Why is Dempsey vs Firpo highly edited film?

The camera was set up to cover the ring not the front row seats!

 

I don't know what the referee counted to. He might have started at "3" for all I know. I don't think Dempsey was out for more than 6 or 7 seconds at the most.

What do you think ?

I hope you don't think this was a pre-planned conspiracy that the camera man was somehow drilled pre-fight to pan away from Dempsey in the unusual event of Dempsey being knocked out of the ring, in case somehow his camera was to catch a possibly infraction of the rules in the unusual event, namely ringsiders assisting Dempsey ....

I mean, editing conspiracy is one thing, but the camera man have the coolness, foresight and foreknowledge to "not film the crime" during the actual event, well, that would be quite a story.

 

Wow, you really are claiming that.

 

You need to understand there was no provision for a fighter falling/getting knocked out of the ring the rules were for a fighter being knocked down IN the ring.
Have you any idea how infantile Bawhahaha looks on screen?
How many mistakes have you made in this short post ?
You are bordering on"special needs" aren't you?
Rhas Al Ghuhl at least has the excuse English is not his first language ,you on the other hand, make Lenny of Mice & Men appear smart! Watch the footage provided you dumb c*nt!

 

The camera pans as far as the action is continued ,then it returns to the ring.Dempsey could not be dsq'd under NYState rules for being helped to get back in the ring because there was no provision for such an occurence ! Can you try and grasp this you moron!

 

Dempsey seems to have bounced off a Trampoline.

 

This was not modern film photography. Film speed is fairly fast and cameras were large and not very mobile.

Dempsey was no quitter so it's perfectly reasonable that as soon as he landed upon the typewriters of the reporters at ringside he was quickly scrambling to return to the action. I believe this is what everyone is seeing during this sequence. There is little chance in my mind that it would take Dempsey more than 10 seconds to get back in the ring.

The one cut that is curious is that first right hand from Firpo as soon as round one begins. You see the right land but do not see grasping Firpo to prevent going down.

 

"Why do we only see three counts by the ref, when there should be at least 7-8?"

Off most later versions of this fight, yes.

But here is the New York Times on September 15, 1923, page 2

"The force of the blow and the impact when he struck the plank which served as a writer's table for the critics at ringside dazed the champion. He struggled back into the ring and was on his feet after five seconds had elapsed and stood swaying against the ropes near Firpo's corner."

Five seconds is just what this film shows.

After studying the New York Times ringside report, it appears to me the film is pretty much complete despite the splices.

The first knockdown of Dempsey is described thus--

"Instead the champion, half-slipping, half-knocked over by Firpo's right hand counter, was down on one knee, down for the first time since that ancient fight with Jim Flynn, the Pueblo fireman, long before he won the title. He was up again before they could more than start counting."

What the film shows. This round does run 13 seconds short of three minutes but this could be due to the hand cranking speeding up the action a bit.

 

He climbed (or was pushed) straight back in.
The film is not "cleverly edited" to fool us, nor was the camera man briefed pre-fight to pan away from ringsiders illegal assistance or whatever conspiracy Mendoza thinks.
I can see the continuity by the bodily positions of the referee and Firpo.

The film isn't "highly edited". It was a short fight.

 

A couple of points:

As I said before Dempsey made it back into the ring in time.

There is a provision on the rules of the Walker Law under which this fight was fought stating that if a fighter is knocked out of the ring he has to return unassisted.

That being said I dont see how Dempsey could be faulted here. He fell on those ringsiders and they cant be blamed for trying to push a 200 lb man off of them and if that got him back into the ring then oh well.

Like I said there were several other things that Dempsey could have been DQd for here but which went unanswered by the commission such as Dempsey hitting after the bell, Dempsey violating the corner rule when a fighter is down, etc. but I dont rly see how he can blamed for people trying to shove him off, he has no control over them.

And yes, Rickard did have the film edited but Im not really clear why. His excuse was a lie but the part that was edited doesnt rly show anything critical when you see the unedited version and if he was going to those lengths to preserve Dempsey's reputation he could have chosen other parts that made Dempsey look worse.

 

Mendoza

"You'd figure the camera would be where the drama is."

Was it possible to swing the camera about in that era? Or did they just film the ring from a distance? If so, they would never be filming what was happening outside the ring.