Battling Nelson

Battling Nelson
Battling Nelson
	Nelson c. 1900s
Statistics
Real name	Oscar Mathæus Nielsen
Nickname(s)	The Durable Dane
Weight(s)	Lightweight
Nationality	Danish
Born	5 June 1882; Copenhagen, Denmark
Died	7 February 1954 (aged 71); Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	135
Wins	73
Wins by KO	40
Losses	30
Draws	24

Oscar Matthew "Battling" Nelson (June 5, 1882 – February 7, 1954), was a Danish-American professional boxer who held the World Lightweight championship. He was also nicknamed "the Durable Dane".

1911 cartoon of Nelson and his future wife Fay King, drawn by herself for his guide The wonders of the Yellowstone National Park.

Marker commemorating the 1906 Gans-Nelson fight.

Personal history

Nelson was born Oscar Mathæus Nielsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 5, 1882. He emigrated to the United States the following year and was raised in Hegewisch, a neighborhood on the Southeast side of Chicago.

In 1913, he married Fay King, a cartoonist who did his portrait for Nelson's 1911 guide The Wonders of the Yellowstone National Park.[1] In 1916, they had a very public divorce.[2][3]

Nelson died February 7, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois, from lung cancer.[4] The Veteran Boxing Association paid for part of the cost of his funeral; his ex-wife paid the remainder, in addition to purchasing "beautiful arrangements" for the ceremony.[5]

Boxing career

Nelson began boxing professionally at age fourteen, in 1896. He fought for the vacant lightweight title against Jimmy Britt on December 20, 1904, but lost a twenty-round decision. He lost to Abe Attell in 1905, but beat Jack O'Neill to secure another shot at the title on September 9, 1905, finally beating Britt by an 18-round knockout.

He defended the title against Terry McGovern, but then faced a greater challenge against former champion Joe Gans on September 3, 1906, in Goldfield, Nevada. Gans dropped Nelson repeatedly during the bout, but could not knock him out. Finally, in the forty-second round, Nelson hit Gans below the belt, receiving a disqualification, and lost his title.

In 1907 and 1908, Nelson split a pair of bouts with Britt and fought Attell to a draw. He then challenged Gans for the title on July 4, 1908. This time he knocked Gans out in the seventeenth round. Two months later, Nelson knocked out Gans in the twenty-first round.

In 1909, Nelson fought Ad Wolgast in a fight held over the lightweight limit. Wolgast beat him, and Nelson gave Wolgast a chance at his title on February 22, 1910. Eventually unable to see due to the accumulation of punches, Nelson lost the title when the referee stopped the fight in either the fortieth or the forty-second round.[6]

Nelson continued to fight, and in 1917, he challenged Freddie Welsh for the lightweight title. He lost a twelve-round decision and retired from fighting in 1920.

He was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.

In 2016, award-winning biographer Mark Allen Baker published the first comprehensive biography on Nelson with McFarland, a leading independent publisher of academic and nonfiction books.

Motion pictures of Nelson's fights

A motion picture of the second Gans-Nelson fight in Colma, California, was shown in theaters across the country. Above, reporter-artist Marguerite Martyn sketched her impression of women watching the fight in St. Louis, Missouri, in October 1908.

The second Gans-Nelson battle in Colma was the subject of a four-reel motion picture that played in major cities around the country.

References

https://archive.org/details/wondersofyellows140nels
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/15/denver-post-cartoonist-fay-king/
http://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/fayking.htm
Roberts, James and Alexander Skutt (1997). The Boxing Register, 1st ed. Ithaca, New York: McBooks Press. p. 128. ISBN 0-935526-23-4.
Baker, Mark Allen (2016). Battling Nelson, The Durable Dane: World Lightweight Champion 1882–1954. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-4766-6372-2.
Roberts, James and Alexander Skutt (1997). The Boxing Register, 1st ed. Ithaca, New York: McBooks Press. p. 129. ISBN 0-935526-23-4.

External links

Achievements
Preceded by Joe Gans	World Lightweight Champion July 4, 1908 – February 22, 1910	Succeeded by Ad Wolgast
Titles in pretence
Preceded by Jimmy Britt	World White Lightweight Champion September 9, 1905 – July 31, 1907	Succeeded by Jimmy Britt

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[1] ttps://archive.org/details/wondersofyellows140nels

[2] ttp://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/15/denver-post-cartoonist-fay-king/

[3] ttp://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/fayking.htm

[4] Roberts, James and Alexander Skutt (1997). The Boxing Register, 1st ed. Ithaca, New York: McBooks Press. p. 128. ISBN 0-935526-23-4.

[5] Baker, Mark Allen (2016). Battling Nelson, The Durable Dane: World Lightweight Champion 1882–1954. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-4766-6372-2.

[6] Roberts, James and Alexander Skutt (1997). The Boxing Register, 1st ed. Ithaca, New York: McBooks Press. p. 129. ISBN 0-935526-23-4.