90% of all film pre WW2 has been lost. Not just boxing, all film. It's on silver nitrate which is highly flammable and has to be stored correctly. Many of these films were destroyed for there silver content. It's amazing we have this. There's even film of the great Sam Langford, the greatest boxer in history, and the greatest lightweight in history Joe Gans fighting Terry McGovern. Also Bob Fitzsimmons vs Jim Corbet. All can be viewed on utube. We are very fortunate to have this.
Agreed! I used to collect fight films as a lad in the 60s, starting with Joe Louis. So few of the old greats were shown--only Maricano's Main Event for 50s fights. Meeting Jimmy Jacobs was a great treat for me. He loved these films.It's wonderful how accessible they all are now! Big names--Tony Canzoneri and Henry Armstrong--as well as lesser known names like Lou Brouillard.
Looked more like a wrestling match. Those fighters back then were a lot tougher than the fighters today. Imagine anyone today having 62 fights by the age of 24.
this what i dont understand they show stanley ketchels fights but not harry greb everyone wants to see his vids but theres no footage besides his training one.
Blame Dempsey for that. Greb beat Tommy Gibbons in a fight that was supposed to set up the number 1 contender for Dempsey's title. At least it was when Gibbons was favored. After Greb put on one of the best performances of his career, they negotiated a fight, but Dempsey's people never went through with it. They instead fought Gibbons anyways, which is of course on film. Had Dempsey and Greb fought, the fight would have been filmed and likely would still exist.
I always wonder if other fighters did that too The posed photo before fight 3 has Papke in fuller trunks, but they look drawn in after the fact! I've never read any reports commenting on his odd choice,
He is fighting on panties because he is too macho. And they're clinching so much and often 'cause in those day, the rules were differents, and the clinch instead of being simply a holding technique was a complex system of wrestling battle that they use to tire their opponents sooner (Because in that time the fights could even go to 25 rounds or more)
