The Fight Film Collector

Hi guys, just wanted to let you know of a website i found through youtube, not sure if some of you know about it. Has some great footage of the highest quality (which he part restores himself) from as early as 1906, and goes up to as recent as Ali. The Sam Mcvea vs Battling Jim Johnson fight in France from 1910 is my favourite so far, the picture quality is unbelieveable and you can see nearly all the individuals in the crowd, with some obviously fascinated by the camera, and giving a little wave, it's worth a look just to see the ring itself. It also has Harry Wills being flattened by Spain's Paolino Uzcudun, with the puch being described as a right hand, but looks more like the point of the elbow or the forearm to me. There are also footage of fighters training/Sparring etc such as Dempsey. There is a description of all videos telling you about the fight itself, the video, and what he has done to restore parts, hope somebody gets some use out of it, Cheers, Galveston.


http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.com/

One to bookmark, for sure.

Thanks very much for the heads up, Galveston.

No problem Windy

Lovely stuff, Galveston. I'm sure I won't be the only one checking it out, thanks a lot.

Not a problem Chris

I'll definately take a look at it.

Cheers

azania wrote:I'll definately take a look at it. But all the ones before Ali are bums anyway.

Cheers

Cheers Galveston.

Thanks guys, hopefully he will have most of his collection on there one day.

88Chris05 wrote:Lovely stuff, Galveston. I'm sure I won't be the only one checking it out, thanks a lot.

Not my words Michael, but the words of Shakin' Stevens!!

Superb, I shall study this site very closely. I upload fights myself but the earliest I've done is probably Leonard vs Mayweather Snr.

Have got a few Sam Langford fights so will enjoy seeing Wills and McVea.

Enjoying that period at the moment myself WDR, i'm hoping he may have more fights of the two, or even better copies of Langford.

Newly added to The Fight Film Collector,

Joe Louis vs Bob Pastor II 1939
http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.com/

Scottrf wrote:

azania wrote:I'll definately take a look at it. But all the ones before Ali are bums anyway.

Cheers

Cheers Galveston.

You know me too well

This is the start of “The Bum of The Month Club” Az, although it's a bit harsh to put Pastor in that bracket as he pushed Joe hard in 1937 over the distance.

The Galveston Giant wrote:This is the start of “The Bum of The Month Club” Az, although it's a bit harsh to put Pastor in that bracket as he pushed Joe hard in 1937 over the distance.

I wont bite.

But just to say thanks for the link. I'll save it and watch some of the fights featuring old timers. Not only for comedy value but to broaden my knowledge.

azania wrote:

The Galveston Giant wrote:This is the start of “The Bum of The Month Club” Az, although it's a bit harsh to put Pastor in that bracket as he pushed Joe hard in 1937 over the distance.

I wont bite.

But just to say thanks for the link. I'll save it and watch some of the fights featuring old timers. Not only for comedy value but to broaden my knowledge.

I hope he puts some Rocky Marciano up soon eh Az that could really broaden your knowledge.

prettyboy1304 wrote:

azania wrote:

The Galveston Giant wrote:This is the start of “The Bum of The Month Club” Az, although it's a bit harsh to put Pastor in that bracket as he pushed Joe hard in 1937 over the distance.

I wont bite.

But just to say thanks for the link. I'll save it and watch some of the fights featuring old timers. Not only for comedy value but to broaden my knowledge.

I hope he puts some Rocky Marciano up soon eh Az that could really broaden your knowledge.

That crude, limited 'fighter' who made the most of his miniscule abilities?

azania wrote:

prettyboy1304 wrote:

azania wrote:

The Galveston Giant wrote:This is the start of “The Bum of The Month Club” Az, although it's a bit harsh to put Pastor in that bracket as he pushed Joe hard in 1937 over the distance.

I wont bite.

But just to say thanks for the link. I'll save it and watch some of the fights featuring old timers. Not only for comedy value but to broaden my knowledge.

I hope he puts some Rocky Marciano up soon eh Az that could really broaden your knowledge.

That crude, limited 'fighter' who made the most of his miniscule abilities?

That's the one

Newly added to The Fight Film Collector,

Georges Carpentier vs Wells, Papke & Grundhoven
http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.com/

First fight to be added in quite a while

Ezzard Charles vs Jersey Joe Walcott I
June 22, 1949
World Heavyweight Championship
Rounds 14-15, Kinescope

http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.com/

Joe Louis vs Tony “Two Ton” Galento 1939

http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.com/

wow, impressed with louis' sharp accurate punching. It's nice to see it clearly for yourself - Other than some poor quality youtube videos and the FOTY i own (again not great quality) i haven't seen to much of the pre 60's stuff. i'll have to check out more, good site.

The guy cleans up a lot of the videos, starting to pick up a little, he's been quiet for a while.

Are they posted in a single clip?

They are Scott yes.

Tunney-Dempsey Audience Film Surfaces | A Window In Time **This film is currently being archived, and will be shown pending licensing.

Looks interesting.

Nice. Might have to download some then, like to watch them on the TV.

I have internet download manager Scott which allows me to download such videos although I'm sure you know how to do it.

Yeah, thanks

First time I've seen this, Galveston. Thanks for posting!

Just checked it out,love watching Joe Louis anytime, worth going on for those who haven't seen Louis fight, thanks Galveston looks like I'll be checking this out time and time again.

No problem lads.

Cheers for bumping it Galveston.

If you wouldn't mind - I'll add a link to this when I finish making the 606v2 boxing video-vault, later this week.

No worries mate that would be good.

Two Sluggers at The Office

Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis Newsreels and in Training
They Were Champions (Excerpt) 1954
16mm Sound


The Film
They Were Champions, produced in 1954, follows the linear heavyweight champions from Sullivan to Marciano. There’s little film of the actual title fights, but plenty of newsreel and rare training footage. I’ve chosen these two segments, as Dempsey (in training for Willard) and Louis were the most ferocious punchers up to that point. The power of these two champions is still something to behold.


The Restoration
The 16mm film I acquired is in fair to good shape. Some of the Dempsey action ran too fast to follow the action, so I slowed that footage to a more natural speed. A portion of this is silent. The Louis segment runs with sound, just as it appears in the documentary.



http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.co.uk/

Cheers GG, definitely waste a few hours on there.

No problem mate good to see the guy put something new up it's been a while.

Max Baer & Tony Galento Prefight Newsreel 1940

http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.co.uk/

Max Baer 1964 Documentary - The Tender Hearted Tiger



http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.co.uk/

Gene Tunney -vs- Jack Dempsey 1926
World Heavyweight Championship
Philadelphia, PA

(Complete Fight Reconstruction/speed correction/exposure/frame aspect/image matching)


The Fight


I’ve always wanted to see the complete 1926 Dempsey-Tunney fight film. The first of their two bouts was huge at the time, but has since been overshadowed by the rematch and “The Long Count” the following year. I wanted to see how the first fight played out, especially how did Dempsey perform during the first couple of rounds when he was still fresh, and still believing that he was invincible? Did Tunney really overwhelm Dempsey from the start or was it more competitive than what the newspapers said? What does the surviving footage reveal?


A couple of years ago, film collector Tony Fosco told me he wasn’t sure that complete footage of Tunney-Dempsey I still existed. He claimed to have compiled most of the rounds from various sources, but not all. Joe passed away before I saw his film. I have since spoken to Steve Lott of Big Fights Inc, who said that only about 14 minutes exist of the 1926 fight. This particular 14 minutes is what most people have seen over the last 70 years, from home movie shorts from Castle Films to ESPN Classic television.


The Film


A few months ago I obtained from a collector what was promised to be a copy of the complete original 1926 film. The DVD that arrived contained a copy of the original footage, but it was from a poor washed out screen-copy that only showed rounds 1 through 6 (I’ve seen this copy on Youtube already, which has filler footage tacked on after round 6.) The footage is poor, but it’s a good reference. So I went back through my own film collection and discovered several short versions of this famous fight going back to when I started collecting films as a teenager. These were editions not only from Castle Films, but Blackhawk Films, documentaries, Classic Sports, Newsreels and sports compilations. As I went through each version, I realized that most of the material was taken from the same original theatrical fight film. However, no two editions were exactly the same, suggesting that each version contained unique footage.


The Reconstruction


Over the following week, I rounded up the footage I had and loaded everything into my video editor. The various sources were trimmed round by round, matching the best quality footage with the action in the original master. Some clips showed the entire round, some clips lasting only a few seconds. I quickly discovered that in the most common editions of the fight (Castle Films, Official Films), the rounds were completely out of order. For instance, rounds described as 1 and 10, are actually portions of rounds 3, 5 and 9. These were also, incidentally, the worst rounds for Dempsey. When the editing was finished, I had partial or complete footage of every round (except for rounds 7-8 which were never issued).


** Note that the picture quality jumps back and forth as the best quality footage is inserted for that portion of the fight.


The progression of the fight went mostly as the newspapers described it. Tunney was brilliant, and he controlled the action from beginning to end. His strategy was to throw an endless barrage of overhand rights to slow Dempsey down. Then Tunney would pepper Dempsey with jabs and combinations. When Jack rushed Gene to the ropes, Tunney would spin Dempsey around and hold until the referee broke them. Tunney did this over and over again through the entire fight, and Jack never had an answer.


What about Dempsey? Did he really look like an old tired fighter? Having not fought in three years, Dempsey was rusty, but he was also unprepared. In the early rounds, when Jack was still fresh, he showed flashes of his old style, and Gene struggled to control the action. Tunney didn’t take full control of the fight until the round 3. The biggest myth about the fight is that Jack simply held on after the early rounds and was close to being knocked out at the end. The Dempsey I see in this film was outclassed, but he was game until the very end, and even launched a rally before the final bell. Tunney was an absolute ironman. Gene had to be incredibly strong to do what he did, fighting Dempsey at the same pace for 10 rounds. I believe that even in 1926, Gene Tunney was still the only fighter in the division who would have beaten Dempsey.


I hope you enjoy seeing this great fight, as much as I enjoyed restoring it.


http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.co.uk/

You are a star, thanks for that mate

No worries mate

Max Baer | Rare Training Footage
King Levinsky Exhibition prefight 1934
16mm Sound Transfer


http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/max-baer-rare-training-footage-1934.html

Jake LaMotta vs Danny Nardico,
Coral Gables, Florida, December 31, 1952
16mm Sound Film Transfer
12 Minutes

The Fight and The Knockdown


Nearly two years after the great Jake LaMotta lost his middleweight title to Sugar Ray Robinson in their final epic battle, LaMotta was still fighting on. In this match against light heavyweight Danny Nardico, Jake is still savvy and tough, but with each passing round, he falls further behind. What makes this bout notable is that Jake’s once granite chin fails him, and LaMotta is suddenly and dramatically knocked down for the first time in his long career.


The Film


The film is in great condition. The ring photography is very good and the action is clear. Despite the pounding that LaMotta takes after the seventh round knockdown, Jake fights with characteristic disdain, holding the rope for support with one hand and punching with the other even as Nardico’s punches wail in.



http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/jake-lamotta-touches-earth.html

Willie Pastrano vs Terry Downs
Light Heavyweight Championship
King's Hall, Belle Vue, Manchester, Lancashire, UK
November 30, 1964



http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/willie-pastrano-vs-terry-downs.html

Thank you for posting these Galveston, in particular the 1926 Dempsey Tunney fight.

You've clearly put a lot of work in to finding and restoring the footage, and the result is fantastic!

Hi Gentleman

Just to clarify mate it's not me who is restoring these it's a guy who goes by the name of the fight film collecter although i wouldn't mind having a bunch of old boxing reels by my side ready to restore. He seems to have bought a load 16mm boxing reels so looking forward to seeing them, here what he said.

''I have recently acquired a collection of nearly 200 16mm classic boxing films. Most are in excellent condition. I am happy to say that among the many reels of film are rare and/or rarely seen fight films. As the material is cataloged and archived, I will be showing some of this material on this blog, including brilliant quality upgrades of copies that have previously been traded among collectors, or currently seen in low quality on Youtube.''

Can only hope there is some footage of Harry Greb in action in all of them GG. He is doing a fine job on ploughing through this stuff though

Tony Galento -vs- Jackie Gleason
As told to Rocky Marciano
Main Event
Television Series 1961
16mm Sound Film Transfer

Rocky’s Talk Show

In 1960, former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano was contracted to host a boxing and interview program called Main Event. Each of the 30 episodes included studio interviews between Rocky and a contemporary celebrity, actor or sports star. The interviews lasted only a few minutes each, and were followed by the feature presentation being a recent or classic boxing match. Some shows were better than others, but all the interviews were interesting, and the best ones were classic.

Here is the Jackie Gleason’s famous episode with Rocky Marciano, where Gleason describes his famous altercation with Tony “Two-Ton” Galento outside a nightclub.


http://fightfilmcollector.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tony-galento-vs-jackie-gleason.html