page_title: Joe Gans
section_title: Professional honors and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Joe Gans / Professional honors and legacy
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of Barbados Joe Walcott and Joe Gans
context_page_description: Joe Gans was an American professional boxer. Gans was rated the greatest Lightweight boxer of all-time by boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder, Nat Fleischer. Known as the "Old Master", he became the first African-American World Boxing Champion of the 20th century, reigning continuously as World Lightweight Champion from 1902–1908, having defended the title against 13 boxers. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
context_section_description: Gans had a final professional record of 145 wins with 100 knockouts, 10 losses, 16 draws, 6 no contests and 19 no decisions (Newspaper Decisions: 13-2-4). He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
  A bronze statue of Joe Gans stands in the suite floor at Madison Square Garden but was previously outside of the locker rooms. Modern day boxers would traditionally bump the statue's outstretched left fist for good-luck before matches.
  Gans’ legendary fight on September 3, 1906 with Battling Nelson was commemorated with a memorial located in Goldfield, Nevada at the site of the fight. 
  Gans was the first African-American to win a World Boxing Championship and the first to win a Lightweight Boxing title. Gans' achievements not only set new records, but gave African Americans hope in the early twentieth century. In a time of racial segregation, champion Joe Gans somehow emerged victorious.
  Gans was rated the greatest Lightweight boxer of all-time by boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder, Nat Fleischer.
  One boxing historian writes about Gans saying: "through his ring accomplishments, Gans put into action what others could only theorize. The articulation of the black quest for social equality reached large audiences through the pulpits, and the most authoritative sermons were published in newspapers and religious quarterlies".
caption: Joe Walcott vs. Joe Gans
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