Top fights you wish we had on film?

Yeah 1 of my favs.You're right about hit and miss i had shock watching him v Ruben O the 2nd time around,what a mess looked like he done a slab of strongbow in the afternoon.Still like to see more tho

 

Greb-Tunney 1
Walker-Flowers
Greb-Walker
Ross-Canzoneri 1
Any Charley Burley fight

I've seen footage of the first Louis-Conn fight, and both the Louis-Walcott fights, but I'm not sure if they exist in entirety. If not, they deserve mentions as well.

 

Anything on Greb, Walker or Leonard
Ross/Canzoneri I or II
Gavilan/Graham II from Cuba
Henry Hank/Joey Giardello
Armstrong/Ambers I
Rodriguez/Briscoe & Carter
Have heard there were recordings of earlier Ray Robinson/Jake LaMotta...wow
Ortiz/Laguna II
Ortiz/Loi
Moore/Pastrano

 

Jeffries - Corbett 1
Jeffries - Fitz 2
Johnson - Langford
Langford - Ketchel
Charles - Moore (KO)
Langford - Wills
Greb - Walker
Greb - Norfolk 1 and 2
Greb - Tunney 1 and 2

 

Jackson-Corbett

 

Louis-Conn 1 doesnt exist complete. It is heavily edited which is why its running time is so short. Mike Jacobs was notorious for having his films edited down severely. In fact Billy's son told me that Billy once asked Jacobs why he had the first Louis fight edited down so much and Jacobs spat back "when you are the promoter you can decide how the films are edited!" The vast majority of fights promoted by Mike Jacobs are incomplete. Usually not even half of the fight exists.

 

Did he have an exclusive rights on videos of his promotion?
No TV networks/private/pirate cameramen?

 

A few fights I've always wanted to watch and never got any footage of were.

Liston vs Folley, Marshall,Valdes, Dejohn
Greg Page vs Trevor Berbick
Tim Witherspoon vs James Tillis.
Foreman vs O'Halloran and Peralta 2
Lyle vs Peralta, Mathis, Middleton, Garcia, O'Halloran, Rondon

 

My understanding is that he retained exclusive rights through his promotional company.

Some of his fights were broadcast on TV but that predated kinescopes. The two earliest kinescopes I know of off the top of my head (and they are incpomplete) are of Louis-Conn 2 (Jacobs) and Charles-Walcott 1 (IBC).

There were undoubtedly some pirate films taken of Jacobs fights but they would almost certainly be incomplete as well given the limitations of home movie film reels.

 

Any idea why that was?

 

Just to make them more marketable and get them in more theaters. If they were shorter i.e. 20 or 30 mins theater owners could run them between features or as time fillers. They were essentially a short instead of a feature.

 

gans vs langford? man, i need educating on that one

 

I am more than 50% sure Robinson vs Angott exists but not released on the collectors market yet.

 

The more complete version that is.