Boxing: Fighting Fitz lead the way

By PETER JESSUP

When David Tua steps into the ring for his world heavyweight challenge against Britain's Lennox Lewis, he will be following in the illustrious footsteps of another New Zealand immigrant who made good with his fists.

Tua has much in common with Bob Fitzsimmons, who won the title on St Patrick's Day, March 17, 1897, with a round 14 knockout.

Both came to New Zealand as children, fought their way out of working-class neighbourhoods, and established themselves overseas despite a size disadvantage — Fitzsimmons in weight, Tua in height — with devastating punching power.

Both reckoned it was their destiny to win the world title. And both are labelled gentlemen in a sport short on those.

Fitzsimmons' story is better than any fictional account that could have been written. Aside from his David v Goliath-type victory to end "Gentleman" Jim Corbett's reign as world champ — still rated as one of the best fights of all time and the one that set the tone for the huge paydays and moving pictures coverage — there was wife-swapping with his manager, a fight thrown for money, a dubious loss when referee Wyatt Earp bet on the other guy, wrestling with bears, lions as pets ...

In the Corbett fight, Fitzsimmons delivered the knockout blow to the midriff in a come-from-behind win. James Bond made it famous but it was Fitzsimmons who "invented" the solar plexus punch when his wife, Rose, yelled, "Hit him in the slats, Bob," from the side of the Carson City ring.

Fitz, as he was known worldwide at a time when boxing was the number one sport globally, dropped to Australian Jim Hall in Sydney when short of money and with a new family, and lost unfairly to "Sailor" Tom Sharkey when O. K. Corral shootout sheriff Earp unfairly disqualified him — Earp was later said to have won $10,000 on Sharkey.

And Fitz was famous for quotable quotes: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall," is the best known, though rarely attributed to him.

Fitzsimmons was the son of an Irishman who had served as a farrier with British forces in India before settling in the copper and tin mining town of Helston in Cornwall. He was the youngest of 11 children.

When the mines bottomed out and most working men lost their jobs, Fitz's father shifted the family to Christchurch, then Timaru, setting up a blacksmith's forge that was to be run by older brother Jarrett and would become Bob's de facto gymnasium where he built his chest, upper arms and shoulders to the point where he scared opponents just by removing his shirt.

After bashing up anyone keen for a go in the South Island, he moved to Australia, struggled for a quid, and eventually agreed to take a fall to the Aussie middleweight champ, Jim Hall.

Hall was to go on to the United States to fight for the world title held by Jack Dempsey. Fate reversed the result when Hall broke bones in his hand in a bar brawl after being booked to sail to San Francisco, and the fight backers replaced him with Fitz.

New Orleans was the capital of boxing then, and the biggest purse ever offered, $12,000, was put up for the fight in January, 1891.

Fitzsimmons thrashed Dempsey, repeatedly knocking him down. By round six Dempsey was crawling, barely able to stand. Fitz asked him to throw in the towel.

"I don't want to strike you, Jack," he reputedly said.

Dempsey's reply was: "Well, I would hit you if I could."

It ended in the ninth, Fitz winning the money and American citizenship.

Next he flattened Hall, then defended the first of his three world titles repeatedly to earn more than $42,000 that year. He decided to step up in weight divisions and asked titleholder Corbett for a chance. Corbett announced that he was retiring and that his successor was to be Irishman Peter Maher. Fitz was happy to face Maher, too.

The fight was set for Dallas, Texas, in February, 1986. But the southern state decided that boxing was an unhealthy pastime and at the last minute changed the law to ban the sport, forcing promoter Dan Stuart to shift the bout over the Rio Grande into Mexico.

It was one of the first boxing matches to be filmed. Thomas Edison's kinescope camera was used, and paying customers around the country boosted the purse. Gunslinger Bat Masterton was hired to keep the peace in a roughneck crowd that included Mexican bandits, miners and Texas Rangers.

Next, Fitz met "Sailor" Tom Sharkey for a $10,000 purse in San Francisco, with Wyatt Earp as ref. In the eighth round Fitz dropped Sharkey with an uppercut to the jaw. Earp called the blow low and disqualified the New Zealander. Fitz tried to smash Earp but was held back.

"Earp knows, and so does Sharkey, that I didn't hit him where they say I did," was his quote afterwards.

Earp's reply: "No man has ever questioned my honour ... no one ever said until tonight that I was guilty of a dishonourable act."

But it was later revealed that Earp collected $10,000 for the Sharkey win.

In 1897, Corbett agreed to face Fitz and their fight for the world heavyweight title in Carson City, Nevada, on St Patrick's Day, was the first championship match filmed, $15,000 on offer for the winner.

It was in round 14 that Fitz delivered the solar plexus punch that won him the title after the inspirational words from wife Rose lifted him to beat the bigger and heavier Corbett, switching to southpaw to fool his opponent.

Rose was his second wife, his first, Alice, having left him for his manager, Martin Julian, after a long-term affair. Rose was Julian's sister.

Fitz moved to New York, and made friends with city police commissioner and later president Theodore Roosevelt. He kept a lion as a pet and walked it around central city streets on a leash. At home were monkeys and snakes among other wild animals.

He never defended the title, instead taking to the stage for a year, a common course for boxers of the time and one also pursued by Corbett.

In 1899, age 36, he lost the heavyweight title to 24-year-old James Jackson Jefferies at Coney Island, New York.

Fitz announced his retirement but the money soon ran out given his high-spending style, and by 1900 he was back, beating Sharkey in two rounds to avenge the Earp-induced loss.

He sought a rematch with Jefferies but the younger man had time on his side and left Fitz to wait. By 1902, when the fight was set for San Francisco, it was too late for Fitz. His speed was gone and he was KO'd in the seventh.

Not long after, Rose died of pneumonia. Eventually he sacked her brother, Martin Julian, accusing him of theft.

He married for the third time, divorced, and married again, the period marked by heavy drinking. After the failure of his fourth marriage he found God and cleaned up.

In 1903, aged 40, he won the new light heavyweight division for boxers over 72 but less than 79 kg, beating holder George Gardner over 20 rounds. He defended it twice, then lost it in 1905, but he didn't cease boxing until January, 1914, when he fell to new heavyweight contender and subsequent champ Jack Johnson.

He returned briefly to Timaru and was feted as a local hero, despite having several times said he had no wish to return there, that he was happy as an American citizen.

In 1917 he was admitted to a Chicago hospital with pneumonia and didn't come out, passing away on October 22.

Boxing writers Reg Gutterridge and Norman Giller, in their book The Release of Power, have computer-ranked heavyweights over the years and list Fitz at No 5 of those who fought in the first half of last century, one ahead of Corbett, the first four being Johnson, Gene Tunney, Dempsey and Jefferies.

Tom Heeney is the only other Kiwi to have challenged for the title, losing to champ Tunney when the ref stopped the fight in the 11th round of their bout at New York in July, 1928.

Descendants of Bob Fitzsimmons' brother Jarrett live in Timaru today and were among those traced by journalist Christopher Tobin for his book Fitzsimmons: Boxing's First Triple World Champion.

They knew little of their famous ancestor but one anecdote recalled was that Fitz was said to have told his family, when sent to buy the Timaru Herald, "One day you'll pick it up and see I'm the new heavyweight champion of the world."

Tobin also collected evidence from the family that the publisher of boxing bible The Ring magazine, Nat Fleischer, regarded Fitz as the best knockout puncher he'd seen, and he watched everyone from Corbett to Joe Frazier.

The memorabilia from Fitzsimmons' exploits has largely disappeared, Tobin said. Much of the information he found was in US newspapers.

"His career coincided with the rise of the popular press and people like Hearst and Pulitzer were using the popularity of boxing and rising with it."

Tobin, aged 45, lives in Timaru and works as a freelance writer after working at the Oamaru Mail and Christchurch Press.

His book, a good record of a man little known but well worth learning about, is printed by Herald Print, Timaru, and is available for $29.95 from them, or from Tobin at 25A Guinness St.

Herald Online feature: Tua v Lewis