in 1904 gans and walcott fought to a draw in a fight with no belt on the line. reportedely the two were evenly matched altho i'm unsure on the scoring system back then. "Referee Jack Welch gave 7 rounds to Gans, 5 to Walcott, with 8 even, but thought that Walcott's aggressiveness compensated Gans' advantage in cleverness" shortly after this fight walcott shot himself in the hand and retired from the sport. "Walcotts days as a champion ended in an unusual way. In 1904 he accidentally shot himself in the hand during a New Years celebration" in january 1906 Gans fought twin sullivan in a rematch that was billed as for the welterweight championship. shortly after gans returned to lightweight and sullivan fought honey melody to unify the claims. So should gans be remembered as a champion of the welterweight division? this would make him the first man in history to achieve this by my reckoning. what do you guys think?
Walcott never relinquished his claim though, did he? And he was back fighting a 16 or so months later defending his Welterweight championship.
I get the idea that Gans had the edge, but the official result of a draw, was always going to give Walcott the whip hand in terms of title claims. Gans claimed the title, but without an official win, his claim seems to have withered on the vine.
I've seen reports that insinuate walcott's hand injury forced him to retire but haven't been able to find an official retirement statement from him around that time. I know he did return from injury a year and half later but if he'd officially retired then I think gans might have had a valid claim. It's hard digging stuff out from 100 years ago and I don't overly rely on cbz because they have a few clear errors.
It's unfortunate that Gans wasn't able to conclusively nail down a claim at welterweight. Maybe he would have avoided the brutal weight making ordeal at Goldfield which allegedly started him on the path to an early grave if he'd been champion of a heavier division. Gans was 137 for Walcott, and 143 earlier in 1904 for Jewey Smith, ten pounds over what he needed with weigh with his gear for Nelson I. Give him the WW Title, and making weight never becomes an issue for him.
Yes a conclusive claim might have increased his legacy no end as well had he stayed at the weight and made some defences.
