If you go on news win and official decisions, I had Corbett at 59-0-3 before facing Fitzsimmons, with the names and date of those he fought. Granted some of the matches were 2-4 rounds, but they fought. It appears Corbett's Ring Record remains unclear. If you use Wikipedia, they credit him with 24 total wins. [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Corbett[/url] If you use Box Rec, they only say 11 [url]https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/9021[/url] Wikipedia lists names and dates, so I would say they are more accurate. If you combine the two lists, Corbett had at least 35 total fights counting the draws and DQ's and losses. As I and many other have said, Box Rec is very incomplete. Neither source counts the Peter Courtney fight, which was KO win for Corbett and filmed. The fighters were paid, the resut wasn't staged. How many fight did Corbett really have? The best answer is over 36
At a glance the first Choynski fight and some other early ones of his Wiki record were amateur bouts. You'd need to look into each one.
I remember going on to his box rec page when I was young and thinking “why does he have so few bouts?” Thus began in-depth research of the career of gentlemen Jim The good old days
Not sure about that. Corbett went pro as a teenager to make extra money, while also working as a bank teller. If he fought for money, that's a professional fight, not an amateur fight. While Corbett was an amateur middle and heavyweight champion, those could be different fights.
Corbett-Courtney was an exhibition. It was held in a black shed called "The Black Maria." The purpose was Thomas Edison simply wanted to film something. And that was his studio. He filmed two people kissing. He filmed someone running in place. And he filmed two boxers swinging at each other. The "rounds" lasted one minute, because that's how long they had before the film ran out. The in-between rounds lasted several minutes because the had to reload the camera. If you're going to count every time Corbett stepped in the ring with gloves on to fight a round or two or four, and hit someone for real, then Muhammad Ali had about 500 official fights. For example, Ali fought Bernardo Mercado and Scott Ledoux in exhibitions in 1977. Ali fought Lyle Alzado in Denver in 1979. He fought Jimmy Ellis for five rounds in Denmark in 1979. Fought two rounds with Ellis in Rhode Island that year. Fought Dino Dennis that year. He fought Gregorio Peralta, Jimmy Young and Terry Daniels in 1972 in exhibitions. If you count all his exhibitions and fights in 1972, Ali fought close to 40 times that year alone. Ali did that all the time every year his whole career. Sounds like you're trying to pack Corbett's record with a lot of filler.
I'm sure I found references from newspapers at the time that Corbett and Choynski were fighting the an amateur title, but I could be getting mixed up
The fighters were paid. Rounds and times of them varied back in the past, but it wasn't an amateur match for for sure. They fought for 6 rounds. Courtney who looks awful and is being toyed with was the champion of New Jersey. Adding Courtney to Corbett's record won't add anything, So it was over 5 rounds, they were paid, and unlike the exhibition matches you listed, both fighters were tying to win. May old fights are missing. Fitz said he had 300 fights. I have Corbett's record at 59-0-3 going in to the Fitzsimmons match, with the names and dates of the fights. I am warming up to boxing on Wiki was they too have historians and people who do research. I am family with Edison's Black Maria. An interesting one was the muscle man of the day, Sandow posing below. This content is protected The library of congress has most of these films, including a film of young ghetto women bathing, however decorum prevents that link.
Well Box Rec is much older and has more data, however Wiki can find " Something " that Box Rec lacks. A better way to put it is I I trust posted results on wiki. Box Rec has mistakes too, they just change and edit them as time goes on.
Corbett vs Courtney definitely wasn't a real fight. It was an act for camera filmed in studio, without audience and judges.
I also believe that it was a three-sided "ring"( vCourtney). Corbett's autobiography helps quite a bit but the chief aspect about his early career is that he was having full-on exhibitions with top pros while preserving his amature status eg Cleary, Burke, Donaldson, Miller, maybe Dempsey from memory etc. An unusual situation which he added to by boxing out-of-town under an assumed name for money. Even counting these I reckon he had maybe thirtyish fights, if I find the time I'll research it properly.
