Must watch fights for an aspiring boxing historian?

You should really focus on specific weight classes / ranges and possibly eras. There's so many historic bouts you cannot write them all down.

 

Some early ones.

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There's some errors in it, but this has a lot of good stuff for the early heavyweights

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Too 'modern' George, give him some earlier stuff....

 

**** I don't like Black and white fights.

Here's a short list

Gavalin vs Castillo
Marciano vs Walcott
Charles vs Walcott
Moore vs Durrele 1
Louis vs Conn 1
Griffith vs Rodriguez 1-4

That's another good 4/5 hours of boxing

 

Canzoneri-Berg fights
Canzoneri-McLarnin
Canzoneri-Chocolate
McLarnin-Petrolle 4 min newsreel outake clip
Armstrong-Ambers
Armstrong-Garcia
Armstrong-Arizmendi fights
Armstrong-Ross
Gavilan-Billy Graham (fight is slow for first half and then it really picks up)
Billy Graham-Carmen Basilio clips
Jose Torres-Eddie Cotton
Archie Moore-Harold Johnson
Archie Moore-Yvon Durelle 1
Harry (Kid) Matthews-Bob Murphy
Freddie Steele-Gus Lesnevich
Freddie Steele-Vince Duindee
Paul Berlenbach-Jimmy Slattery
Jack Delaney-Paul Berlenbach
Benny Leonard-Lew Tendler
Jack Dempsey-Bill Brennan
Jack Dempsey-Jack Sharkey
Mickey Walker-Tommy Milligan
Mickey Walker-Ace Hudkins
Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fights
Any newsclips of Panama Al Brown you can find

Just a few of my favorites at least parts of which I think have been available online. Just for starters. Check back after you watch these and the others people have suggested.

 

A mate of mine told me to watch each of the ring FOTY. You could try that:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ring_magazine_Fight_of_the_Year

 

Ah. So u prefer latinos vs chinamen. Velly interesting

 

I'll have a little fun with this and write out a playlist starring The Greatest, Muhammad Ali.

1. Sonny Liston vs. Floyd Patterson 1 or 2, to get a feel for Liston's fearsome reputation.
2. Cassius Clay (as he was known) vs. Sonny Liston 1. Clay "shook up the world."
3. Muhammad Ali vs. Cleveland Williams, to see Ali at his best against a credible but very outmatched opponent.
4. Joe Frazier vs. Jerry Quarry 1 or Joe Frazier vs. Jimmy Ellis 1, to get a sense of what Frazier was about.
5. Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali 1 - The Fight of the Century between two undefeated ATG's to determine who was the real champ.
6. George Foreman vs. Joe Frazier 1, to get a sense of what Foreman was about.
7. Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman - The fight that cemented Ali's greatness.
8. Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier 3.

As another poster astutely said, you can pick branches and go off on wonderful journeys. Boxing has an incredibly rich history. Welcome to the sport. I look forward to reading about your discoveries.

 

Oh yes, watch Moore-Durelle 1! As good as it gets.

 

YouTube is your friend. An amazing resource I wish I’d had back in the days when I was ordering videotapes and waiting weeks for them to arrive.

 

Basilio-DeMarco 1 and 2 from 1955. Watch both of those fights back to back and enjoy!

 

Yeah.

VCRs were just starting to gain popularity when I was really getting into boxing. I would've killed to have one, but certainly didn't have $500+ to get one, not to mention money for $20 blank tapes.

I bought a super 8 projector from Sears and ordered films from Ring Classics. As I recall I had Clay-Cooper I, Robinson-Graziano, Ali-Frazier III, Ali-Williams, Carnera-Sharkey, Willard-Moran, and DeJesus-Duran I. Maybe a couple more. In most cases these were just highlights. All were silent. We have it really good with YouTube now.

 

You're missing out. Big time.

 

I know. Some of the best fights I've seen were black and white, Moore Durrele 1, Patterson vs Ingo 3 ect. I'm loving the colouring effort from our friend D brown
To be honest it's more the quality of film than the colour but it is what it is

Any Black and White fights you'd recommend?