What WW film of Robinson has not been found yet?

Some people will tell you that Jake himself has some of the bouts with SRR but I don't think its true.

 

There was a thread a few months ago showing some of Robinson's long lost welterweight fights. They might be on youtube.

 

Thats bull****. ESPN doesnt have any other LaMotta Robinson fights than the the sixth. If you listen to what every so called historian says youd think ESPN has this vast treasure trove of lost and missing fights. Some people believe that every missing filmed fight is in their collection and its not. Ive spoken with Steve Lott many many times, and more recently with the ESPN curator about what they have and dont have and most people here would be shocked to find out all of the fights they supposedly have that dont even exist. Just for the hell of it one time we went over a list i made of rumored fights like Gavilan-Robinson, Tiger-Depaula, etc etc and they didnt have a single fight on the list. They have a ton of stuff that people dont know about but thats because its stuff that people dont ask about. The real gems have been broadcast for the most part back in the 50s and 60s when Cayton was a lot more active in marketing that stuff, and the other stuff is guys youve never heard, club fights, undercard bouts etc etc.

Take for example your own collection. Any of you. Lets say you have 20,000 fights. How many of those do you supposed are undercard bouts from ESPN, FOX, USA, etc that nobody gives a **** about? Probably a pretty significant portion right? Everybody remembers Holyfield-Lewis 2, but do you remember the four or five bouts on the undercard? Exactly. So keep that in mind when Cayton, Jacobs, ESPN boast about having this huge collection of fights. They arent any different in that the vast majority of their fights are fights the vast majority of us dont care about.

 

makes sense but...well ****

 

Its been a while since i've read it but i'm sure La Motta says he has them (well had them at the time he wrote it in what the 70s) in Raging bull.

 

He doesnt. Ive spoken to him and some of my associates spoke to Vickie. Jake went through several periods of downright poverty, where he was next to homeless, between his retirement and now. There were times when the only furniture he had in his seedy apartment was a card table. He pawned his belt, you dont think his films went long before that? Neither he nor Vickie had any films of him within the last ten yrs or so if they ever did.

 

I didn't say he had them, i said he says he had them in his book. I have no idea whether he still has them seeing as he wrote that book going on 40 years ago.

 

Yeah several were filmed and several still exist: Fusari, Angott III, Beckett, Riccio (1/2 pound over). Others from this era when Greb was still a WW but fought at catchweights exist, and still others were filmed and dont exist, or rather are not known to exist. And of course even earlier fights of Robinson as an Amateur exist as well.

 

bman,I saw welterweight Ray Robinson twice ringside in his prime. First time in 1943 MSG,when Ray toyed with the 31 year old Henry Armnstrong. Ray
never opened up on his idol.
The next time I saw the invincible Robinson was in June,1945,when he
absolutely destroyed a tough Californian named Jimmy McDaniels in the
second round with a powerful flurry,I have never seen before or since . The
crowd, my dad and I were stunned by the greatness of this prime 147 pound
Robinson. Too bad for ESB posters that will never see a film of the Ray
Robinson,I saw in 1945...Damn shame, I say. I at least have vivid memories
of Robbie at his 147 best, but feel bad for today's boxing fans on ESB...

 

Unfortunately thats not the case. In those days just because something was shown on TV doesnt mean it was filmed. They had no way of "capturing" live, on air television transmissions until kinescope technology came out which was basically a specialized camera that film a TV screen showing the transmission. So in short, prior to Kinescope, just because a Robinson fight or Pep, or whoever, was shown on television doesnt mean it was ever preserved. In fact, most of those shows in the early days of TV were gone the instant the broadcast ended and there was never any way to preserve them.