Gans-Nelson 1 1906

So back in 2006 I worked on a project to remaster the film of Gans-Nelson 1 for the 100th anniversary. The project took months and just as it was nearing completion a virus wiped out my computer and I lost the entire project. I few years later I tried again just for the heck of it because it was a really cool project and the exact same thing happened. We are talking about months worth of work being lost. So several months ago I decided to take another crack at it and Im finally getting close to being finished.

This film is an amazing record that we have. Its longest fight we have film footage of and the its for what was at the time the most expensive fight in history and featuring one of boxing's P4P best fighters and one of boxings most tenacious bulldogs.

The film itself was all chopped up and out of order. Reassembling the footage is made more difficult by the fact that there several versions floating around as a theatrical releases in 1906. From what I gather the complete fight was never shown. The longest version appears to have encompassed the first 20 rounds and the last 6 rounds, despite the entire fight having been filmed by six different cameras.

There was also accompanying footage of scenes around Goldfield, Nevada the day of the fight such as the arrival of a big drill and other scenes of interest (all of which have presumably been lost). Pre-fight footage showing the fighters arriving, the third weigh in of the day, dignitaries being introduced, telegrams being read from John L. Sullivan and Joe Gans mom etc. And the commotion in the ring after the termination of the fight.

The entire extent film runs nearly two hours and as mentioned before is badly chopped up, out of order, and damaged by age which occasionally obscures the picture and/or makes the film jump around badly in the aperture.

I set about re-editing the film back into chronological order, stabilized the image, corrected the speed, added inter titles to clearly state the rounds and explain what is going on in the ring prior to the fight, and zoomed in closer to the action because the original cameras sat several rows back making the fighters very small in the frame and their movements difficult to follow.

Once this is done a very interesting fight emerges. First of all Gans is a revelation. The guy is very modern and very good. There just isnt any getting around that. He moves around the ring, uses angles, blocks, slips, ducks, the guy does it all. Hes very clever and a tremendous fighter. His punching technique is great. No doubt about it Gans was definately the old master.

Nelson has been sold short in this fight. Its easy to see why because his behavior definitely stretched the limits of good sportsmanship. He comes off as a mean, ornery guy who really wanted to beat Gans and hurt him in the process whereas Gans goes about his work in a professional, sportsmanlike manner. He was just an alley fighter through and through. BUT, Nelson is tough. I mean uber tough. The guy is like the terminator and just keeps on coming. And in doing so he has his moments. He lands several good punches, is extremely strong, and his tenaciousness alone would take the heart out of most fighters under those conditions. He waged such a brutal battle that twice during the competition Gans returned to his corner and vomited immediately. This was mentioned in the papers and sure enough in the film you can see him lean over a bucket and heave before taking his seat.

Sadly Nelson's best rounds are apparently lost as he supposedly rallied around round 23 and had Gans briefly in trouble. Its odd that these are lost because Billy Nolan, manager for Gans controlled the film and Gans alleged that the films had been doctored to make Nelson look better. If that were the case they would not have edited out Nelson's best rounds.

Gans clearly is winning the fight throughout, with Nelson pressuring and coming on in spurts. Gans broke his right hand badly sometime between the 28th and 33rd round which limited his action. As the fight wore on both fighters tired and the fight became an endurance contest where there was much more wrestling, shoving, pulling and hauling with only the occasional flourish by one fighter or the other.

After the 41st round Gans returns to his corner and vomits. When they come out for the 42nd round its business as usual until the foul blow was struck. It is a shame the fight terminated like this because while Gans was winning and Nelson had taken an inhuman amount of punishment, he was still strong, still coming and was giving Gans difficulty. Nelson had been fouling throughout and I believe he probably felt he would not get DQd and just kept at it. He had been warned numerous times by referee Siler to that point that on several occasions Siler grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head back in order to keep him from butting. Gans himself may have milked the DQ a bit (in fairness its hard to tell much about the foul given the quality of the film) but Nelson could have easily been DQd much earlier so its hard to fault him.

All in all its a remarkable document to have and a fantastic peak at a time in American sports thats now long past.

 

Nelson was definitely bitter about Siler's officiating but in my opinion Siler was in a difficult position and did the best he could. The fight was so big that if he had DQd Nelson early (and he could have easily done this) it probably would have caused a major controversy that he was the center of. Had he let it go on he would have seemed impartial by allowed Nelson to foul to unfair advantage. As it was he continually warned Nelson, lectured him, and eventually was forced to lay hands on him like a father scolding a child in order to unsuccessfully get Nelson to fight fair. To Nelson this may have seemed like he was being hounded but in reality Siler would have been well within his rights to DQ Nelson far earlier and this is borne out by the overwhelming support that was shown his decision and Gans, and how Nelson was denigrated in so many corners of the sport. Only the minority of first hand accounts give Nelson any more credit than being rugged and only the laughably biased reporters who reported on the film after the fact felt Nelson was holding his own in the fight (and it was these reports that prompted Gans to accuse Nolan of doctoring the fight to show Nelson to advantage).

 

It wasnt fought under modern rules and even if it was under modern rules fighters tend to get disqualified after a couple of warnings. Nelson had about 30 warnings. The fight wasnt stopped because Gans couldnt continue it was stopped because Nelson had fouled for the umpteenth time.

But then again Nelson was white and you have well documented history having of siding with the white fighter in mixed affairs to put it gently.