26 Years: The Dewey Bozella Story

For anyone who hasn't caught one of its several airings on the ESPN family of stations, make a point to DVR it. Every boxing fan should see it, and honestly it's recommended viewing for even non-fans.

The bit about his first licensing test (with the heavy sparring against heavyweight Andrae Carthron, who was coming in fresh while am exhausted and jet-lagged 52 year old cruiserweight Dewey had just gone through half an hour of nonstop cardiovascular drills) to become a professional in the state of California was particularly interesting...and the fact that "Mr. Never Quit" himself almost threw in the towel when initially denied the license, until his wife talked him out of it and brokered his second chance with the commission.

Then how DLH, Hopkins, and all these other people rallied behind him and stuck their necks out for him.

Very powerful stuff.


One question...

I noticed someone on here at one point mentioning that they were viewing "extended footage of his debut on ESPN" and remarking how surprisingly good his workrate and conditioning looked. On the actual Hopkins vs. Dawson I PPV, they only showed some highlights narrated by Lampley & co. So my assumption was that they showed the full four rounds in the documentary, with maybe the last fifteen minutes reserved for them (or even the bulk of them, chopped up and edited for dramatic effect a'la The Contender). Nope. They showed no more than was shown on HBO PPV...and in fact it even seemed like a bit less.

So did they show the entire match as a standalone broadcast at some point on ESPN? :huh Has the entire thing been shown anywhere, at all?

 

Have you ever seen all 12 minutes of action between Bozella and Larry Hopkins? :huh

Obviously it wasn't part of the doc... Was it shown as a standalone special on ESPN, programmed together with the doc?