Before he became a world champion in three weight divisions and a pioneer of modern boxing, Robert Fitzsimmons was a knock-kneed, red-haired blacksmith’s apprentice in Timaru. Raised in the South Canterbury town after emigrating from Cornwall, Fitzsimmons forged both his strength and his fighting spirit in the local forges and sparring rings. His remarkable journey from Timaru to the pinnacle of international boxing made him not just a sporting legend, but a lasting symbol of grit, ambition, and local pride.
Bob Fitzsimmons - Timaru's champ (17 Jan 1976). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 21/04/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/1638
Bob Fitzsimmons – Timaru’s Champion
There lived in Timaru in the 1880s a giant blacksmith named Tom Baines who delighted in calling himself "The Timaru Terror".
Baines was strong enough to lift a horse and it was his special pride that he had never met a man who could stand up against him in a fight. One blow from Baines usually spelt “goodnight” for his victim.
It was hardly surprising that the big, unbeatable fellow felt no anxiety when he was challenged to have a go by another blacksmith answering to the following description: “Tall, stooped, bald, very thin, abnormally knock-kneed and apparently suffering from asthma.”
In addition, the odd-looking challenger was barely a middleweight. He scaled about 69 kg (11 stone). It was said that he did not look as though he could shake a jelly even if he used both hands. Appearances proved to be most deceptive in this case. Skinny Robert Fitzsimmons made a jelly of “The Timaru Terror” in jig time.
There were two consequences from that lopsided encounter. Big Tom Baines stopped accepting casual challenges and Robert Fitzsimmons decided that he had in his odd-looking frame all the capacity necessary to make him a world champion.
Little Money
There was little money or future in the boxing business in New Zealand and in 1890, at the age of 27, Fitzsimmons decided to come to Sydney to advance his pugilistic career. His determination to cross the water was not dimmed by the fact that he had no money to pay his fare. He simply stowed away on a two-masted schooner named Botany Bay and so got to Sydney, the mecca of boxing in Australia at that time.
The matchmaking centre in Sydney was Larry Foley’s White Horse Hotel and it cannot be said that Robert Fitzsimmons created a very good impression when he presented himself there offering to take on all middleweights.
Not only was the man from New Zealand skinny and knock-kneed, but his head was small and the baldness of the dome was accentuated by a scanty fringe of fierce red hair. His eyes seemed to wander in all directions and there was a definite droop to his bottom lip. When he stripped, he revealed that his body was covered in close-packed copper-coloured freckles.
Larry Foley had never seen the like and he didn’t imagine that the freckled freak before him would make a fighter. However, he decided to give him a try-out and popped him into the ring with a handy lad named Dick Ellis. Fitzsimmons came shuffling out with knees knocking and kept going after Ellis until he knocked him out in the third round.
The stranger continued to improve and in February 1890, an intrigued Foley decided to discover just how good he was by putting him into the ring with Jim Hall, middleweight champion of Australia.
Hall won by a knockout in the fourth round and all the wise characters hanging around the ringside nodded sagely and said “told you so”.
But Robert Fitzsimmons was not the least bit discouraged. He appeared to regard the bout as a good lesson and indicated that, in his opinion, the time had come for him to go to America and fight for the world middleweight crown.
Interest Arises
The California Athletic Club took an interest in Fitzsimmons, not because it considered him any world-beater, but because it felt that his odd appearance would give him a certain novelty value in the ring.
The stranger was matched with one Billy McCarthy, an Australian who had built up a big name for himself in America as a middleweight. McCarthy had won considerable fame by going the distance with “Nonpareil” Jack Dempsey, regarded at that time as the greatest world middleweight champion ever.
Fitzsimmons was first into the ring and the big crowd was fascinated by his bald head, skinny legs and coppery freckles. As McCarthy climbed into the ring he took one look at his opponent and shouted to the crowd: “Blimey! A bald-headed kangaroo from Australia.”
This sharp comment delighted the audience and it was reported that it was five minutes before the last chuckles died away. Billy McCarthy was very pleased with his witty comment and with the way the crowd had received it. But there was no smile on the face of his opponent.
Fitzsimmons pushed McCarthy into a corner with a straight left and dropped him with a short right hook. One-two just like that. McCarthy scrambled to his feet prepared to take the fight seriously. The crowd was now keenly interested because Billy McCarthy was regarded as being a near world’s champion.
The “bald-headed kangaroo” kept making the fight and it was noted that when he wished to deliver a particularly hard punch he appeared to lock his knees together to obtain extra purchase. Billy McCarthy, who had gone the distance with world middleweight champion Jack Dempsey, was knocked out in the ninth round.
Fascinated Nation
The American sporting world was immediately fascinated by the bald-headed freak who looked harmless but could fight like a world-beater. There was a popular demand that Robert Fitzsimmons be matched with the unbeaten Jack Dempsey for the world middleweight title and a huge purse of $12,000 was offered – the largest ever dangled before a middleweight.
Dempsey was lured into a match which was arranged for 14 January 1891 at New Orleans.
Dempsey’s admirers stressed that their man had never been beaten and pointed out that the challenger had been knocked out in Sydney by Jim Hall. Fitzsimmons tartly replied that he had never really been beaten in his career and claimed that he had taken a dive when he met Jim Hall to obtain money to pay his fare to America.
The title bout ended in the 13th round when Jack Dempsey was knocked out and the queer, freckled fellow from Australia was crowned world middleweight champion.
When this news got back to Australia there was great rejoicing with everyone claiming the new champion as a local boy who had made good.
Over in New Zealand there was similar rejoicing because Fitzsimmons was regarded as a local product. The actual fact was that the boxer had been born in Cornwall and had come to New Zealand as a child.
Heavyweight History
The “bald-headed kangaroo” proved to be a mighty middleweight champion. He whipped all challengers so thoroughly that no one of his own weight would come near him and Fitzsimmons was forced to start campaigning among the heavyweights. He did so well that he saw no reason why he should not, in spite of his light weight, become the heavyweight champion of the world.
Cheekily he began challenging the great John L. Sullivan who then held the title but the old champion refused to even consider what he considered to be a ludicrous match with a man stones lighter than he was.
Soon after, John L. lost his crown to Gentleman Jim Corbett who revolutionised heavyweight boxing with his speed and skill.
Fitzsimmons now directed his challenges to Gentleman Jim but was ignored. In 1896, Gentleman Jim declared that as there was no one in the world capable of making a worthwhile challenge for the heavyweight title he was retiring. He nominated a big Irishman named Peter Maher as the man most suited to succeed him.
Fitzsimmons immediately challenged Maher who accepted. The fight lasted 90 seconds. Eleven blows landed, most of them on Peter Maher who was knocked out.
Having cleaned up Gentleman Jim’s protégé the bald-headed middleweight began demanding that the retired heavyweight champion come back into the ring and fight for the heavyweight title.
History Made
Great public interest was generated in this proposition and eventually Corbett did come out of retirement to meet the challenger on 17 March 1897 at Carson City, Nevada. This fight made history as it was the first at which motion pictures were taken.
Fitzsimmons, then aged 34, weighed in under 76 kg (12 stone) while Corbett, aged 31, was over 82 kg (13 stone). The betting was 5–2 on in the champion’s favour. A huge purse of $15,000 plus side-stakes meant that the winner would become a wealthy man in just one fight.
Although women did not go to fights in those days, an exception to the rule was Fitzsimmons’s wife, Rose, who acted as his manager and second. Rose was a very shrewd woman. She noticed when Corbett entered the ring he kept grinning and winking at a young man sitting at the ringside wearing a big sombrero who kept waving back to the champion.
Rose suddenly realised that so much of Corbett’s attention was actually being given to a girl in disguise, not the champion’s male friend.
The Knockout
By the 14th round Corbett was still far ahead on points and taking things easy. Rose had whispered in her husband’s ear certain instructions and when she saw Corbett relax in a clinch and make eyes at the disguised girl in the sombrero she yelled, “Now hit him in the bread basket, Bob!”
Swiftly Fitzsimmons stepped back and sank his right glove into Corbett’s solar plexus. Corbett buckled, took a left to the chin and the fight was over. The bald-headed kangaroo was the heavyweight champion of the world – the only Britisher to hold the title since modern boxing began.
Fitzsimmons lost his title to Jim Jeffries on 9 June 1899. He kept on campaigning and in 1905 visited Australia where he was knocked out by the local champion, Bill Lang, in 12 rounds.
Returning to America he earned a vague living with a vaudeville act. He died impoverished in 1917.
(Originally published in The Sydney Sun, reprinted by The Timaru Herald, 17 January 1976)
Timaru, 1902, Timaru, by Melvin Vaniman. Purchased 2024. Te Papa (O.051719)
Section of photo Timaru, 1902, Timaru, by Melvin Vaniman. Purchased 2024. Te Papa (O.051719)