Marcel Thil vs. Lou Brouillard - Highlights of all 3 fights

Thanks to Raging B(_)LL for sending me this clip.

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This is footage of each of the three rather infamous fights between Thil and Brouillard, two top MWs of the 1930s.

Thil was one of the longest reigning MW titleholders of the '30s, and very underrated IMO. At his peak, he was a rugged, brawling infighter who took on some of the most feared and avoided MWs of his day. At this stage of his career, he was considered past his peak and had lost some of his slugging fire, yet was still able to win fights on skill and guile - and other things, as this clip shows. :yep

Brouillard is another overlooked fighter. His name almost never gets mentioned among the pantheon of fighters that have won titles at both welter and middle, yet that's exactly what he did in his career. He was not a skilled or polished-looking fighter, and in fact often looked rather amateurish in his attack, but his freakish strength, power, and swarming attack often compensated for his other apparent limitations, and he was able to beat a number of classier HOFers (ie: Jimmy McLarnin, Young Corbett) in his career.

All three of these fights took place in Thil's native France, where all the fights were of great interest to the fans - not only for Thil's popularity and status as champion, but also Brouillard's background as a French-Canadian. In the first fight, a non-title fight, Thil built up an early lead with his boxing skill, and then withstood a late rally by Brouillard to get a close decision. In the second fight, which was for Thil's title, Brouillard turned up the heat early, and the fight ended abruptly in the 4th round when Thil fell to the canvas claiming to have been hit low, which resulted in a DQ win for him. The controversy around the outcome led to a third fight, also for the title. Thil started off boxing well, but the fight came to a similar end as the previous one when Thil claimed he could not continue after a low blow in the 6th round. If you watch 6:20 of the clip above, it looks like Thil does indeed get hit low, but I suspect (as did others at the time) that Thil maybe "faked" the seriousness of the blow, seeing a chance to end the fight right here and get the "W".

Thil only fought once more after this fight, traveling to the US (his only appearance in the States) to fight top ranked American Fred Apostoli on Mike Jacob's famous "Carnival of Champions" card. Thil boxed his way to a lead on the cards, but was busted up and stopped late, after which he never fought again. Brouillard remained a top fighter for a short while afterward, but never got another shot at a title. He eventually tried to break into the LHW ranks, but was stopped for the only time in his career by dynamite-punching Tiger Jack Fox. He fought at LHW for some time, but was more or less a journeyman at that weight, and he retired in the early '40s.