Film was in its early days when this fight was filmed. In terms of what remains, only a very short snippet remains and to be honest watching it without any context will not tell you anything. You will see two boxers in the middle of a round, with no information on previous rounds. Essentially a fighter in long black trunks (Cushing) is against another fighter (Leonard) who appears to be wearing white Speedos and not much else; Leonard appears to be having the better of the fight but it is hard to say. The action is slowed down a little which makes skills hard to judge but punches seem telegraphed and it is a bit of a scrap – I'm not great fan of boxing but I have seen better fights.
So to just watch it will not tell you much since this small clip was only registered while getting the copyright to the whole fight – they did not need to submit the whole thing. What is really fascinating about the film is the story behind why it was made. This fight was filmed and provided to exhibitors for public showings at the price of $22.50 per round. Very roughly according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this equates to US$530 today – so the whole fight would have cost you $3200 to have the rights to show it to paying customers. Translated into modern prices this is of course nothing compared to the prices now when it comes to selling sporting events, but it is very interesting to see the ability to capture moving images being very clearly focused on making product to sell. There is no suggestion of art or creativity here – this is a sporting event that was filmed and sold as a package to others to sell to individuals. With cable TV and subscription channels, paying to see sport is so normal now that it stands out as much as breathing, but to see the same mechanics back in 1894 is really something to ponder on.
Not really worth looking at this very short film on its own merits but as a piece of history it is interesting as a very early example of pay- per-view sports programming.
