First Sport Filmed (Boxing) 1894

The first sport to be filmed was boxing, in 1894. One of the very first movies made by Edison was the exhibition boxing match between then-heavyweight champion James J. Corbett and local amateur boxer Peter Courtney. Since that day more films about the sports of boxing have been made than any other sport. It was filmed using Edison's Kinetoscope, which was not a projector, but a device creating the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter meant to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device.

Many videos proclaim the first filmed Sport Boxing contest was between Mike Leonard and Jack Cushing, but that is incorrect. The match was between then-heavyweight champion James J. Corbett and local amateur boxer Peter Courtney.