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MAYWEATHER, LIKE SUPERMAN, NEEDS A LITTLE KRYPTONITE TO MAINTAIN INTEREST
NEW YORK — Maybe it really happened, maybe it didn’t. But, the oft-recited and perhaps apocryphal story goes, Muhammad Ali was seated on a jet airliner when, just before takeoff, a female flight attendant reminded him to fasten his seat belt.
“Superman don’t need no seat belt,” Ali replied.
“Superman don’t need no airplane either,” the quick-thinking flight attendant retorted.
Like Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and a precious few other gods of boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who was here at the Marriott Marquis on Monday to kick off a five-city, four-day press tour to hype his Sept. 13 rematch with Argentina’s Marcos Maidana, is so exceptionally gifted that it sometimes might appear that he arrived from another planet for the express purpose of dazzling mere earthlings. Ali and the original Sugar Ray knew — or at least found out when their aura of invincibility was finally threatened — what the creators of Superman did when they began to run out of story ideas for a character that could fly at incredible speeds, had unimaginable strength and was impervious to any sort of physical pain.
Whether it’s in comic books or inside a roped-off swath of canvas, there has to be conflict and a reasonable amount of danger faced by the protagonist to maintain interest from a public constantly expecting fresh thrills. Thus did writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, who in tandem conceived Superman in the 1930s, decide that he needed to occasionally deal with strength-sapping kryptonite and an expanding cast of super-villains that included, among others, General Zod, Kryptonite Man, Metallo, Mister Mxyzptik, Ultra-Humanite and Ultraman. There was even an issue of DC Comics in which Superman tangled with, yep, Muhammad Ali.
It remains to be seen whether the 30-year-old Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs), can match or even exceed his performance against Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs) of May 3, when the “Money” man was obliged to settle for a more-difficult-than-expected 12-round majority decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where he again will take on the Argentine brawler. It marks the 10th straight bout for the Grand Rapids, Mich., native to fight in his adopted hometown and at his preferred venue.
To hear Mayweather, who will defend his WBC, WBA and THE RING welterweight championships, what Maidana did that night as a 10-to-1 underdog was an illusion, a juxtaposition of dirty tactics allowed by the referee (Tony Weeks) and the inflated expectations of those who see anything other than absolute domination on Mayweather’s part as some sort of failure. And Mayweather is correct, in one sense. The higher you continually set the bar, the more difficult it is for even the most exceptional of flesh-and-blood human beings to clear it with the ease of Superman leaping over a tall building in a single bound.
So, has Floyd Mayweather Jr., at 37, become too good for his own good? Has he reached the point where mere victories on his part no longer are considered satisfactory by fight fans paying top dollar for seats in the arena or pay-per-view subscriptions?
“The perception out there is that Floyd’s been the best,” said Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “He didn’t just become the best; he’s been the best. Any kind of success anyone has against him, people tend to gravitate toward that.”
Mayweather, looking relaxed and very fit in a black T-shirt set off by shiny, expensive jewelry, agreed that he is frequently held to a higher standard than other fighters, thus the somewhat perplexing scorecard 114-114 scorecard submitted by judge Michael Pernick, whose colleagues, Burt Clements and Dave Moretti, had him defeating Maidana by comfortable margins of 117-111 and 116-112, respectively. It wasn’t the first time, he believes, that he’s been given less than his due. In the bout prior to his matchup with Maidana, when he stepped up in weight to challenge WBC and WBC super welterweight champ Canelo Alvarez, Craig Metcalfe and Moretti had him cruising by respective scores of 117-111 and 116-112 while the third judge, C.J. Ross, like Pernick, accorded him only a 114-114 standoff.
“I think we need to get some young judges,” said Mayweather, still amazed that he has had to come away with back-to-back majority decisions in fights he is convinced he clearly won and with no hint of controversy. “I think it’s just about being fair. As a fighter, Maidana know – he know – he didn’t win that fight. Even with (Jose Luis) Castillo in that first fight, if I felt like I lost, I would have said, `Yeah, I lost.’ Because I’m fair. But I know I beat him. I know it for a fact.”
It is notable that the rematch with Maidana marks only the second time Mayweather, who generally abhors the notion of do-overs, has grudgingly consented to swap punches with a previous victim. There are those – quite a few, actually – who are of the belief that the then-27-year-old Mayweather was the beneficiary of a gift decision as a challenger against WBC lightweight titlist Castillo on April 20, 2002. Castillo, outboxed in the early rounds, was to a degree able to bully Mayweather down the stretch. Mayweather, however, won a unanimous decision with scores of 116-111 and 115-111 (twice), which ran counter to the unofficial tabulations of HBO’s Harold Lederman and Larry Merchant, both of whom had Castillo retaining his championship.
Maidana, looking very much like a mild-mannered and bespectacled Clark Kent during his session with the media, said he and his team studied the tape of Mayweather-Castillo I at length and incorporated some of what they saw into their game plan against Floyd.
“We did look at and analyze that fight,” Maidana said. “It was a very close fight. We tried to implement a lot of the same things that Castillo did. But Mayweather is a great fighter. He has great defense and he’s not very easy to hit.”
And his repeat shot at the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter?
“I think our plan of attack (the last time) was great,” he said. “I just got to add to it.” Added Robert Garcia, Maidana’s trainer: “(Marcos) thought—I thought – that Mayweather was going to be something different, something special. He isn’t, not really.”
Mayweather, who maintains that he never watches tape of upcoming opponents because he can adapt to anything he might encounter on the fly, gives the impression that any tinkering by Maidana is certain to end in disappointment. The guy he’s fighting always has to adjust to him, not the other way around. Hasn’t Maidana ever read a Superman comic book? The flying man from Krypton always prevails, as does the man from Grand Rapids with the fancy footwork and rapid-fire hands.
“Maidana’s a tough competitor, but I’m really not worried about nothing,” Mayweather said. “I don’t worry about no fighter. They’re all the same to me.”
So, is there anything that Maidana did or does well, that might prove nettlesome this time around?
“Fight dirty,” said Mayweather, who figured that Maidana won three rounds, tops, the first time around. “Is he a better fighter than Canelo? No. Is he a better fighter than (Miguel) Cotto? No. Is he a dirtier fighter? Yes. That’s safe to say. That’s the only thing that sets him apart. He wants to hold with one hand, he wants to elbow. I didn’t get a deep gash from a punch, I got a deep gash from a head-butt. Low blows all night. Twenty of them, at least. We can go on and on.”
But Mayweather, who will be fighting for the fourth time as part of a six-bout pay-per-view deal with CBS/Showtime that will yield him upwards of $200 million, is enough of a businessman to understand that having a close call against Maidana, or what passes for a close call, is apt to produce higher gross revenues for the rematch. That’s enough reason for him to consent to a Part II, which has unimaginatively been dubbed “Mayhem,” as did Stephen Espinoza, Showtime’s executive vice president and general manager of sports and event programming.
It has not gone unnoticed that Showtime did not release the number of PPV buys for Mayweather-Maidana I, which some contend is proof that Mayweather, whose fights have produced a record $700 million-plus in PPV sales, is losing some clout as his sport’s foremost can’t-miss attraction. That could owe to generally soft sales for all PPV bouts in a saturated market, and it might owe, at least in part, to the growing feeling that Mayweather is blowing through a procession of no-chance opponents who might as well be shooting rubber bullets at the Man of Steel. Some have pegged the PPV buy rate for Mayweather-Maidana I at 850,000, which falls below the threshold of a million buys believed in some quarters to be the break-even point for any PPV fight involving Mayweather in his current deal, which guarantees him a minimum of $32 million per outing.
“Those numbers (for Mayweather-Maidana I) have not been released,” Espinoza acknowledged. “There’s a very small circle of people that know what the numbers are. But the May 3 fight was the most exciting and entertaining bout of Mayweather’s career, certainly the toughest of his career. Yet, in the aftermath, all people wanted to talk about was pay-per-view buys. I think it’s negative for the event, negative for the sport, negative for our company, when people draw conclusions that aren’t merited and thus spread misinformation.
“There’s only one fighter in history that’s done over two million PPVs twice, and that’s documented. (Mayweather did 2.5 million buys for his fight with Oscar De La Hoya, and 2.2 million for his fight with Alvarez.) There’s no question Floyd is the No. 1 pay-per-view star, regardless of whether we released numbers for Mayweather-Maidana 1 or not. There’s no question he does bigger gates, he does more buys and he generates more attention than any other boxer in the sport.”
And Espinoza’s prediction for Part II?
“I’m expecting it to pick up right where it left off,” he said. “What we have typically seen in the past is Mayweather cruising in the later rounds, when he establishes dominance and kicks into rhythm. That wasn’t the case in the last fight. Some people felt that Mayweather won comfortably. Others thought it was a slimmer margin. Probably a minority felt that Maidana won. From a business standpoint, it is a major advantage to have a thrilling, very competitive fight to sell as a rematch. We’ve made no secret of the fact it is a challenge to market some of these events because, given Floyd’s history, there is a presumption he’s going to dominate anyone who’s in the ring with him.”
The one fighter who continues to offer the most intriguing option is, of course, Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao. But Pacquiao is aligned with Top Rank founder Bob Arum, whom Mayweather despises, and with HBO, twin obstacles that have proved insurmountable in the past and might continue to be too much to overcome. Should Mayweather get past Maidana again, and easily, that leaves a comparatively skimpy menu of entrée items that might include Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Kell Brook and Lucas Matthysse. All would be significant underdogs against a Mayweather that is even a reasonably close approximation of his familiar Superman persona.
Mayweather, who more and more is dropping hints that he is tiring of the demands placed upon him, is certain of only two things until he hangs up his gloves for keeps. One is that he remains the closest thing to a sure thing we have seen in boxing in some time. If he fulfills these last three bouts of his contract and remains undefeated, he’d be 49-0, and likely to be satisfied with that. He professes to have little interest in taking an additional fight, to go to 50-0 and surpass the record of the late, great heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano.
“I never seen Marciano fight,” Mayweather said. “I seen some highlights. But this is the Mayweather era. All I can do is focus on the guy in front of me. Marciano had his time. Right now it’s my time. If my career was over today, I’d be happy with what I’ve accomplished. My job is not to go out there and break records. If it happens, it happens. If it don’t, it don’t.”
And that other certainty?
“You done seen this a thousand times,” he said. “`This guy is going to beat Floyd, he’s a young, hungry lion. He’s got power.’ But he’s not going to win, no matter who he is or who his trainer is. Each fight is the same result, and the same excuses. There’s so many excuses that they use. When I fought (Juan Manuel) Marquez, he was over the hill, washed up. Then he comes back to knock out Pacquiao and he’s pound-for-pound one of the best. They said I fought Cotto at a bad time for him. Now he’s the middleweight champ.
“I say this: Line ’em up like bowling pins so I can continue to knock ’em down.”
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 295: Callum Walsh, Pechanga Casino Fights and More
Super welterweight contender Callum Walsh worked out for reporters and videographers at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif. on Thursday,
The native of Ireland Walsh (11-0, 9 KOs) has a fight date against Poland’s Przemyslaw Runowski (22-2-1, 6 KOs) on Friday, Sept. 20 at the city of Dublin. It’s a homecoming for the undefeated southpaw from Cork. UFC Fight Pass will stream the 360 Promotions card.
Mark down the date.
Walsh is the latest prodigy of promoter Tom Loeffler who has a history of developing European boxers in America and propelling them forward on the global boxing scene. Think Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin and you know what I mean.
Golovkin was a middleweight monster for years.
From Kevin Kelley to Oba Carr to Vitaly Klitschko to Serhii Bohachuk and many more in-between, the trail of elite boxers promoted by Loeffler continues to grow. Will Walsh be the newest success?
Add to the mix Dana White, the maestro of UFC, who is also involved with Walsh and you get a clearer picture of what the Irish lad brings to the table.
Walsh has speed, power and a glint of meanness that champions need to navigate the prizefighting world. He also has one of the best trainers in the world in Freddie Roach who needs no further introduction.
Perhaps the final measure of Walsh will be when he’s been tested with the most important challenge of all:
Can he take a punch from a big hitter?
That’s the final challenge
It always comes down to the chin. It’s what separates the Golovkins from the rest of the pack. At the top of the food chain they all can hit, have incredible speed and skill, but the fighters with the rock hard chins are those that prevail.
So far, the chin test is the only examination remaining for Walsh.
“King’ Callum Walsh is ready for his Irish homecoming and promises some fireworks for the Irish fans. This will be an entertaining show for the fans and we are excited to bring world class boxing back to the 3Arena in Dublin,” said Loeffler.
Pechanga Fights
MarvNation Promotions presents a battle between welterweight contenders Jose “Chon” Zepeda (37-5, 28 KOs) and Ivan Redkach (24-7-1, 19 KOs) on Friday, Sept. 6, at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula. DAZN will stream the fight card.
Both have fought many of the best welterweights in the world and now face each other. It should be an interesting clash between the veterans.
Also on the card, featherweights Nathan Rodriguez (15-0) and Bryan Mercado (11-5-1) meet in an eight-round fight.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. First bout at 7 p.m.
Monster Inoue
Once again Japan’s Naoya Inoue dispatched another super bantamweight contender with ease as TJ Doheny was unable to continue in the seventh round after battered by a combination on Tuesday in Tokyo.
Inoue continues to brush away whoever is placed in front of him like a glint of dust.
Is the “Monster” the best fighter pound-for-pound on the planet or is it Terence Crawford? Both are dynamic punchers with skill, speed, power and great chins.
Munguia in Big Bear
Super middleweight contender Jaime Munguia is two weeks away from his match with Erik Bazinyan at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. ESPN will show the Top Rank card.
“Erik Bazinyan is a good fighter. He’s undefeated. He switches stances. We need to be careful with that. He’s taller and has a longer reach than me. He has a good jab. He can punch well on the inside. He’s a fighter who comes with all the desire to excel,” said Munguia.
Bazinyan has victories over Ronald Ellis and Alantez Fox.
In case you didn’t know, Munguia moved over to Top Rank but still has ties with Golden Boy Promotions and Zanfer Promotions. Bazinyan is promoted by Eye of the Tiger.
This is the Tijuana fighter’s first match with Top Rank since losing to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last May in Las Vegas. He is back with trainer Erik Morales.
Callum Walsh photo credit: Lina Baker
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60 Years Ago This Month, the Curtain Fell on the Golden Era of TV Boxing
The Sept. 11, 1964 fight between Dick Tiger and Don Fullmer marked the end of an era. The bout aired on ABC which had taken the reins from NBC four years earlier. This would be the final episode of the series informally known as the “Friday Night Fights” or the “Fight of the Week,” closing the door on a 20-year run. In the future, boxing on free home TV (non-cable) would be sporadic, airing mostly on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The days when boxing was a weekly staple on at least one major TV network were gone forever.
During the NBC years, the show ran on Friday in the 10:00-11-00 pm slot for viewers in the Eastern Time Zone and the “studio” was almost always Madison Square Garden. The sponsor from the very beginning was the Gillette razor company (during the ABC run, El Producto Cigars came on as a co-sponsor).
Gillette sponsored many sporting events – the Kentucky Derby, the World Series, the U.S. Open golf tournament and the Blue-Gray college football all-star game, to name just a few – all of which were bundled under the handle of the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. Every sports fan in America could identify the catchphrase that the company used to promote their disposable “Blue Blades” – “Look Sharp, Feel Sharp, Be Sharp!” — and the melody of the Gillette jingle would become the most-played tune by marching bands at high school and college football halftime shows (the precursor, one might say, of the Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie”).
The Sept. 11 curtain-closer wasn’t staged at Madison Square Garden but in Cleveland with the local area blacked out.
Dick Tiger, born and raised in Nigeria, was making his second start since losing his world middleweight title on a 15-round points decision to Joey Giardello. Don Fullmer would be attempting to restore the family honor. Dick Tiger was 2-0-1 vs. Gene Fullmer, Don’s more celebrated brother. Their third encounter, which proved to be Gene Fullmer’s final fight, was historic. It was staged in Ibadan, Nigeria, the first world title fight ever potted on the continent of Africa.
In New York, the epitaph of free TV boxing was written three weeks earlier when veteran Henry Hank fought up-and-comer Johnny Persol to a draw in a 10-round light heavyweight contest at the Garden. This was the final Gillette fight from the place where it all started.
Some historians trace the advent of TV boxing in the United States to Sept. 29, 1944, when a 20-year-old boxer from Connecticut, Willie Pep, followed his manager’s game plan to perfection, sticking and moving for 15 rounds to become the youngest featherweight champion in history, winning the New York version of the title from West Coast veteran Albert “Chalky” Wright.
There weren’t many TVs in use in those days. As had been true when the telephone was brand new, most were found in hospitals, commercial establishments, and in the homes of the very wealthy. But within a few years, with mass production and tumbling prices, the gizmo became a living room staple and the TV repairman, who made house calls like the family doctor, had a shop on every Main Street.
Boxing was ideally suited to the infant medium of television because the action was confined to a small area that required no refurbishment other than brighter illumination, keeping production costs low. The one-minute interval between rounds served as a natural commercial break. The main drawback was that a fight could end early, meaning fewer commercials for the sponsor who paid a flat rate.
At its zenith, boxing in some locales aired five nights a week. And it came to be generally seen that this oversaturation killed the golden goose. One by one, the small fight clubs dried up as fight fans stayed home to watch the fights on TV. In the big arenas, attendance fell off drastically. Note the difference between Pep vs. Wright, the 1944 originator, and Hank vs. Persol, also at Madison Square Garden:
Willie Pep vs. Chalky Wright Sept. 29, 1944 attendance 19,521
Henry Hank vs. Johnny Persol Aug. 21, 1964 attendance 5,219
(True, Pep vs. Wright was a far more alluring fight, but this fact alone doesn’t explain the wide gap. Published attendance counts aren’t always trustworthy. In the eyes of the UPI reporter who covered the Hank-Persol match, the crowd looked smaller. He estimated the attendance at 3,000.)
Hank vs. Persol was an entertaining bout between evenly-matched combatants. The Tiger-Fullmer bout, which played out before a sea of empty seats, was a snoozer. Don Fullmer, a late sub for Rocky Rivero who got homesick and returned to Argentina, was there just for the paycheck. A Pittsburgh reporter wrote that the match was as dull as a race between two turtles. Scoring off the “5-point-must” system, the judges awarded the match to Dick Tiger by margins of 6, 6, and 7 points.
And that was that. Some of the most sensational fights in the annals of boxing aired free on a major TV network, but the last big bang of the golden era was hardly a bang, merely a whimper.
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A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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The photo accompanying this article is from the 1962 fight at Madison Square Garden between Dick Tiger (on the right) and Henry Hank. To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
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Boxing Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser
Boxing Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser
Adam Pollack has written eleven books about boxing’s early gloved champions including a three-volume study of Jack Dempsey. Volume Three of the Dempsey trilogy (which covers The Manassa Mauler’s ring career subsequent to Dempsey-Firpo) has just been published by Win by KO Publications.
Pollack (a former prosecutor and now a practicing criminal defense attorney in Iowa) is also an accomplished boxing referee. That leads to the question: “Would he have handled matters differently had he been the third man in the ring for Demsey vs. Luis Firpo and Dempsey’s “long count” rematch against Gene Tunney?”
“Unless you’re actually in the moment,” Pollack answers, “it’s hard to know how you’d handle situations like that. And I prefer to let readers decide things on their own. I just lay out the evidence and let readers make their own judgments.”
But when pressed, Pollack offers some thoughts.
The referee for Dempsey-Firpo was Johnny Gallagher. Firpo was knocked down seven times in round one while dropping Dempsey on flash knockdowns twice. Then he knocked Dempsey through the ropes into the press secton with a hellacious righthand before being knocked out himself in the second round.
“The neutral corner rule was in existence at the time of Dempsey-Firpo,” Pollack recounts. “But it was rarely enforced at that time. There was a fair amount of criticism of Gallagher for not enforcing the rule to the extent that he allowed Dempsey to hit Firpo as soon as Firpo’s glove left the canvas rather than making Dempsey wait until Firpo was in an on-guard standing position and ready to defend himself. In fact, that criticism led directly to the rule being highlighted in the referees’ instructions before both Dempsey-Tunney fights. If I’d been the referee for Dempsey-Firpo, using the accepted 1923 standard, I would have made Dempsey take a few steps back after each knockdown and not allowed him to approach until Firpo was totally upright. But I would not have required him to go to a neutral corner.”
“As for Dempsey being knocked through the ropes,” Pollack continues, “back then, a fighter who was knocked out of the ring had ten seconds to get back in, not twenty seconds the way it is today. The consensus is that Dempsey beat the ten-count and didn’t get any help from the writers. Just because someone is pushing you off of them doesn’t mean they’re helping you.”
As for the long-count controversy in Tunney-Dempsey II, Pollack states, “There’s an argument that Dave Barry [the referee] should have picked up the count at four and not started at ‘one’ when Dempsey finally went to the far neutral corner. But Barry was within his rights to handle the situation the way he did. I could go either way on it. And people forget that Dempsey didn’t stay in the neutral corner. He was practically halfway across the ring, coming in for the kill at the count of nine, and Barry ignored it.”
Does Pollack think that Tunney would have beaten the count if he’d had only ten seconds to work with rather than fourteen?
“It’s speculation,” Adam answers. “Looking at the films, I think Tunney could have gotten up within the first ten seconds. But he probably would have been a bit dazed and more vulnerable to Dempsey’s punches.”
“Boxing is becoming a niche sport,” Pollack adds in closing. “So you have fewer and fewer people writing about boxing history today. But I love the research. I love the learning. There are always surprises. The surprises are part of the fun for me. And I love taking readers back in time so they can relive the eras I’m writing about. I put a lot of time and effort into these books. I know there are people who appreciate them, and that’s very gratifying to me. I’m not the one to judge, but I think my books will stand the test of time.”
Yes, they will.
***
SOME WORDS OF WISDOM FROM TRAINERS
Teddy Atlas: “Boxing has its share of beautiful stories. But it has sad ones too.”
Charlie Goldman: “I always say to my guys, ‘Don’t tell ’em. Show ’em.'”
Willie Ketchum (who trained world champions Jimmy Carter, Antonio Cervantes, Lou Salica, Davey Moore, and Lew Jenkins): “They always quit at the wrong time. When it’s too late, they see the light.”
Donald Turner: “There’s a lot of bad people in boxing. And those people should know what kind of person I am. I live an honorable life. When I’m wrong, I admit it and apologize for what I did. But I’ll get in your face if I think you’re wrong. And I’ll come at you with a baseball bat if you try to take what’s mine.”
And then there’s the standard reply that Hall of Fame trainer Ray Arcel gave whenever he was asked about boxing’s many ills: “It was ever thus.”
***
On August 24, a faded, stained, gray flannel shirt sold at auction at Heritage for $24,120,000.
Before you check your closet to see if you have any faded, stained, gray flannel shirts, keep in mind that we’re talking about the jersey Babe Ruth is believed to have worn when he hit his famed “called shot” home run off Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root in the 1932 World Series.
I say “believed” because the jersey has been examined by several respected photomatching authenticators. One of them – Resolution Photomatching – examined the jersey on three separate occasions and each time declined to confirm a match. When Resolution Photomatching went public with its reservations, Chris Ivy (director of sports auctions for Heritage) declared it “unfortunate that a company like Resolution would want to come out and say something like that.”
In recent years, game-worn attire has become increasingly popular among collectors. In 2022, Sotheby’s sold the jersey that Michael Jordan wore in Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Championship Finals for $10.1 million. That same year, the jersey Diego Maradona wore when he scored his “Hand of God” goal in the 1986 World Cup brought in $9.3 million.
The Babe Ruth jersey in question was sold at auction in 1999 at a time when it was described simply as a game-worn Babe Ruth road uniform. The price was $284,000. Six years later – with the “called shot” designation added to the description – it sold at auction for $940,000. Now the same jersey has sold for twenty-five times its 2005 price.
How do boxing trunks and robes stand up against these numbers?
Far behind.
Craig Hamilton is the foremost boxing memorabilia dealer in the United States. Asked about robes and trunks. Hamilton says that the most valuable piece of fight-worn memorabilia known to exist is the robe that Muhammad Ali wore when he reclaimed the heavyweight throne from George Foreman in Zaire. It sold at auction for $157,000 in 1997 and, in Hamilton’s view, would bring several million dollars today.
“You have to remember;” Hamilton adds, “in 1997, sports memorabilia sales were fueled by collectors. Now the market is driven by investors. They might be fans too. But no matter how much they spend, the biggest spenders have their eye on the longterm bottom line.”
And by the way; Babe Ruth loved boxing. He was a regular at ringside for big fights. There are numerous photos of Ruth in boxing poses (sometimes with his hands gloved) and also photos of Ruth with Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis. When the Boxing Writers Association of America (then known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York) held its first annual dinner at the Hotel Astor on April 26, 1926, The Babe was there.
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1
In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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