Benjamin Jamito Gan (February 24, 1913 – August 4, 1976), known professionally as Small Montana, was a Filipino

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

. Montana, who stood 5 feet and 4 inch (163 cm) tall and never weighed more than 112 pounds, won the Flyweight Championship of the World (as recognized by New York state).

Fighting style

Montana was known for his quick punches, although he was a scrappy and not very tall fighter; he had not the KO punch but was speedy and clever. Montana scored just 13 knockouts in 83 professional wins.

Early life

Benjamin Gan was born in

Bacolod Bacolod, officially the City of Bacolod (; ; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Negros Island Region in the Philippines. With a total of 600,783 inhabitants as of the 2020 census, it is th ...

Negros Occidental Negros Occidental (; ), officially the Province of Negros Occidental (; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Negros, Negros Island. Its capital is the city of Bacolod, of which it is geographically s ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, on February 24, 1913, a son of the local chief of police father Teodhore Gan, He was of Chinese descent and Marinella Jamito, She was an office clerk and was the oldest five children. In 1920 Gan began his studying at age 6, he attend of Rizal Elementary School and he completed of the sixth grade, and until the fourth year high school at age 17 of

Negros Occidental High School Negros Occidental High School is a public secondary educational institution and oldest public secondary school in the province located in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, in the Philippines that was founded since 1902. The school currently offers ...

. Gan grew up after high school at age 17, He was also a skilled blacksmith with the passion for boxing and was inspired by the fights of

Pancho Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa ( , , ; born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula; 5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923) was a Mexican revolutionary and prominent figure in the Mexican Revolution. He was a key figure in the revolutionary movement that forced ...

. He carried a photo of Guilledo in his wallet at all times. At a young age, Gan changed his name to Small Montana ("little mountain") and ran away from home to become a professional boxer in 1932 at age 18.

Professional career

He won the American Flyweight Title by beating Midget Wolgast twice in 1935. He also went abroad to defend his title, but lost to Benny Lynch in a 15-round bout in

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on January 9, 1937. He also tried to fight for a world championship but fell short in all his world title matches. During his career he fought Little Dado and Little Pancho (half-brother of Francisco Guilledo) but lost to both of them on points. He defeated Manuel Ortiz, Midget Wolgast, Tony Marino, Joe Tei Ken, Speedy Dado, Tommy Forte, Augie Curtis, Pat Palmer, Frankie Jarr, Eugene "Tuffy" Pierpont and Antol "Tony" Kocsis.

References

External links

* 1913 births 1976 deaths Flyweight boxers Bantamweight boxers Boxers from Negros Occidental Filipino male boxers {{Philippines-boxing-bio-stub