Lots of newspaper coverage. No known footage. It was supposedly a rough and competetive fight with Bonavena taking the early rounds, Lyle coming on in the middle rounds, and Bonavena coming back strong in the final few. It was a lot more competetive judging by ringside reports than the scoring of two of the judges but it was Lyles hometown, he was the comer, and Bonavena was brought in as the opponent, so youd kind of expect it. Apparently Lyle got frustrated with his inability to hurt or slow Bonavena and threw a deliberate low blow which dropped Bonavena and for which Lyle lost a point.
I vaguely remember the Lylee-Bonavena fight...Oscar was on the decline by then..he was played out pretty much..but Lyle deserved the win..I don't begrudge Big Ron a damned thing..he was a man's man in the ring.
You must have lived in Colorado, because Lyle-Bonavena was not shown on national television. In fact Im not even convinced it was shown on local Denver TV.
That's the part that blows my mind. It was the biggest indoor sporting even in Denver history up to that time. It received a ton of local hype and even had a Starr Yelland-narrated documentary on both fighters shown on TV in the weeks leading up to it. All that work and then nobody is going to film it? It just makes no sense. I wonder if it was filmed and we just haven't found it. When I was digging around for it a decade ago someone at the network told me that they thought it was filmed but that it would cost me a ton of money to have them dig for it. A shame...
Isn't Lyle-Shavers a home movie ? The film I've seen of that Denver match up does not appear network quality ... as if shot from the stands ... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyyXIO6ziCw[/ame]
I believe Lyle-Shavers was filmed for a news broadcast. At least I have a vintage news broadcast which uses the footage.
