fall” and, in 1897, got the chance to prove it against heavyweight champion James J. Corbett, widely regarded as the most technically gifted boxer of his generation.
“Gentleman Jim” was larger, faster and younger, and for much of the fight he appeared to be winning comfortably on points. But despite being knocked down in the sixth round and bleeding badly, Fitz reportedly told his cornermen he “had him licked”.
He wasn’t wrong.
In the 14th round, Fitzsimmons finally landed his famous solar-plexus punch. Corbett crumpled to the canvas, writhing in pain.
Unable to beat the count, the champ was ruled out.
A middleweight was now the heavyweight champion of the world – a feat that would not be repeated until Roy Jones Jr achieved the same remarkable jump more than a century later.
LIFE AT THE TOP
The victory made Fitz into one of the biggest sporting celebrities on the planet. Newspapers across America and the British Empire marvelled at the lanky blacksmith who had conquered the heavyweight division with a combination of physical power and smarts.
His reign at the top didn’t last long, however. In 1899, he lost the title to the towering James J. Jeffries, a giant American more than 25 kilograms heavier.
But the defeat did very little to dent Fitz’s reputation as one of the sport’s most dangerous men.
Rather than retire, he made history again in 1903 by beating George Gardner to claim the world light-heavyweight strap, thereby becoming boxing’s first-ever three-division world champion.
Outside of the ring, Fitz was just as entertaining. Friends described him as quiet and thoughtful, but he also had a taste for the unusual… At the height of his fame – and long before Mike Tyson got the idea – Fitz kept two pet lions, with one of the massive cats even said to sleep in his bed.
Bob Fitzsimmons died on October 22, 1917 in Chicago, at the age of just 54, after a bout of pneumonia.
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While gone too soon, his legend still looms large all these decades later. Boxing historians continue to rank him among the hardest punchers in the sport’s history, as well as one of the greatest middleweights ever to lace up the gloves.
Not bad for a skinny blacksmith from a small town in New Zealand.