WE LIVE in a time of great boxing fortunes where pound for pound stars used to box but no one was ever a 'pound for pound' star like the one Bob Fitzsimmons.
With the French Olympics now over it is important to remember that professional boxing represents the pinnacle, the top class, the top flight, the highest level of sport where the world's best boxers compete.
The term 'pound for pound' only exists 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 thrown around in all parts of the world.
in recent years and now.
What does 'pound for pound' mean? In the eyes of a reasonable person who examines the sports team that is professional pugilism, the noble art and the beautiful science that exists, in short, should say – the best.
The best fighter in the world regardless of weight division or anything else. The best boxer in boxing today.
Many consider Terence Crawford to be that man in modern times but if you rewind the clock to the beginning of the Marquess of Queensberry, originally written in 1865 (the rules that formed and led the foundation of the modern unified boxing rules in modern times) and before that, the London Prize Ring rules (1838) originally before that, you start to get an idea of what real fighters and pound for pound sellers really were.
The quiet, hardy types who spent their time with little fuss and something far, far away from the entertainment spectacle of modern times. It's a gentle man's game but at its core, it's a hurtful business, even more so than in modern times, always, always a hurtful business.
One name is certainly at the top of the pile in the early days of pound for pound and that is Bob Fitzsimmons.
He and Roy Jones Jr. they are the only men in history to go from middleweight champion to heavyweight world champion.
Jones did it on points against John Ruiz in 2003 but Fitzsimmons did one better heavyweight champion with a knockout on St. John's Day. “Jim Corbett.
Furthermore, surprisingly, Fitzsimmons only weighed an estimated 167 lbs. that night.
That's actually a pound less than what Saul “Canelo” Alvarez currently weighs in his 2024 super-middleweight fights.
Think about that. Don't let that sink in.
That's a pound for pound champion.
Source link
