Joe Gans vs. Battling Nelson (Clear!)

Almost a different sport. Unimaginable happening today.

 

Thanks R , good stuff.Nelson was known to be a dirty fighter,and as the challenger the white man received a bigger purse than the black Champion.

 

Think of how much your shoulders would hurt, how messed up your hands would be... after 40 rounds of throwing punches. Let alone to speak of the damage that would have accumulated.

 

Great stuff but its almost like a tease...thanks

 

Two great fighters.
That's just on another level to modern boxing.

 

Nelson had a claim to the title as well. This was a unification fight of sorts. Youd also have to go back and see who had the better numbers at the gate. I know this fight couldnt have been made without Nelson and that Gans ended up making a career high payday to this point.

 

Didn't Gans have TB by this time?

 

I doubt he boxed 42 rounds while infected with tuberculosis.

 

Actually he might have been infected but the TB was latent. I mean there's no way you can be ill from TB and fight 42 rounds.

 

He might have. Back then it would be so hard to determine when you were first infected. TB stays in your system dormant for years and you never even know you have it. Ive heard some people claim that Gans weakened himself so much for this fight that he contracted TB but again, thats just junk science with no proof whatsoever. The best/worst you can say is that he likely had it, and was asymptomatic until after this fight and that maybe the strain of making weight, the duration, and the taxing nature of the fight weakened his immune system enough that the TB went active (and again Im not even sure thats how it works). Im pretty skeptical of anyone pinning down Gans' tuburcolosis infection to this one single point in time.

 

Two really tough old timers going at it. I couldn't imagine fighting for that long.

 

The earliest mention of Gans having tuberculosis, that I've seen, was in late July or early August 1908. But the same write-up mentions that some colored boxer talked about it after he saw Gans in New York shortly before Gans-Robson bout (which was on April 1, 1908), and that Joe's friends have noticed that he's "sort of drying up".