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[1938-11-18-Philadelphia, PA] Bronko Nagurski vs Jim Londos


Loss

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  • 11 months later...

I've long thought of this as the first great match on film and, though I'm not sure if I'd still say that, it is easily my favorite match pre-1950's. It's also the only one feel comfortable giving a rating to as it's near-complete and in good quality. The main thing I remembered before this rewatch were those vicious forearm shots thrown by both guys in the lock-ups, but what struck me as well this was the intensity with which they locked up even before they started throwing those shots. It really makes the match stand out right from the beginning after seeing most guys look loose and relaxed in other matches, and it sets the tone for this as a tense match where every move feels meaningful. Even things that feel entirely mundane today, such as someone trying to block a snapmare or doing headbutts to a guy in the corner feel like a huge deal in here. Since it's a Nagurski match, we also get some sweet looking tackles towards the finish with Londos take some hard bumps for them. He manages to come back by capitalizing off an arm injury to Nagurski and win with a body slam to cap this off. ****1/2

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  • 9 months later...
  • 4 months later...
  • paul sosnowski changed the title to [1938-11-18-Philadelphia] Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion Bronko Nagurski vs Jim Londos
  • GSR changed the title to [1938-11-18-Philadelphia, PA] Bronko Nagurski vs Jim Londos
  • 3 months later...

This was a surprisingly good match. Being 80 years old, I expected this to be a slower worked match with not much here for modern eyes, but there's some good stuff to found. The grappling and hold trading had a lot of intensity. The pace is quick and both guys look like they are technically solid. Nagurski throwing out the big football tackles looked good and made sense given his background. 

★★★½

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