Many human behavior analysts have always wondered why some people who conceive boxing as a brutal and primitive sport, leave such criteria aside when they go to the movies or watch it on TV. They have fun and even cheer excitedly when they watch a “fake” fight on the screen. However, they do not react in the same way if it is a documentary on boxing, which they watch with complete indifference.
Pablo Mérida, the Hispanic author of ‘El boxeo en el cine 1894-1994’ (Boxing in the cinema 1894-1994), offers a simple answer to the question, although there could be several: simply, according to Mérida, the reason is that they know that what they are watching is something from the unreal world, it’s fantasy, and they reject the true facts, in the second case.
Even though what follows is not directly related to the previous lines, it is worth mentioning that boxing is the sports discipline with the greatest participation in the Big Screen, almost from the very birth of the Seventh Art industry, which was created by the French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiére, who copyrighted their invention on February 13, 1895 and then made their first film, Departure of the Workers from the Lumiére Factory in Lyon Monplaisir, which was, of course, presented on March 12th of the same year, three days after the filming.
Mérida says that since Thomas Alva Edison, who invented the kinetoscope and the kinetograph, joined forces with scientist William K.L. Dickson in order to form the embryo of what would eventually become the boxing film, the result of which would be the first film about the sport of fists, called The Leonard-Cushing Fight, whose rudimentary filming began on June 15, 1894 and was shown a few months later in a location on 83rd Street in New York. “None of the participants in the filming, nor any newspaper gave a clear version of how the evening ended…(but) boxing in the cinema was now a reality”(*).
From then until today, hundreds, if not thousands, of real and fictional fights have been presented in the cinema, with Muhammad Ali as the real-life character who has most often been at the center of the plot in documentaries such as “When We Were Kings”, “Ali, the Greatest”, “Facing Ali” and the most recent “I am Ali” (2014), as well as the well-known “Ali”, a film in which the actor Will Smith played the most famous boxer in history.
This is a very interesting topic that can be expanded and will be covered again in a future issue with new data.
(*) Ob.Cit.Page 19. Editorial Laertes S.A de ediciones, 1995
Back in high school, we were shown the Leonard-Cushing match in Film Class . We also watched the exhibition between Corbett and Courtney (also from 1894).
If you like those old clips, the British Pathe youtube channel has a ton of old fights. They also have a collection of old school wrestling (catch wrestling) as well as Greco Roman wrestling from a century ago.
One more, and then I’ll stop. I promise.
There is a great (but short) clip of Jack Johnson training with Fred Marcussen during his exile in France.
However, don’t be fooled. Most of the videos state that it is a match (or even an MMA bout). That is not the truth. Rather, Johnson normally incorporated wrestling training in his sparing. It helped him maneuver while in the clinch.
Johnson really was ahead of his time.
I haven’t an f’n clue what the guy is asking or answering. I’m out.
I remember back in the hey day watching the movie Ali starring Will Smith. James Toney played Frazier in the beginning of the movie. Very good movie for the era of time.
Ali has been the most hyped boxer in history, having watched a majority of his fights it is my opinion he is nothing more than a Liberal’s dream, he would never have beaten a Joe Louis nor a Detonay Wilder. The fight between him and George Foreman in Zaire, Africa, looked to me like a staged act, I didn’t believe it then and still don’t.
Respecting your opinion, the less thing Ali was is hype, and so far, very few fights in the heavyweights history can be compared to his 1rst and especially the 3rd fight against Joe Frazier.
In boxing or any other sport, the great ones in any era, don’t need to be compared
Obviously going by the issues he spoke out about. Was hardly Liberal, just common sense.
To say Joe Louis or Wilder would beat Ali exposes you as a hater 🙂
Yes, I disagree with gullible people so I guess that makes me a hater.