The Ring record book lists Joe Gans title defenses at 14. It also claims Gans gave his lightweight title up to fight Joe Walcott for his welterweight title. I think that has been pretty well dis-proven by Monte Cox. Cox says there may be as many as 17 title defenses but I can't see a claim for more than 15 (the Dave Holly fight on 6-7-06), maybe 16 title defenses. How many defenses do you think Gans had, and do you subscribe to the theory that He never gave up his title to fight Walcott?
It's so hard keeping track of what happened back then. I don't believe he gave it up, i'd just look at the fights under the limit and by default they're defences. I haven't actually counted them but I might go back and do so as I come to relisting my lw top 30.
The problem with that is fights that were slightly over the limit were sometimes considered defenses. Im admittedly not very good at research (computer illiterate and all) and was hoping to have others chime in that might know more about the weight of certain fights like the Dave Holly fight in "06.
ahhh i see. my passion is the heavyweights so I could tell a lot about them but as for the lower weights I'm not so sure. all i could tell you is that what boxrec says. looking around it seems to be the consensus he made approx 14 defences. so I'm assuming some records have got lost over time and only tales remain :-(
Read this, it will give you a better idea about the topic at hand.Im also at the moment reading the Gans biography by Aycock and Scott. I had started it months ago but put it down and than got into a few other books. Very good read so far. http://coxscorner.tripod.com/ganschamp.html
Just out of curiosity, where did you get that info? It was also billed as the lightweight championship meaning it SHOULD be counted as a defense.
Next-day report in Seattle Daily Times. Although exact weights were not given, but both were reportedly within the limit for days. Gans also weighed in privately to prove to Battling Nelson's manager, that he could make 133 pounds without much problem. I changed the comment at boxrec for this bout to list it as title defense.
