http://boxrec.com/show_display.php?show_id=67177
The comment states that
"Williams was knocked down an amazing 42 times and Nelson 9 times, setting an all-time record for number of knockdowns."
Is there a primary source to prove this statement? Next-day wire report doesn't mention anything of the kind, and neither does Bat Masterson in a secondary source where he mentions that he saw this bout. Perhaps it's a good idea to move that comment to wiki and mark it as unconfirmed, rather than have it stated as fact on the main record page?
1902-12-27 The St. Louis Republic (St. Louis, MO) (page 4)
CHRISTIE WILLIAMS KNOCKED OUT.
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"Battling" Nelson Seemed to Be Defeated When He Landed Effective Blow.
REPUBLIC SPECIAL.
Hot Springs, Ark., Dec. 26.--"Battling" Nelson knocked out Christie Williams of Memphis to-night before the Whittington Athletic Club in the seventeenth round of a hot battle in which it seemed that the victor had no chance to win.
Coming up in the beginning of the seventeenth round, he managed to get to Williams's solar plexus and dazed him for a moment. Taking advantage of that blow, he landed a right swing to the jaw, and Williams went down. Williams responded just before being called out, but another right sent him over the ropes.
"Parson" Davies has issued a challenge to Nelson in behalf of Kid Broad, and they will meet here January 29.
1904-12-01 The Morning Telegraph (New York, NY) (page 5)
By W. B. ("BAT") MASTERSON.
A New York paper published the other morning what purported to be a record of Battling Nelson's battles in the ring, which included among the names of those he defeated the name of Pat Early. Nelson never fought Early, therefore could not have defeated him.
Nelson's ring record needs no padding; it is good enough as it is. I also noticed in the same published record that the name of Christy Williams had been omitted from the list of those defeated by Nelson, which convinces me that Nelson did not furnish the record.
I saw that battle and saw Nelson knock Williams out in the seventeenth round, after one of the fiercest battles I ever saw in the ring. Williams outweighed Nelson twenty-five pounds and was a good, handy fellow and considered the best negro middleweight in the South.
It was in this battle that I discovered the mettle in Nelson that is always found in a champion. He took an awful gruelling and finally won by a knockout, in the seventeenth round.