Bob Fitzsimmons

Here is the cover of Famous Fights no 21. It shows the Cornish fighter Bob Fitzsimmons, knocking Peter Maher cold. The fight lasted just one round. A full eight pages are dedicated to 'Fitz', his backers and his opponents. Fitz was the man who ended Gentleman Jim Corbett's reign as champion, a fight for which he was the underdog.

Fitzsimmons features in several issues of Famous Fights and he was very much a fighter of the past and the present back in 1901. A fighter of the past in the sense that he was a former heavyweight boxing champion, but at the time of this paper he was still intent on a return match with his conqueror Jim Jeffries. In issue 3 we hear of Fitzsimmons belief that there was something wrong in his match with Jeffries a claim that he was 'got at'. The writer in Famous Fights concurs with this opinion and implies that Fitz would win a return.