Rather understandably most of us take the 133Ib ringside to be rather unfair conditions. Especially since they hurt two of the best P4P fighters of the era in Joe Gans and Packey McFarland, and especially with the racial angle in the former case. But perhaps there's more nuance, and I think I can definitely see why some wanted the title to be fought at 133Ibs. In many ways it's they same sort of thing as the critisisms with the previous day weigh ins, that is people fighting in divisions they shouldn't be. Lets rewind to 1904, when Joe Gans had his ever controversial first fight with Jimmy Britt at 133 ringside. Britt had just beaten Young Corbett II for a claimed Featherweight title at 130Ibs, however Abe Attell was recognised as Featherweight champion, fighting at weights around 122-126Ibs. The Welterweight title was generally being fought at 142Ibs. I think then 133Ibs makes a lot more sense for the Lightweight limit than 135-138Ibs, which puts it close to the welterweight limit, with far too big a gap between Featherweight and Lightweight. I can also see why people didn't like the weight keeping getting put up arbitrarilly to whatever particular fighters want, basically the opposite of the Caneloweight stuff recently, and again I think pushback against it makes sense. The titles shouldn't just be whatever suits them, and if the weight is to low they really out to move up. You then have the fight between Gans and the smaller Britt, and Britt hammers him before getting himself DQ'd, making it really unclear who the champion was. I posted a couple opinion pieces from the time here The jist of it was that many people thought Gans could no longer fight effectively at 133Ibs. It was also accepted Britt couldn't claim the title from a loss, and so claimed the vacant title from beating Nelson, and the British champion Jabez White, before losing a rematch to Nelson. Fast forward to the fight of the century and I think there's a case that if Gans wants to be Lightweight champion again, he should have to make the proper weight. I'm not saying I completely agree with the argument, all the divisions went up and down, and Lavigne and McAuliffe both defended the Lightweight title from 133-138, and both the Welterweight and Feathweight limits went up and down quite a bit. But especially considering the weights the Welterweight and Featherweight title were being fought at, at that point, I can see why people wanted to see the Lightweight limit lower. I think there is more nuance than just unfair conditions.
Like you said, nuance. All these things are very difficult due to how contextual they are. The 133lbs for Gans was definitely unfair in my book, though you are more educated in this subject matter.
It was certainly a big disadvantage. It is worth considering the alternative. If Lightweight was at 135-8Ibs, while featherweight was 122-126Ibs, why would that be any less unfair to fighters like Britt or Corbett who were closer to 130Ibs? I think part of it is when you didn't the "super" and "light" divisions, it's pretty much always going to be unfair to someone. I think we could probably do with a more comprehensive study of the origins and early history of the weight divisions than I am aware of existing for one thing. But I think the main thing would be to try and get a better idea of the general opinon of the Lightweight limit and if there was significant pushback against it being higher.
The funny thing is that I saw some talk of him fighting for the vacant Welterweight title, I wonder why it never happened.
and He never got his shot against Nelson or Gans? why? They were to busy fighting each other or what .. I've read a couple different things but don't know .. maybe the risk was more than the reward for them
I think Wolgast and Nelson would only fight him at 133Ib ringside, which he wasn't willing to do. I think McFarland just didn't quite have the top wins until very soon before Gans lost the title, but there might be something more I'm not aware of.
It's a very good OP, but the more things change the more they stay the same. It's just a promotional agreement. It favours the team with the power, as it ever was. But in the end two alpha-male elite athletes agreed terms for money and duked it out. I hate the phrase, but in this instance, it fits, it is what it is.
