Caractacus wrote: ↑23 Dec 2022, 16:24
dagosd2000 wrote: ↑15 Dec 2022, 20:40
Peter Maher fought Bob Fitzsimmons on Feb. 21,1896 for the unofficial Heavyweight Championship Of The World on a makeshift ring set up on a sandbar in the middle of the desert in Coahuila,Mexico.. The promoters wanted the fight staged in Texas.However,prizefighting at the time was outlawed in the state. Judge Roy Bean,who had the last word in the U.S. border town of Langtry decided to circumvent the law and at the 11th hour snuck the fight across the border in Mexico. The ring was set up on a sandbar across the Rio Grande River.There were just ring ropes,no canvas mat. The setting was far enough from the Mexican army, and being outside the United States,outside U.S. jurisdiction. BTW:Fitz KO'd Maher in less than a round.
That sure looks like "Fitz" to me from the back of his head tho ?
who says it aint and what is their proof it is not ?
also in my opinion that most certainly looks like a sand-bar in the Rio Grande to me.
“Such the above photograph depicts, as anyone familiar with prize fighting history knows, or does it?
Of course, it has appeared in several issues of The Ring, A Pictorial History of Boxing, Christopher Tobin in his book Fitzsimmons Boxing's First Triple Champion, uses the photograph and attributes it to The Ring, and the black trunks for Fitzsimmons and the white for Maher was described by Gilbert Odd in The Fighting Blacksmith, The Story of Bob Fitzsimmons . But, then again his bibliography lists no original source news coverage.
In the files, this photograph was attributed to the collection of a Mr. Earl Puryear. I know little of Earl Puryear excepting that he was an amateur boxing historian who apparently conducted personal research on the Fitzsimmons v. Maher fight, he wrote in December of 1955 to Floyd Red Taylor, a legendary collector and boxing historian, as follows, " I have been trying to piece together a bit of fistic history. Checked at the library on Lantry, Texas where Bob Fitzsimmons K.O. Peter Maher..."
A different view of what appears to be this same fight is printed on the Ogden Tab Cigarettes card no. 43 entitled "Snapshot of an American Prize Fight" by N.P. Edwards.
The description of black trunks for Fitzsimmons and the white for Maher appears in, The Story of Bob Fitzsimmons by Gilbert Odd.
In the Boston Herald coverage of the fight they state,
"Maher wore short-legged black fighting breeches, with a green belt." "Fitz had chosen for his ring costume a navy blue breech clout, with a belt of stars and stripes. He legs were bare and his shoes were of the standard running shape."
Further problems, the gloves in the famous photograph appear to be white, However, "the brown pair (gloves)went to Maher, and Fitz took the light green ones"
-Boston Herald February 22, 1896
Maher has an obvious mustache in the famous photograph. But, "with his (Mahers) moustache shaved off his face looked much better"
-The Police Gazette" Feburary 29, 1896
Also of note, in the famous photo one group have a parasol or umbrella up and the day seems very bright yet ;
"The day was gray with clouds, and the Kinetoscope was useless......to the point where the seventy-five foot pontoon bridge had been stretched across the Rio Grande River which, swollen by recent rains had been changed from a sluggish stream to a roaring torrent."
-New York Herald February 22, 1896
...a high wind and ...followed by a downpour of rain. A score of men with cameras of various descriptions were on hand to film the fight. The weather conditions were anything but accomodating to their business...
-Police Gazette
Immediately after the fight Mr Rector, on behalf of the kinetoscope people, offered Fitzsimmons and Maher a purse of $5000 to be battled for tommorrow...
-Boston Herald. February 22, 1896
But, now comes the real discrpeancy
“..the canvas enclosure that enclosed the ring was to be seen in the distance…to the west, sloping down to the very foot of the enclosure , was a mountain five hundred feet in height, rugged and almost perpendicular. Across the river, on the Texas side, was its counterpart, and fringed along its stern summit, commanding full view of the ring, were some three hundred men and women, who looked like pigeons to those below.
The circus canvas with which the battle ground was enclosed was 200 feet in circumference and sixteen feet in height. The ring was composed of white pine, covered with white duck, and had an elevation of four feet. "
-New York Herald. February 22, 1896
All of the research for the preceeding article was conducted and supplied by Mr. Matt Donnellon. Mr. Donnellon is in preparation of a book on the life of Peter Maher. The photographs of the pontoon bridge and of the canvas enclosed ring also appear in Dan Stuart's Fistic Carnival by Leo N. Miletich.”
“Antiquities of the Prize Ring”.
