The most amazing footage I have ever seen [VIDEO]

I did a digital restoration on this for one of the owners about ten years ago where I was asked to edit both versions together. A couple of the rounds from the outtakes are found in the theatrical version so when you edit those out it brings the total run time of the footage to something like 36 minutes (cant recall) of the 60 minutes of actual fight time. Its extended highlites of most rounds. I still say Siki was robbed.

My vote for best film of that era is Gibbons-ODowd 1919.

 

That one is nuts. Really gives you a feel for the time.

 

Quality of this film is excellent. I see it was filmed by Pathe. I have noticed thru the years that the quality of their films is always a step above other or I should say several steps. There is a clips from the Dempsey Sharkey bout also filmed by Pathe. So clear but it only shows Sharkey being counted out and The aftermath in the ring. I always wondered.....they HAD to have filmed the entire bout but why is only this small snippet available? I corresponded with Pathe several years ago asking about this and all they said was.....all we have are short clips. How can this be?

 

Because they weren't shown as features. They were shown between features as short news snippets so the original content was edited down to accommodate this need and often times the outtakes were thrown away.

The Siki-McTigue outtakes are one of the rare examples where SOME of the excised footage survived.

Another example is the footage of Greb signing for Walker and training for that fight. Those clips are actually outtakes from the original newsreels, not what was shown in theaters.

 

I only have time to watch the first link, but i have to say that on that particular footage that was definitely my opinion.

I thought that Siki looked very good. McTigue did have good footwork, and i am sure he probably did break his thumb because he did look dangerous when he landed that right. In fact, i think if he had used the right a bit more, Siki did look like he might have really struggled.

And McTigue certainly showed a first rate chin, imo. Still, to me it was very worrying the way he stood so sideways when Siki was landing and (perhaps because of his injured thumb), his right hand seemed to not just be kept low, but at times was actually defending against the shot to the balls. i dont know as much about McTigue, and will have to do a bit more searching. I always thought he was a bigger hitter (like a Michael Moorer type though obviously better). But this clip showed him as a real mover, relying on constant footwork.

And Siki also looks very good, imo. A few obvious technical flaws, but probably very, very underated. It shows how many underated fighters this era had.

 

Great footage, thank you for posting it.

This throws a wrench into anyone's idea that boxers "back then" weren't as good as they are today. These are two very skilled fighters, physically capable fighters.

 

thanks again baclava! you give me hope for these boards. great quality here.

 

What a shame! We would know so much more about Dempsey if any of Pathe fight footage was available. They would keep SiKi vs McTigue but throw away Dempsey Firpo?

 

I'm sorry but I don't agree with your estimation of those fighter's talents. You sound like you've just been watching Willie Pep, Eder Jofre, or Jose Napoles. The footage looked beautiful, but I thought that the fighters looked limited.

 

Holy hell, excellent footage. Great jab and defense by McTigue, and Siki's guard and power were great. Siki's footwork was a bit off, but he had no fear and tons of aggression.

 

I don't agree that these guys are all time great fighters either. Mike McTigue does nothing but try to survive here. Hes waiting for the final bell because if he doesn't get KOd he knows as an Irishman hes not losing a decision in Dublin on St. Patricks Day. McTigue really symbolizes everything that was wrong with the ND era. He won his title on an outright robbery, and basically refused to defend it against anyone with a pulse. When he did fight he went into a shell like you see here and only focused on making it to the finish line. Even his defense against what he thought would be an easy, green, 18 yr old school boy (Stribling) turned into a travesty with him exhibiting the heart of a chicken. Prior to this fight, and after, the press in McTigues hometown wrote several articles about how his success in Europe spoke volumes as to the easy pickings over there as he had basically been a ham and egger in the states. Don't get me wrong, he had some skill but he was nothing special and if you go back and research his newspaper decisions he has a ton of loses that were the result of extremely timid performances. I have very little respect for he and Al McCoy who both did their best to make a mockery of the sport. Siki isn't much better but hes better. He was strong and athletic but he had almost no skill, little to no defense, and no plan B. He just follows guys around the ring throwing punches and hopes they cave. Its easy to see why he failed so miserably here in the states. Judging by reports he may have been a better fighter before he became champion but that's hard to guage as his level of competition was only regional. This is an important film and illustrative but it doesn't, in my mind, show these guys to be anything special.

 

Pathe didn't film Dempsey-Firpo. They may have licensed parts or all of it for distribution but Tex Rickard commissioned and controlled the filming of Dempsey-Firpo. Either way you will never see an unedited version of that film. Rickard had the part where Dempsey was knocked out of the ring edited so as to remove the part where Dempsey is helped back into the ring (A DQ). His excuse was that he was not trying to protect Dempsey but that in the excitement somebody stood up and blocked the view of the camera so he edited that part out. This was not true though for two reasons: 1. Those cameras were on platforms which prevented someone from obscuring the picture (otherwise he would have had to edit out every knockdown) 2. That fight was actually filmed in its entirety from two different angles: the common angle which is always shown on TV and it was filmed from the exact opposite direction. Both versions still exist and both are edited at exactly the same spot and at only that spot. So unless two people on opposite sides of the Polo Grounds somehow managed to jump up so high that they obscured the image at exactly the same moment (I call bull****) then Rickard was lying for some reason...

 

Neither man are considered ATG. Siki was know to be a wild but very hard puncher. mcTigue more of a journeyman.

 

I believe Pathe indeed filmed this bout. I just watched a pathe clip that shows the people entering the arena with the caption....be sure to see Pathe film of the fight coming soon or something to that effect.