Campaign to honour heavyweight champ

The boxer was born in the Cornish town of Helston

A campaign is being launched to win greater recognition for the Cornish-born heavyweight boxer, Bob Fitzsimmons.

He won the world heavyweight title in 1897, and also held titles at middleweight and light-heavyweight.

On Tuesday a committee will meet in Helston, where the boxer was born, to start fund-raising for a statue.

Leading British fighters, including Lennox Lewis, will be asked for their support.

"Colourful existence"

The committee chairman, Robert Sanders, said the house where Fitzsimmons lived is popular with boxing fans.

"It is a focal point for Bob Fitzsimmons in Helston.

"It's where he was born and people are photographed outside there almost on a daily basis during the summer.

"It would be good to give them something else so they can see what he was like."

The boxer was born in the Cornish town in 1863 and emigrated with his family to New Zealand when he was 12 years old.

There is already a statue of him in the New Zealand town of Timaru.

He lived a colourful and nomadic existence, marrying four times and fighting past the age of 50 before dying of pneumonia in Chicago in 1917.