In all fairness I don't think them top 10s look that weak at all. This might be a little bit controversial, but I think the era gets unfairly underrated, mainly due to Patterson avoiding Liston for a long time.
At some point two the endeavors of boxing history and boxing nostalgia need to separate and become distinct fields.
I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if the truth is somewhere between Fleischer and more modern thoughts. I may be mistaken, but I believe the fight Jacobs showed in the 60's was actually a reenactment of the actual fight (of which very little actually remains). What the people may have been laughing at was nothing more than the fact that the actors (Fitzsimmons and Corbett), in the reenactment, were not good actors. In fact, many of the very early boxing films are reenactments, and not the actual fights.
Jacobs had previously-unseen films of actual fights too: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...acobs-films-views-on-old-heavyweights.623760/ https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/1966-sports-illustrated-article-on-jim-jacobs.585395/
I think CBS showed highlights of the Jacobs collection in 1962 on a wintry sunday afternoon. Around two hours worth. I watched it. Off memory, the Fitz-Corbett and Johnson-Jeffries fights were the same ones we see. Not reenactments. And I think the others-Gans, McGovern, Dixon, Ketchel, etc. were of their real fights. Much was made of the first showing of Willard-Johnson. I remember watching and being fascinated at seeing men The Ring Magazine contained so much about but whom I had never seen.
