James J Jeffries vs Bob Fitzsimmons II

James J. Jeffries retained the heavyweight championship of the world by knocking out Bob Fitzsimmons in the eighth round of their return contest at the San Francisco Athletic Club on the night of July 25, 1902. The bout was arranged for 20 rounds and was refereed by Eddie Graney. Jeffries weighed 219 pounds and Fitzsimmons only 172, leaving the former champion at a disadvantage of 47 pounds. Jeffries was the younger man by more than a decade and entered as a 10-to-4 favourite, yet for seven rounds he was struck with such accuracy and severity that his eventual victory appeared scarcely possible. The contest took place in the Athletic Club’s recently built octagonal arena at Fourteenth and Valencia streets, which accommodated between 8,000 and 10,000 spectators. The gate amounted to $31,880, from which Jeffries received $14,346 and Fitzsimmons $9,564.

The meeting was the second between the pair. Jeffries had taken the championship from Fitzsimmons at Coney Island in June 1899, forcing the lighter man down repeatedly before stopping him in the eleventh round. Since then Jeffries had defended against Tom Sharkey, Jack Finnegan, James J. Corbett and Gus Ruhlin. Fitzsimmons, meanwhile, had restored his standing by knocking out several leading heavyweights, including Ruhlin and Sharkey. Although approaching his fortieth year, he remained one of the hardest and most resourceful punchers in the ring. He had plainly prepared for speed rather than strength and came into the contest lean, active and determined to prevent Jeffries from settling into the crouching advance which had carried him to victory three years earlier.

Fitzsimmons began at once with the better boxing. He moved lightly around the champion, feinted him out of position and struck first whenever Jeffries attempted to close the distance. Jeffries tried to force the pace, bending low and looking for the body, but the challenger met him with straight blows and short counters before stepping aside. During the opening round Fitzsimmons established that he could reach Jeffries cleanly without remaining in front of him. In the second he increased the severity of his attack. A succession of sharp punches to the face started blood from the champion’s mouth and nose, and the crowd, which had expected Jeffries to impose his weight, responded loudly as Fitzsimmons repeatedly struck and escaped. Contemporary reports noted that Jeffries was already bleeding profusely at this early stage.

The same order continued through the third and fourth rounds. Fitzsimmons did not waste his blows upon Jeffries’s arms or shoulders. He selected the openings around the eyes, nose and mouth and drove his punches home with the peculiar leverage which had distinguished him throughout his career. Jeffries followed steadily, accepting the punishment in order to shorten the distance, but his face deteriorated rapidly. His nose was damaged, cuts appeared near both eyes and the blood interfered with his sight. Fitzsimmons was doing nearly all the conspicuous work, landing the cleaner blows and avoiding much of the champion’s return. Jeffries’s best work was less noticeable. When he could reach the challenger he drove his hands into the body, particularly at close quarters, and leaned upon the smaller man in the clinches. These attacks did not immediately alter the course of the contest, but they required Fitzsimmons to spend strength each time he disengaged and moved away.

By the fifth round Jeffries presented a battered appearance. The flesh around his eyes was swelling, his cheeks were cut and his features were covered with blood. Fitzsimmons remained comparatively unmarked. He continued to beat the champion to the punch, sometimes striking two or three times before moving beyond the return. Jeffries nevertheless showed no inclination to retreat or complain. He kept advancing behind his lowered guard, taking blows to the head while looking for the ribs and abdomen. In the sixth and seventh rounds Fitzsimmons still held the apparent advantage, but the physical labour of keeping the 219-pound champion away was beginning to tell. His movements were less continuous, and after his attacks he remained within reach for longer periods. Jeffries, though badly injured, retained his strength. George Siler, the experienced referee and writer, later observed that only the champion’s stamina and capacity to withstand punishment had saved him. To anyone arriving immediately after the contest, Siler said, the unmarked Fitzsimmons would have appeared the winner and the bloodied Jeffries the beaten man.

The finish came suddenly in the eighth. The men exchanged heavily, with Fitzsimmons still finding the champion’s damaged face but Jeffries now reaching the body with greater force. After one lively passage they broke from close quarters. Fitzsimmons paused, lowered his hands and spoke to the champion. Whether the remark was a taunt or merely a momentary distraction was never satisfactorily established. Jeffries did not hesitate. He drove a hard right into the body and followed immediately with a left hook to the jaw. Fitzsimmons went down heavily and was unable to rise before Graney completed the count. The challenger, who had administered most of the visible punishment, had been knocked out, while Jeffries, bleeding from numerous wounds, remained heavyweight champion.

The abrupt ending produced some talk that the contest had not been honestly fought, but neither boxer gave support to the accusation. Fitzsimmons stated that he had done his best and that the better man had won. Graney declared that the fight had been entirely clean, without a foul or even the appearance of one. Jeffries, viewing his opponent through swollen and damaged eyes, described Fitzsimmons as the greatest fighter of his weight who had ever lived and, according to another widely repeated account, called him the most dangerous man alive. The result was therefore not a triumph of superior boxing over eight rounds, for Fitzsimmons had plainly shown the greater skill and had landed by far the more damaging blows to the head. It was instead a victory founded upon Jeffries’s exceptional endurance, his persistent work to the body and his ability to retain the power of a heavyweight after absorbing punishment which would have stopped an ordinary man.