Anyone know who's the earliest fighter with a complete, filmed career? I was thinking about it earlier after realizing that even many modern fighters don't have a completely available resume, even the likes of Bernard Hopkins (His first career fight is seemingly lost) none the less slightly more obscure fighters who had large number of fights, especially in other countries, such as Yory Bory Campas and Jorge Fernando Castro. The question isn't a concrete one, related discussion and interesting tidbits are welcome. Older fighters with surprisingly complete filmed careers to more modern fighters with an equally surprising amount of missing matches.
Have a feeling it won't be very far back, maybe just halfway (5-6 decades) through boxing-on-film history. Clay/Ali is my guess for the 1st. The only retired modern era boxers I can say with confidence off the very top of my head were televised in 100% of their matches are Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Carl Froch.
I've only seen career sets of DeLa Hoya, Mayweather, Haye and Tyson. I'm sure Haye and Tyson had a fight missing. I've seen every Khan fight as it happened. Maybe Froch as well.
De la Hoya and Mayweather got famous right away because of their exposure at the Olympics. I'm guessing some other guys popped big off the Olympics and have complete careers on tape. It also seems like you'd have nearly complete careers from the guys who captured a belt really young like Benitez did. How much early Floyd Patterson do we have? The guys who fought two hundred times couldn't possibly have footage available for every fight. To get a more complete package you'd need a fighter who didn't fight very often but who fought a lot of marquee names: Ray Leonard, Miguel Cotto, Andre Ward, Pernell Whitaker, Aaron Pryor, Joe Frazier, Joe Calzaghe, Michael Spinks, Ray Mancini, Carlos Palomino, Azumah Nelson, Alfonso Zamora, Wilfredo Gomez, Jeff Fenech, etc. You also might need to factor in what level of draw the fighter was and if he was a fan favorite like Danny Lopez, Carmen Basilio, or Arturo Gatti. Of course, then that begs the question where is all the footage of Beau Jack and Johnny Saxton?
At A guess, would Pete Rademacher have all of his fights filmed? I think he would have to be close to the first if he does.
Bump. Figured there would be more discussion on this subject, especially considering the amount of avid film collectors on here.
Has to of been earlier than that, even if only by a decade or so with media/Olympic darlings like Leonard, who had a lot of attention and big paydays lined up before they even went pro.