Battalino vs Singer? Or something out of a Charlie Chaplin movie?

Anybody seen this? Care to comment? It’s a second round KO, so it won’t take up much of your time. I’d be greatly interested in hearing your thoughts. And I think you’d be a fool to miss it.

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It was insane is what it was. It didn’t even seem like a real fight toward the end of the first round.

Battalino’s awkward, unpolished style. Singer toying with him to the point of actually holding the top of his head while the later swung missing at his midsection. Battalino dropping him with a two piece shortly after, followed by Singer getting up dazed and confused and then doing that Chaplin-esque dipsy do escape routine. It genuinely looked like something out of a sketch comedy show.

 

That’s Panama Al Brown and Newsboy Brown. And don’t forget Cocoa Kid. While we’re at it: Eddie Shea, Andy Martin, Lew Massey, and Billy Townsend.

The guy had an incredible career that was just all over the place. Even as champion. During the 28 months he held the Featherweight crown he lost 11 non-title bouts. He won all 5 fights when his title was on the line, though. Before being stripped in his 6th defense for taking part in a match that sounds like it puts even the one posted above to shame. That was the fight directly after it, too.

 

First things first, I’m not condemning the fighters. Sorry if that’s how it came off. I’m just sharing a video I found enjoyable. I should also clarify that I’m only referring to one 30-40 second sequence towards the end of the first.

From the 4:00 mark to roughly 4:40. If you saw only that bit of footage you have to admit it would look quite bizarre. The first part of the video title reads “Funny Fight!” for a reason, and it’s not because it’s sped up. The film speed is almost perfectly edited, actually.

Singer simply made a very theatrical display of “getting on his bicycle” and it came off humorous to me. Never seen anything quite like it. Having hardly any expectations beforehand probably amplified my reaction.

 

Not that I noticed, but typically these fights have varying speeds at different points due to missing a spot here and there in the editing process. Most of the film from this era and before comes out looking super fast (fewer frames I guess, I’m no expert), but this one I thought was remastered very well.