There was an interesting programme on a while back about Bill Richmond, perhaps the first great black boxer in history. I enjoyed it - I enjoy anything which gives some screen time to the (very, in this case) old-timers, who were the sport's pioneers - but I was disappointed at the way Tom Cribb, the sport's first world champion, was sold short. [yt]XYR0L2lZSyg&feature=related[/yt] [yt]8gP4y6C8QVI&feature=related[/yt] [yt]HTfU6T_hCN4&feature=related[/yt] [yt]MsAKUIPBw4c&feature=related[/yt] [yt]l437HZElbvU&feature=related[/yt] Regarding the fight with Richmond, Cribb's victory is dismissed in the following terms: "Bill's size began to find him out ... Cribb's extra weight began to tell." Familiar even today, no? That Cribb's cardio ("wind", as it was then described) was excellent and his powers of endurance superior to Richmond's is apparently not given any weight. The account we get of the the Molineux bouts is also a little off. Cribb, coming back from a two year lay-off, is described as not deserving his win, with the crowd interfering to prevent Molineux's triumph after Cribb failed to "come up to scratch". The truth is that Molineux had been choking Cribb and holding the ropes to keep his knees off the ground while attacking him, in an apparent foul that the umpire missed due to the driving rain. Molineux injured or possibly broke a finger (not his hand) when Cribb's supporters prised his grip off the ropes, but it was hardly decisive. In any case, Cribb won a rematch which was given readily handily (although he is again given no credit, Molineux being erroneously depicted as out of shape and irresolute when in fact he cut weight, sparred and boxed exhibitions all over the country to prepare for Cribb). What could have been a very good programme about a piece of largely forgotten combat sports history was somewhat poisoned by, I suspect, an intrusion of modern race politics into the historiography.
