{"id":1359,"date":"2009-03-22T12:35:59","date_gmt":"2009-03-22T17:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=1359"},"modified":"2009-03-22T12:35:59","modified_gmt":"2009-03-22T17:35:59","slug":"rsr-looks-back-at-joe-gans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=1359","title":{"rendered":"RSR Looks Back at Joe Gans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Geoff \u201cThe Professor\u201d Poundes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Such was the force of Jack Johnson\u2019s impact upon the world of boxing, that one could be forgiven for thinking that he was its foremost black pioneer, who cleared the path for others to follow behind him. Of course Johnson, who won the World\u2019s Heavyweight Championship in 1908, was operating in the flagship division and was as famous for his fondness for white women as he was for his abilities in the ring.<\/p>\n

But he wasn\u2019t the first American-born black to win a World Title. That distinction resides with Joe Gans, \u201cThe Ol\u2019 Master,\u201d who took the Lightweight crown from Frank Erne in 1902. There were striking similarities between Gans and Johnson in fighting styles \u2013 both were noted for their fast footwork and their ability to block and feint, but Gans was a very different character when the gloves were off. Johnson acknowledged Gans\u2019 qualities when he said \u201cJoe moved around the ring like he was on wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things were very different in professional boxing in the early years of the twentieth century, particularly for black fighters. Johnson\u2019s autobiography suggests that he was seldom involved in a fight that wasn\u2019t tampered with in some way, and was often asked to take a dive or agree to a fix \u2013 Johnson even claims that as Champion he held some of his opponents up so that the fight films would be long enough to attract a cinema audience (moving pictures were in their infancy back then). Johnson\u2019s contests with Stanley Ketchel, Jim Jeffries and Jess Willard all had a whiff of deceit about them, and Gans undoubtedly took the money on occasion. Willie Ritchie, who followed Gans as Lightweight Champion, said after Gans\u2019 death:<\/p>\n

“Gans had to do as he was told by the white managers. They were crooks. They framed fights, and being a Negro the poor guy had to follow orders, otherwise he’d have starved to death.”<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising therefore that Joe Gans, a far less public figure, was involved in some shady dealings. As a black fighter making a living in the deep South in the 1900\u2019s you played along or you didn\u2019t eat. Gans\u2019 first recorded professional contest was in 1893, but it\u2019s probable that he began fighting as a 16 year old a couple of years earlier. He progressed quickly, often fighting and beating much bigger men just to put food on the table, and in 1900 he was matched with Frank Erne for the World Lightweight Title. Gans lost that one when he pulled out with what has been described as a cut eye, and seemed to confirm the prevailing view at the time that black fighters lacked heart. In fact, Gans\u2019 eye had popped out and was resting on his cheek: \u201cThe Baltimore man’s eye was dislodged from its socket by a head on collision.\u201d Quoted The Chicago Times-Herald.<\/p>\n

Undaunted, Gans worked his way into a second title shot against Erne, and this time, in May 1902, he knocked the Champion out in a single round. Gans would go on to defend the title 14 times, and annex the World Welterweight Title along the way by knocking out Mike \u201cTwin\u201d O\u2019Sullivan in 1906.<\/p>\n

Along the way, he fitted in some spectacular contests \u2013 he gave Sam Langford all he could handle in 1903 (yes, the same Sam Langford who would go on to box the ears off heavyweights) and in 1904 fought a draw with the great Joe Walcott in San Francisco. The fight was seen as one of the finest of it\u2019s era: The San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> called it \u201ca grand battle as fast and furious as any ever held in a San Francisco ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Gans\u2019 most famous hour came in September 1906, when he and Battling Nelson contested the World Lightweight Title in Goldfield, Nevada. The fight went 42 rounds in the searing heat (still the longest gloved match ever recorded), before Nelson fouled Gans to bring an end to the contest. Nelson was battered and beaten and found the easy way out. Said one observer: \u201cIt looks as though Nelson, who was a very badly beaten man, took an easy way to quit.”<\/p>\n

The battle took a great deal out of Gans, and many thought the debilitating heat, coupled with a sustained period of dehydration to make the weight, ushered in the tuberculosis that would eventually end his life. Certainly, by the time Gans and Nelson met in the re-match two years later, the Champion was ravaged by the disease. Prophetically, the San Francisco Chronicle noted before the fight that Gans looked unwell: \u201cJoe looks weakened and dull in the eyes\u201d, and afterwards, when Joe had collapsed from exhaustion in the 17th<\/sup> round, the paper acknowledged that all was not well: \u201cIt was clear that it was a different Gans than the one who had fought at Goldfield. After the twelfth round Gans was suffering terribly. His skin turned a dull gray and he was shivering as though from ague\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, they fought again two months later, and Gans this time went into the 21st<\/sup> round, taking a terrible beating along the way. By this time he was ravaged with tuberculosis, but still managed one more fight, before succumbing to his illness.<\/p>\n

He died in his mother\u2019s arms, aged 36, in 1910 \u2013 a month after Jack Johnson smashed Jim Jeffries to finally cement the black man\u2019s entitlement to fistic equality. Joe weighed 84 pounds at his death.<\/p>\n

Nat Fleischer, as sound a barometer as any in evaluating fighters from different eras, was unequivocal about Joe Gans\u2019 qualities, rating him as the best Lightweight to have ever lived. In all, he lost only 11 fights in 188 outings \u2013 and we know that he threw at least three of those.<\/p>\n

Tad Dorgan, who commentated boxing and wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Journal, and who was privileged to see\u00a0 all the early greats from James J. Corbett to Gene Tunney, rated Joe Gans as the greatest pound for pound fighter he ever saw.<\/p>\n

He wrote in 1904: \u201cThose who have watched Gans go through his work every day are amazed at his wonderful agility, his speed and his clean hitting ability.”<\/p>\n

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By Geoff \u201cThe Professor\u201d Poundes \u00a0 Such was the force of Jack Johnson\u2019s impact upon the world of boxing, that one could be forgiven for thinking that he was its foremost black pioneer, who cleared the path for others to follow behind him. Of course Johnson, who won the World\u2019s Heavyweight Championship in 1908, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[90,105,389,459],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-blimp-booney","tag-boxing","tag-joe-gans","tag-look-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}