BoxRec

Walter McGowan Scottish flyweight great passed away on Monday aged 73.
In his career he won World, Europeon, Empire and British titles, he won the world title by beating Salvatore Burruni, avenging a previous loss to the Italian. In his next fight Walter won the British and Empire bantamweight titles against Alan Rudkin. Walter lost his World title in the heat in Bangkok after flooring his opponent Chartchai Chionoi early on, a badly cut nose put paid to his world title.

Walter was introduced to his boxing father Thomas McGowan aka 'Joe Gans' he liked the former lightweight champion so much Thomas changed his name to Joe Gans. Meanwhile Walter embarked on an amateur career winning ABA title and only losing twice in 124 bouts!
Once he turned pro Walter raced to the Scottish and then British title in only 10 fights, he was the first boxer to be given a Lonsdale belt without making the required defenses as there was no-one good enough to challenge him.

RIP

RIP Champ

R.I.P.

Rip

I worked with Walter McGowans son who had a few good stories to tell. He had a picture of his dad with Muhammed Ali that he seemed to cherish in particular and mentioned his childhood memories of watching him skip in the garden etc. I never got the impression that he himself was a big boxing fan but was clearly proud of his dads achievements as anyone would be.

RIP Walter McGowan.

Wee Walter was one of the most popular British fighters of his era. Always seemed to be unlucky with cuts in the big fights. I believe he has been in poor health for many years. RIP.

R.I.P

I think this decides next weeks fight for Horses 52 week challenge.
An opportunity to watch the man, learn some more about him and discuss his great career

Old bones Ian wrote: Walter was introduced to his boxing father Thomas McGowan aka 'Joe Gans' he liked the former lightweight champion so much Thomas changed his name to Joe Gans. Meanwhile Walter embarked on an amateur career winning ABA title and only losing twice in 124 bouts!
RIP

I've read this sentence seven ways round and I can't figure out if a boxer changed his name his trainer or father or the other way around. What's a "boxing father"?

Anyway, sounds like a top fighter. I find it intriguing to think of someone going to Thailand to fight, what, 40-50 years ago? World was a different place back then and I'd imagine that Thailand was still full of tough c**ts.

I never knew McGowan lost his title to Chartchai Chionoi,i just watched the latters fights with Efren Torres recently

R.I.P to a very tough man, went to Thailand and fought against Chinoi in his first defence, in front of the King of Thailand.

magwitch wrote:

Old bones Ian wrote: Walter was introduced to his boxing father Thomas McGowan aka 'Joe Gans' he liked the former lightweight champion so much Thomas changed his name to Joe Gans. Meanwhile Walter embarked on an amateur career winning ABA title and only losing twice in 124 bouts!
RIP

I've read this sentence seven ways round and I can't figure out if a boxer changed his name his trainer or father or the other way around. What's a "boxing father"?

Anyway, sounds like a top fighter. I find it intriguing to think of someone going to Thailand to fight, what, 40-50 years ago? World was a different place back then and I'd imagine that Thailand was still full of tough c**ts.

Sorry about that, you should see my reports at work! Thing is I don't see it till its pointed out to me.

R.I.P

Old bones Ian wrote:

magwitch wrote:

Old bones Ian wrote: Walter was introduced to his boxing father Thomas McGowan aka 'Joe Gans' he liked the former lightweight champion so much Thomas changed his name to Joe Gans. Meanwhile Walter embarked on an amateur career winning ABA title and only losing twice in 124 bouts!
RIP

I've read this sentence seven ways round and I can't figure out if a boxer changed his name his trainer or father or the other way around. What's a "boxing father"?

Anyway, sounds like a top fighter. I find it intriguing to think of someone going to Thailand to fight, what, 40-50 years ago? World was a different place back then and I'd imagine that Thailand was still full of tough c**ts.

Sorry about that, you should see my reports at work! Thing is I don't see it till its pointed out to me.

No need for apologies. Okay, now I get the bit about Thomas McGowan changing his names to Joe Gans, but this bit confuses me:

"Walter was introduced to his boxing father Thomas McGowan"...........what does that mean? That he was introduced to his father (same surname) a lot later than most kids are, i.e. a day or two old?

My understanding of this would be....

Walter was introduced to boxing by his father Thomas who had previously changed his own name to Joe Gans, the name of a former lightweight who he had respected enough to want to share a name with.

Correct?

Emmseegee wrote:My understanding of this would be....

Walter was introduced to boxing by his father Thomas who had previously changed his own name to Joe Gans, the name of a former lightweight who he had respected enough to want to share a name with.

Correct?

Yeah thats what i read

handsofstone wrote:

Emmseegee wrote:My understanding of this would be....

Walter was introduced to boxing by his father Thomas who had previously changed his own name to Joe Gans, the name of a former lightweight who he had respected enough to want to share a name with.

Correct?

Yeah thats what i read

Would you like to be my proof reader? I'm currently working on rewrite of policy and rules at my department. I get some awful bad looks from staff read throughs. But as i said it all makes sense to me!

That probaly makes no sense either

Old bones Ian wrote:

handsofstone wrote:

Emmseegee wrote:My understanding of this would be....

Walter was introduced to boxing by his father Thomas who had previously changed his own name to Joe Gans, the name of a former lightweight who he had respected enough to want to share a name with.

Correct?

Yeah thats what i read

Would you like to be my proof reader? I'm currently working on rewrite of policy and rules at my department. I get some awful bad looks from staff read throughs. But as i said it all makes sense to me!

That probaly makes no sense either

I also required 2 or 3 attempts at making that readable mate.