Two Guys Have A Bet-----

Two men have a bet as to whether a fight was filmed or not.
One, call him A says it was.
The other ,call him B ,says it wasn't.
The fight in question is the 1900 fight between Gus Ruhlin and Bob Fitzsimmons which took place in Madison Square Garden in New York.
The fight was originally intended to be filmed but the camera failed before the fight started,not an unusual occurrence in those days.

Ruhlin's chief second was the former heavyweight Champion Jim Corbett and he was very prominent in Gus's corner,offering advice and vocally encouraging Ruhlin during the action.
As most know Fitz gave Ruhlin a very bad beating
Gilbert Odd, in his book Bob Fitzsimmons The Fighting BlackSmith described the fight in detail. Fitz brought his own gloves to the fight and handed them over to Ruhlin's manager Billy Madden for inspection,Madden wondered why Fitz wanted to wear them when it was customary to toss a coin for glove selection, Fitz explained he had broken a bone in his left hand koing Ed Dunkhorst and needed extra padding to protect the injury.
I mention this to illustrate I have done some research into the fight.
At any rate Ruhlin absorbed a horrendous thrashing.
By the 4th rd Ruhlin had been down twice and was badly cut over the left eye.
In the 5th Fitz went for the body, driving in full blooded smashes that had Ruhlin wincing and hanging on.
The 6th rd was the last ,2 righthanders to the chin and a left to the body dropped Gus.
when he got up Fitz was all over him with flush punches to body and head,finally a tremendous right uppercut lifted Ruhlin off his feet and deposited him on the canvas totally out.The referee did not bother to count signalling Gus' corner to come and remove him from the canvas and Ruhlin's seconds dragged their man back to his corner.

It had been intended to take a cinematograph version of the Fitzsimmons v Ruhlin contest but because of a technical breakdown it didn't happen and nothing was filmed. It was therefore decided to film a re-enactment with the real fighters playing their parts. Both men were agreeable but Ruhlin needed some time to recuperate he was too badly beaten to leave the Graden and spent the night there on a cot with a doctor and his manager in attendance as he lapsed in and out of consciousness.The next morning his manager took him to his home to recover,where he stayed for several days.
When Ruhlin was finally fit enough to face the camera heavy stage make up was applied to his injuries to disguise them for the film.
The re-enactment was successful and shown to appreciative audiences who lapped it up until it was spotted that Jim Corbett was not in Ruhlin's corner.Corbett had returned home to San Francisco and refused to travel back to New York for the film,not wishing to be involved in a fake fight being passed off as the real thing.
The game was as they say, now up.
The maker of the fake fight film was Siegmund Lubin,he made several fight re-enactments including one of the Jeffries v Fitzsimmons fight but with actors playing the parts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegmund_Lubin
I've spoken to Klompton who has an extensive film collection
He confirmed the fight was not filmed.
Now, with apologies for taking so long getting around to my point,here it is !
Since the fight was not filmed and whether it was is the sole subject of the bet ,do you as a forum think:
A should have honoured the bet?
Or as a re-enactment was made due to the failure to film the real fight ,this counts as "the fight being filmed, and that consequently he was justified in reneging?

I await your verdict.

 

Bump.