Bob Fitzsimmons: The pound for pound pioneer

WE live in a fortunate time for boxing at the highest level where pound for pound stars are frequent in pro boxing but none ever were quite the ‘pound for pound’ star as one Bob Fitzsimmons.

With the Olympics in France now over it is important to remember professional boxing represents the pinnacle, top tier, top flight, highest level of the sport where the best fighters in the world compete in the sport of boxing.

The term ‘pound for pound’ exists only in professional boxing and is thrown around a lot these days, rightly so in many ways, just look at the plethora of new pound for pound stars being blooded from all parts of the world
in recent years and right now.

What does it mean ‘pound for pound’. In the eyes of a reasonable individual surveying the pantheon of sport which professional pugilism, the noble art and sweet science exists, in short, it’s supposed to mean — the best.

The best fighter in the world regardless of weight division or anything else. The best boxer in boxing today.

Many think Terence Crawford is that man in today’s times but if you rewind the clock to the beginning of The Marquess of Queensberry, originally drafted at first in 1865 (the rules that formed and lead the basis for the modern unified boxing rules in today’s times) and before that, London Prize Ring rules (1838) in the beginning before that, you start to get an idea what real fighters and pound for pound merchants really were.

Strong silent types who went about their time with little fuss and a far, distant thing from the entertainment spectacle of today’s times. A gentleman’s sport but still at its core, the hurt business, even more so than in today’s times, always, always the hurt business.

One name is surely at the top of the heap in the early days of pound for pound and that’s Bob Fitzsimmons.

He and Roy Jones Jr. are the only two men in all of history to go from middleweight champion to heavyweight champion of the world.

Jones did it on points against John Ruiz in 2003 but Fitzsimmons went one better becoming heavyweight champion by knockout on St. Patrick’s Day March 17, 1897 (12 years before Boxing News Magazine was founded in 1909) by 14th round knockout win against James “Gentleman” Jim Corbett.

What’s more, incredibly, Fitzsimmons weighed approximately only 167 lbs. that night.

Basically a pound less than what Saul “Canelo” Alvarez weighs in these days in 2024 for his super-middleweight fights.

Think about that. Let that sink in.

That’s a pound for pound champion.