Fitzsimmons fighttoy

	FROM THE BOOKS
	Fitzsimmons had those belligerent qualities found in only two types of fighters: those who have had to club their way up through life, and those who have an inherent streak in them that makes it possible for them to shed their normal personality once the fight starts. This inner viciousness even was apparent in Bob around the house, where he frequently slugged it out with a pet tiger cub that grew into dangerous maturity. When the beast would snap or snarl old Fitz would smash it. He'd fight it until it quit and often he came out with both arms badly clawed. Fitz was mean and tough when he was mad. He also had a curious sense of humor. He loved practical jokes, the cruder, the better. He delighted in frightening visitors half to death with his tiger. He wrestled with the beast until the rough and tumbles finally killed the jungle beast. Fitz had him stuffed. Man or beast, he was afraid of nothing. By nature, however, Fitz was quite a sentimental, even-tempered man, slow to anger and swift to forgiveness. Rancor, hatred and enmity had no part of him. Unlike Sullivan, he admitted he felt sorry for opponents he knocked out. In his fight with the first Jack Dempsey at New Orleans, in 1891, when the Nonpareil was still staggering around the dirt arena helpless and facing certain defeat, Fitz begged him to quit. "The champion never quits," retorted Dempsey, puffing a red spray from his bloody lips. "You've got to knock me out first." Fitz considered it an act of mercy to put him out of his misery by knocking him out. Dempsey fell face forward with his shattered mouth in the mud. "To my dying day," Fitz said later, "I'll see Dempsey lying there with the little red bubbles busting as 'e breathed heavily into the red earth. I picked 'im up and 'elped carry 'im to 'is corner. I never lifted a braver man to 'is feet."
	John D. McCallum-The Encyclopedia Of World Boxing Champions



	Fitzsimmons at the time he defeated Jack Dempsey, the Nonpareil, in New Orleans. That fight made him the sensation of the American prize ring and the reigning pugilist until after a long series of victories in the middle, light-heavy and heavy- weight class he bowed to Jeffries at Coney island. as labeled in "Ruby Robert" Alias Bob Fitzsimmons by Robert H. Davis

	WHITEHEAD & HOAG CO. 1896