forgotten fights on telly

[misterpunch]

browsing the boxrec website it came into my mind that there were many pro fights screened on bbc or itv back in the day that have been completely forgotten.
I remember watching john stracey's fight with a bloke called irish pat murphy and another one of john fighting some fella called cubby Jackson. I think stracey was disqualified against Jackson for some reason, and got a bad cut before beating murphy. alan minters early career was on telly quite a bit. Vernon sollas was too. fights like these are lost in time.

what dusty memories of forgotten televised british fights does anyone else have?

[Caractacus]

You may be referring to the BBC Television show GRANDSTAND?
I seem to remember Joe Bugner vs Ray Patterson(Floyd's brother) on one show.

[misterpunch]

yeah! also sportsnight used to show edited fights.

but I think the stracey bouts were on ITV

[littlepug]

Think it was grandstand that showed the pro débuts of holyfield and his medal winning team mates, used to have it on VHS but lent it out and never saw the guy again !

[Cholo_cws]

This is a good site for revealing what the BBC broadcast. Quite interesting searching the site. Lots of Stracey fights feature.

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/

[misterpunch]

wow! what an extraordinary site - fantastic. it jogged my memory about loads of stuff.

do you remember the five-a-side football competition between league clubs? I'd forgotten about that - it was great.

[Caractacus]

This is a good site for revealing what the BBC broadcast. Quite interesting searching the site. Lots of Stracey fights feature.

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/

I noticed in it that it reads that the BBC One Radio did not start up until April.20.1964.
If my math is correct that is a approx. a year after
the first Cassius Clay vrs Henry Cooper bout(June 1963 at Wembley stadium).

So who here said they had heard that bout on live radio?
and if so,which radio station had broadcast it then?

[Bladder]

This is a good site for revealing what the BBC broadcast. Quite interesting searching the site. Lots of Stracey fights feature.

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/

I noticed in it that it reads that the BBC One Radio did not start up until April.20.1964.
If my math is correct that is a approx. a year after
the first Cassius Clay vrs Henry Cooper bout(June 1963 at Wembley stadium).

So who here said they had heard that bout on live radio?
and if so,which radio station had broadcast it then?

I thought Radio One came into being in 1967. Whichever it was, it was a renaming exercise. Home Service, Light Entertainment etc became Radio One, Radio Two etc

Something like that

[Caractacus]

A couple of other early Joe Bugner fights that were shown on BBC One were

Bugner vrs Mose Harrel(June 1969)
Bugner vs Roberto Davila(Feb 1970)

[evrenb]

This is a good site for revealing what the BBC broadcast. Quite interesting searching the site. Lots of Stracey fights feature.

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/

I noticed in it that it reads that the BBC One Radio did not start up until April.20.1964.
If my math is correct that is a approx. a year after
the first Cassius Clay vrs Henry Cooper bout(June 1963 at Wembley stadium).

So who here said they had heard that bout on live radio?
and if so,which radio station had broadcast it then?

The bbc radio replayed the entire live original feed a few years back to investigate the time lapse mystery.. It was 66 seconds, boxing news also did the same about ten years ago...same finding.. And the film I have plays T 66 seconds.

[Caractacus]

This is a good site for revealing what the BBC broadcast. Quite interesting searching the site. Lots of Stracey fights feature.

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/

I noticed in it that it reads that the BBC One Radio did not start up until April.20.1964.
If my math is correct that is a approx. a year after
the first Cassius Clay vrs Henry Cooper bout(June 1963 at Wembley stadium).

So who here said they had heard that bout on live radio?
and if so,which radio station had broadcast it then?

The bbc radio replayed the entire live original feed a few years back to investigate the time lapse mystery.. It was 66 seconds, boxing news also did the same about ten years ago...same finding.. And the film I have plays T 66 seconds.

BS
Just listening to the audio seperatley from the edited and abridged version on BigFights film footage doesnt count.
Man,I didnt just fall off the turnup truck you know.

[Bodyshot3]

Gary Newbon being the boss man in charge of the Sports Department at Central Television was a bit of a golden period.....Gary loved his boxing and for a while there seemed to be 'a-fight-a-week' if you were lucky enough to be a young fan who lived in the the Midlands ITV region.

Newbon only served-up the best as well, Gutteridge and an on-form Jim Watt doing the commentary, and either British and Commonwealth title fights with local prospects or big shows from right around the world. Jim and Reg popped-up nearly everywhere and one week you got Matthew Hilton and then the next you got Wally Swift slugging it out for the British title.

I can recall seeing guys like Jorge Paez, Bobby Czyz, Donnie Lalonde and Brian Mitchell. It was kind of a VIP global boxing subscription service purely for the benefit of a few night owls in the Midlands. Incredible...god only knows how Newbon got away with it!

We certainly got the the first Czyz v Prince Charles Williams title fight, a major war on a par with the Andries-Harding battles, and I think the second as well. Two absolute crunchers and Reg was at his best as well.

[Counter-puncher]

Gary Newbon being the boss man in charge of the Sports Department at Central Television was a bit of a golden period.....Gary loved his boxing and for a while there seemed to be 'a-fight-a-week' if you were lucky enough to be a young fan who lived in the the Midlands ITV region.

Newbon only served-up the best as well, Gutteridge and an on-form Jim Watt doing the commentary, and either British and Commonwealth title fights with local prospects or big shows from right around the world. Jim and Reg popped-up nearly everywhere and one week you got Matthew Hilton and then the next you got Wally Swift slugging it out for the British title.

I can recall seeing guys like Jorge Paez, Bobby Czyz, Donnie Lalonde and Brian Mitchell. It was kind of a VIP global boxing subscription service purely for the benefit of a few night owls in the Midlands. Incredible...god only knows how Newbon got away with it!

We certainly got the the first Czyz v Prince Charles Williams title fight, a major war on a par with the Andries-Harding battles, and I think the second as well. Two absolute crunchers and Reg was at his best as well.

Great post and a reminder of happy days. Loved how whoever picked / bought the fights used to get certain favourites like chitalada or arbachakov, whom we would never have seen otherwise. Reg loved him some chitalada

[Counter-puncher]

Talking of PCW classics we got both of his fights with merqui sosa, too.

[SamWise72]

I wouldn't be surprised if the debuts of the 84 Olympians eventually shows up from Mimmy's Boxing Archive. I'd like to see it.

[misterpunch]

I remember bugners loss to larry middleton being shown - LM looked very good that night

Ralph Charles was on more than once. the ABA's were always shown - semi finals as well: billy knight, dave waller, minter all around about 1971.

my personal favourite - johnny clark of walworth - a guy woefully forgotten these days

[Bodyshot3]

@Conterpuncher.....agreed mate, they were great times on Central!

I think the 'Reg and Jim show' was often at its best when they got plonked in the middle of literally nowhere - thousands of miles away from the bright lights of Vegas - and had the trickier task of bringing a fight and a champion we'd never heard off in the UK to life. Gutteridge always found an angle to make it interesting and to be fair to them they picked some good fights that were well of most people's radars.

Thinking back...I am fairly sure we got a couple of early Fenech fights before the Marrickville Mauler was a superstar and they did some of the 'mad and bad Hilton Clan' fights as well. Gutteridge, typically, made the Hiltons relevant to a home audience by reminding us that they were basically Scots and picking out their father in the audience. Clever!

Domestic wise I can recall them doing Gary Jacobs v George Collins....a big domestic Welterweight dust-up which received a great deal of attention as Collins was on a long undefeated run and fancied to be a bit special. Gutteridge did like his Jewish fighters as well....probably because he'd seen a few of the great East End 'kids' in his time...and I always thought he loved Jacobs and wanted to see another British Jewish fight get to the top for old time's sake. Jacobs was good value for money as well.

[Roco]

Gary Newbon being the boss man in charge of the Sports Department at Central Television was a bit of a golden period.....Gary loved his boxing and for a while there seemed to be 'a-fight-a-week' if you were lucky enough to be a young fan who lived in the the Midlands ITV region.

Newbon only served-up the best as well, Gutteridge and an on-form Jim Watt doing the commentary, and either British and Commonwealth title fights with local prospects or big shows from right around the world. Jim and Reg popped-up nearly everywhere and one week you got Matthew Hilton and then the next you got Wally Swift slugging it out for the British title.

I can recall seeing guys like Jorge Paez, Bobby Czyz, Donnie Lalonde and Brian Mitchell. It was kind of a VIP global boxing subscription service purely for the benefit of a few night owls in the Midlands. Incredible...god only knows how Newbon got away with it!

We certainly got the the first Czyz v Prince Charles Williams title fight, a major war on a par with the Andries-Harding battles, and I think the second as well. Two absolute crunchers and Reg was at his best as well.

Were they dubbed commentary?

I recall from reg's book him mentioning someone having to ring the bell in the studio to make it look like they were actually there

[Caractacus]

This is a good site for revealing what the BBC broadcast. Quite interesting searching the site. Lots of Stracey fights feature.

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/

I noticed in it that it reads that the BBC One Radio did not start up until April.20.1964.
If my math is correct that is a approx. a year after
the first Cassius Clay vrs Henry Cooper bout(June 1963 at Wembley stadium).

So who here said they had heard that bout on live radio?
and if so,which radio station had broadcast it then?

I thought Radio One came into being in 1967. Whichever it was, it was a renaming exercise. Home Service, Light Entertainment etc became Radio One, Radio Two etc

Something like that

You probably right,I meant to say it was the BBC ONE Television station that debut in 1964.

[Datsue]

RE: 80s Reg & Jim, I've got a compilation somewhere of Far Eastern fights with their commentary, Chitalada, Khaosai Galaxy & (I think) a Sun-Kil Moon, I'll have to have a dig...

Also, they covered the Dorsey/Kelley pre-Hoko featherweight era, some of my favourite fights of all time.

[Caractacus]

Man, I didnt realize that the BBC ONE had shown so many of Joe Bugner's fights beginning in 1969.

Bugner vs Jack O'Halloran
Bugner vrs Mac Foster
Bugner vrs Jimmy Ellis
and a number of others.

So have all these video-tapes been "wiped" as well?

[Caractacus]

The BBC One also televised Jack Boddel vrs Jack O'Halloran(27.Feb.1971)too.

[Bodyshot3]

RE: 80s Reg & Jim, I've got a compilation somewhere of Far Eastern fights with their commentary, Chitalada, Khaosai Galaxy & (I think) a Sun-Kil Moon, I'll have to have a dig...

Also, they covered the Dorsey/Kelley pre-Hoko featherweight era, some of my favourite fights of all time.

@Datsue...good if you could find them; proper little treasures.

The Dorsey fights were also excellent....despite Troy's homage to the Chris Waddle mullet.

And if my memory serves me correctly they also cast their eye over the long forgotten Darrin 'The Schoolboy' Van Horn as well. Van Horn was briefly fairly big news....very young, good looking guy like Gary Stretch with the back story that he was trained by Dad. Rather optimistically tipped to be a bit of a crossover, mainstream sports star.

Darrin won a few good ones to be fair to him and seemed to get an IBF title fight whenever he fancied it for a while...but Reg was never that sold. I can remember Van Horn v Hines being good and possibly a properly dull one with the undisputed king of dull; the soporific Gianfranco Rosi.

[palooka]

RE: 80s Reg & Jim, I've got a compilation somewhere of Far Eastern fights with their commentary, Chitalada, Khaosai Galaxy & (I think) a Sun-Kil Moon, I'll have to have a dig...

Also, they covered the Dorsey/Kelley pre-Hoko featherweight era, some of my favourite fights of all time.

they were bouts fought at a formative time for me too and the Thai and Korean fighters were impossibly exotic, I'd read about them in Boxing News and I t was just fantastic when I got to watch them.

My favourite of all though was Chavez v Rosario, I read the preview on the Friday, then the fight report the next Friday and watched the boutmon Saturday - that remains my favourite bout after nearly 30 years.

[palooka]

RE: 80s Reg & Jim, I've got a compilation somewhere of Far Eastern fights with their commentary, Chitalada, Khaosai Galaxy & (I think) a Sun-Kil Moon, I'll have to have a dig...

Also, they covered the Dorsey/Kelley pre-Hoko featherweight era, some of my favourite fights of all time.

@Datsue...good if you could find them; proper little treasures.

The Dorsey fights were also excellent....despite Troy's homage to the Chris Waddle mullet.

And if my memory serves me correctly they also cast their eye over the long forgotten Darrin 'The Schoolboy' Van Horn as well. Van Horn was briefly fairly big news....very young, good looking guy like Gary Stretch with the back story that he was trained by Dad. Rather optimistically tipped to be a bit of a crossover, mainstream sports star.

Darrin won a few good ones to be fair to him and seemed to get an IBF title fight whenever he fancied it for a while...but Reg was never that sold. I can remember Van Horn v Hines being good and possibly a properly dull one with the undisputed king of dull; the soporific Gianfranco Rosi.

Mimmy on British and Irish forum is uploading nearly 200 boxing tapes from that era - some real gems in there, I'd give his thread a gander and if you ask him he may well have the fights; I've been really impressed, he's got some collection.