[243]       

Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight

Carson City
  39.1645, -119.76005

"Of all places, why place (#243) here? There's just something disturbing about a guy prowling around the Sheriff's Office with a camera in hand." -- Journal Entry, June 2007

In front of the Carson City Sheriff's Office, Musser Street -- Carson City
 * Access via Roop Street, then right onto Musser *

Original Date Visited: 6/18/07

Signed: No

  • Marker 243 in Carson City
  • Marker 243
  • Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight, circa 1897

Exact Description:
On March 17, 1897, at an arena located on this site, Carson City played host to Nevada's first world championship prizefight, a fourteen-round thriller in which the reigning heavyweight titlist, James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, was dethroned by Robert Fitzsimmons. The Nevada Legislature had only recently legalized prizefighting and the match became the object of scathing criticism from the press and pulpit of other states, but fight fans by the thousands came in. Promoter Dan Stuart put on a clean show and demonstrated that boxing need not be brutal or crooked. Other states were soon to liberalize their own prizefight laws and the sport began to assume a degree of respectability it had not enjoyed in the past. In later years, Nevada was to be the scene of several other world championship fights.

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Related Links & Markers:

 [220] -- The Fight of the Century   Tracing Nevada's Boxing History: Las Vegas Review Journal 

      Bob Fitzsimmons vs. James J. Corbett Fight

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