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With All The Pound For Pound Talk Today People Forget Roy Jones and Bob Fitzsimmons Are The Only 2 Men In History To Go From Middleweight To Heavyweight World Champion

bob fitzsimmons

There’s a lot of talk in today’s times about Canelo, Crawford, Usyk and Inoue but what Bob Fitzsimmons did in pound for pound terms is unequalled.

What does pound for pound supposed to mean anyway?

It is mythical really but for most it means the best boxer regardless of weight division and going through weights to win world titles.

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Roy Jones Jr of Florida, USA and Bob Fitzsimmons of the UK are still the only two men in the history of prize fighting (professional top flight world title boxing) to go from middleweight world champion to heavyweight champion.

Jones did so beating John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight title on on March 1st 2003 on points.

However, Bob Fitzsimmons all the way back on St. Patrick’s Day March 17th 1897 not only went from middleweight world champion, to on that night, win the world heavyweight title against James “Gentleman” Jim Corbett — but he only weighed 167 lbs. when he won the heavyweight title that night — by knockout no less — did one better than Jones against Ruiz on points too.

As a knowledgeable person pointed out to us earlier.

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That’s less than a super-middleweight (equivalent of Canelo Alvarez today) in today’s times which is 168 lbs.

Think about that.

Here’s how he did it on the night:

That’s real pound for pound when hearing about all these fighters these days like Terence Crawford, Inoue, Canelo and Usyk being talked about in pound for pound.

By the time he did the above, Fitzsimmons who was originally from the south of the UK in Cornwall had already become a US citizen by then.

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Niall Doran

Niall Doran

Niall Doran is a highly experienced boxing writer, combat sports writer and professional boxing judge. He has been published and trusted on some of the world's leading boxing, mixed martial arts and media platforms including to name a few: • Boxrec (professional judge profile): https://boxrec.com/en/judge/1043570 • Boxing News: https://boxingnewsonline.net/author/niall-doran/ • Boxing Scene: https://www.boxingscene.com/author/niall-doran • Liveabout.com: https://www.liveabout.com/niall-doran-423729 • Huffington Post: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/niall-doran • MixedMartialArts.com: https://www.mixedmartialarts.com/news/will-2020-see-co-promoted-mma-and-boxing-events • SevereMMA.com: https://severemma.com/2015/09/mma-and-boxing-brothers-from-another-mother/View Author posts