Barbados Joe Walcott again in the seventh, battering his clearly exhausted opponent. Stopping the final round 38 seconds in, the referee said later that he "felt another blow to Choynski would have put him out". On September 27, 1901, Walcott impressively defeated Irish boxer George Gardner in a twenty-round points decision at the Mechanic's Pavilion in San Francisco, California. The pre-fight betting was light before the match with Gardner a 10-8 favorite. Gardner, at just under six feet, and holding a serious reach advantage over Walcott, would briefly hold the light heavyweight championship of the world from July through November 1903. Walcott was
Jersey Joe Walcott world title for the first time. Walcott lost early bouts against world-class competition. He lost a pair of fights to Tiger Jack Fox and was knocked out by contender Abe Simon. But that would change in 1945 when Walcott beat top heavyweights such as Joe Baksi, Lee Q. Murray, Curtis Sheppard and Jimmy Bivins. He closed out 1946 with a pair of losses to former light heavyweight champ Joey Maxim and heavyweight contender Elmer Ray, but promptly avenged those defeats in 1947. On December 5, 1947, he fought Joe Louis, at thirty three years of age breaking the record as