Light Heavyweight Champion of The World
Gardner was a contender for the newly created World's Light - Heavyweight Title in 1903, now weighing about 170 pounds. He then fought Peter Maher, the Irish Heavyweight Champion, considered to be the most dangerous hitter of his era. Gardner knocked out Maher within round one and then defeated Marvin Hart by TKO after 12 rounds.
On July 4, 1903, at Ontario, Canada, at the International Athletic Club, after 12 rounds of fighting, George Gardner knocked out Jack Root for the Light - Heavyweight Championship of the World. He was the first Irish - American to hold the title and the first undisputed champion to hold the title. Most records state that Root was the first champion of the division, but others, including George Gardner, had claimed the title before. The Root - Gardner fight was the first Light - Heavyweight Title fight caught on film. Newspapers reported that Gardner knocked Root down seven times.
George Gardner defended his title later that year at age 26 on November 25, 1903 at San Francisco, California, against the 41 - year old Bob Fitzsimmons, who had killed two men in the ring and was the former Middleweight and Heavyweight Champion. After a questionable 20 - round decision on points, Fitzsimmons knocked the young champion down twice and gained a slight decision. After losing the title, George Gardner challenged Fitzsimmons to a rematch, but was denied a second chance at the title.
Gardner was still a highly regarded contender for the Light - Heavyweight Title, even being rated above Bob Fitzsimmons. However, Gardner set his sights on the World's Heavyweight Title. It was held by Marvin Hart, whom Gardner had defeated and drawn with before.
Read more about this topic: George Gardiner (boxer)
Famous quotes containing the words the world, light, champion and/or world:
“Cash-payment never was, or could except for a few years be, the union-bond of man to man. Cash never yet paid one man fully his deserts to another; nor could it, nor can it, now or henceforth to the end of the world.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew
Thee from report divine, and heard thy name,
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,
This glorious canopy of light and blue?”
—Joseph Blanco White (1775–1841)
“Let’s not quibble! I’m the foe of moderation, the champion of excess. If I may lift a line from a die-hard whose identity is lost in the shuffle, “I’d rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.””
—Tallulah Bankhead (1903–1968)
“There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)