BoxRec

Along with the Norfolk fight, I acquired a tape of a fight between 2 other great Light Heavies of the era, Jimmy Slattery and Paul Berlenbach. So fascinating to watch! This is gonna sound crazy, but Slattery's style is very similar to a young Cassius Clay. He is always up on his toes, hands low and popping out a pesky jab, followed by right crosses. Not a hard puncher, just pesky.

Berlenbach puts on the pressure in this one. Just going by styles this is sort of a poor man's Ali/Frazier(no disrespect meant for either gent.). Good fight, though. Slattery beat such top fighters as Jack Delaney, Maxie Rosenbloom(numerous times) and King Levinsky.

BTW, Harry Greb beat Slattery. The guy just continues to amaze me. Was anyone safe?

Slattery was a good fighter who early on was considered a boy wonder. They expected great things out of him in the East. He was expected to shoot straight to the middleweight or light heavyweight title. This all changed when he lost by KO to welterweight Dave Shade on the undercard of the Greb-Walker fight. It was hoped that Slattery would beat Shade setting up a natural NY attraction between he and Greb. Instead he was knocked out and his stock took a nose dive. Even after the loss his name carried weight meaning that he and Greb had a tentative match planned in New York for later that fall. This was scrapped when he lost back to back KOs to unheralded Frank Carpenter and then to Paul Berlenbach. Greb still showed some interest in fighting Slattery (probably for an easy payday) but Slattery declined, opting instead to take a few months off to heal (I believe he was having eye trouble). His career really went downhill at this point as he was raging alcoholic. Not necessarily in terms of his win/loss ratio but he never really regained the publics acceptance or love. He was one of those guys they were always wary of because if you started to believe in him he could turn around and lose. His later record is actually pretty good but its doesnt reflect the publics apathy toward him or his battles with alcohol, which by the way completely changed his looks. Early on he was a handsome boyish looking fighter, by the late twenties he looked completely different, not necessarily ravaged by age but just different. Its hard to tell he was the same fighter as the pictures of him as a young man.

klompton wrote:Slattery was a good fighter who early on was considered a boy wonder. They expected great things out of him in the East. He was expected to shoot straight to the middleweight or light heavyweight title. This all changed when he lost by KO to welterweight Dave Shade on the undercard of the Greb-Walker fight. It was hoped that Slattery would beat Shade setting up a natural NY attraction between he and Greb. Instead he was knocked out and his stock took a nose dive. Even after the loss his name carried weight meaning that he and Greb had a tentative match planned in New York for later that fall. This was scrapped when he lost back to back KOs to unheralded Frank Carpenter and then to Paul Berlenbach. Greb still showed some interest in fighting Slattery (probably for an easy payday) but Slattery declined, opting instead to take a few months off to heal (I believe he was having eye trouble). His career really went downhill at this point as he was raging alcoholic. Not necessarily in terms of his win/loss ratio but he never really regained the publics acceptance or love. He was one of those guys they were always wary of because if you started to believe in him he could turn around and lose. His later record is actually pretty good but its doesnt reflect the publics apathy toward him or his battles with alcohol, which by the way completely changed his looks. Early on he was a handsome boyish looking fighter, by the late twenties he looked completely different, not necessarily ravaged by age but just different. Its hard to tell he was the same fighter as the pictures of him as a young man.

Thanks for that info. Lots of stuff that I didn't know. Always a pleasure to learn facts like that.

Do you happen to know if he was competitive with Greb at all? Or did Harry completely shut him down?

Nero3000 wrote:Along with the Norfolk fight, I acquired a tape of a fight between 2 other great Light Heavies of the era, Jimmy Slattery and Paul Berlenbach. So fascinating to watch! This is gonna sound crazy, but Slattery's style is very similar to a young Cassius Clay. He is always up on his toes, hands low and popping out a pesky jab, followed by right crosses. Not a hard puncher, just pesky.

Berlenbach puts on the pressure in this one. Just going by styles this is sort of a poor man's Ali/Frazier(no disrespect meant for either gent.). Good fight, though. Slattery beat such top fighters as Jack Delaney, Maxie Rosenbloom(numerous times) and King Levinsky.

BTW, Harry Greb beat Slattery. The guy just continues to amaze me. Was anyone safe?

Is the Slattery vs Berlanbach fight in full?...... I've always been interested in both these guys as they were both very good boxers/fighters and characters as well.... any chance of doing some sort of swap for a copy of the fight?...

silkov wrote:

Nero3000 wrote:Along with the Norfolk fight, I acquired a tape of a fight between 2 other great Light Heavies of the era, Jimmy Slattery and Paul Berlenbach. So fascinating to watch! This is gonna sound crazy, but Slattery's style is very similar to a young Cassius Clay. He is always up on his toes, hands low and popping out a pesky jab, followed by right crosses. Not a hard puncher, just pesky.

Berlenbach puts on the pressure in this one. Just going by styles this is sort of a poor man's Ali/Frazier(no disrespect meant for either gent.). Good fight, though. Slattery beat such top fighters as Jack Delaney, Maxie Rosenbloom(numerous times) and King Levinsky.

BTW, Harry Greb beat Slattery. The guy just continues to amaze me. Was anyone safe?

Is the Slattery vs Berlanbach fight in full?...... I've always been interested in both these guys as they were both very good boxers/fighters and characters as well.... any chance of doing some sort of swap for a copy of the fight?...

Not full, but a pretty nice size chunk of it.

Dang Silkov, I wish I could. But I made a solemn oath not to share this last batch of fight films given to me. I must honor it. The guy who made me take the oath had his reasons and I wasn't going to question him.

I hate to tease everyone with this stuff. I really am a pretty generous guy and would under normal circumstances be happy to share the bounty free of charge. I'm just stuck, y'know? :(

Slattery came out fast in the first two rounds and Greb let him burn himself out. After that Greb took over and swept the final four. Slattery just couldnt keep up with Greb's incredible pace.

Ok I have to know why the hesistation to share? Is it copyrighted stuff? Or is it unreleased film that still has first rights money to be made? I don't think I've heard of any existing film on this fight...is it a recent find or something? I hope someone has at least made a digital safety copy for historical reasons.

BoxBuzz wrote:Ok I have to know why the hesistation to share? Is it copyrighted stuff? Or is it unreleased film that still has first rights money to be made? I don't think I've heard of any existing film on this fight...is it a recent find or something? I hope someone has at least made a digital safety copy for historical reasons.

Good questions. I really don't know. He has his reasons and I don't feel right in questioning those bearing gifts for me.

It may be a recent discovery, I don't know. I didn't know it(and the Norfolk film) existed either.

No problem, if it is unmined gold I can truly understand why your being asked to keep it confidential.

So I take it you could share it with me but then you would have to kill me.

BoxBuzz wrote:No problem, if it is unmined gold I can truly understand why your being asked to keep it confidential.

So I take it you could share it with me but then you would have to kill me.

Or kill myself. A question of honor(I've seen "The Last Samurai" and "Red Sun" too many times I think!). Maybe if I willed it to you and you killed me....