Boxing in the Pages of Sports illustrated: A Short History

Published

1 year ago

January 22, 2024

Boxing in the Pages of Sports illustrated: A Short History

Last week, Sports Illustrated laid off virtually its entire staff. This would seem to presage the end of the print edition, and, if so, it comes as no great surprise. It had become apparent that the storied publication was hanging on by a thread.

Sports Illustrated (henceforth S.I.) debuted with the issue dated Aug. 16, 1954. Eddie Matthews, the slugging third baseman of the Milwaukee Braves, was on the cover. The following year, in September, Rocky Marciano had the distinction of being the first prizefighter to appear on the cover. A few days after the issue hit the newsstands, Marciano defended his heavyweight title with a ninth-round stoppage of Archie Moore in what would prove to be Rocky’s farewell fight.

Boxing was big in those days, as evident by the fact that Marciano’s successor, Floyd Patterson, made four appearances on the S.I. cover. Moreover, it speaks reams that two of Patterson’s would-be conqueror’s, Tom McNeeley and Roy “Cut and Shoot” Harris, were also the subjects of an S.I. cover story. Neither had a snowball’s chance against Patterson, but putting their faces on the cover of S.I. legitimated them in the eyes of casual fans.

Ingemar Johansson, a one-trick pony of sorts, was featured on the cover after upsetting Patterson in 1959 in the first of their three meetings. More than that, S.I. named him the Sportsman of the Year.

There was a back story. S.I. had been running a series of stories detailing mob involvement and corruption in the sweet science and was pushing for the establishment of an international body to regulate the sport. What better person to lead the charge than the reigning heavyweight champion?

“The purpose of this organization must be to restore public confidence in boxing, which has been badly hurt by scandals and to protect the fighters, who have been too often manipulated by powerful promoters and unscrupulous managers,” Ingemar was quoted as saying.

In the ensuing six-plus decades, only two other boxers, Muhammad Ali (1974) and Sugar Ray Leonard (1981), would be named the S.I. Sportsman of the Year.

Ali made his first appearance on the S.I. cover as Cassius Clay in 1963. He and basketball star Michael Jordan would wage a battle for the most S.I. covers, distancing the field like Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, with Jordan eventually inching ahead.

Ali appeared with Joe Frazier on the cover on the 25^th anniversary of their first conflagration, the Fight of the Century. He made his 39^th appearance on Sept. 1, 2015, when S.I. re-named its Legacy Award the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award and appeared again the following year in a special souvenir edition following his death.

Ali’s first cover (June 10, 1963) and Mike Tyson’s first cover (Jan. 6, 1986) are two of the most prized by collectors. Newsstand copies (no mailing label) in pristine condition have fetched low five-figure sums at auctions.

Tyson, then sporting the nickname Kid Dynamite, was only 19 years old and had been a pro for only nine months when he made his S.I. debut. In terms of public recognition, no boxer was ever such a comet coming out of the amateur ranks.

—

Although S.I. doubled its circulation and tripled its advertising revenue within five years of its inception, it reportedly did not become profitable until 1964. When it turned the corner, however, it was full speed ahead. By 1970, S.I. ranked fourth in circulation among weekly publications, trailing only TV Guide, Time, and Newsweek. By the end of the century, base circulation topped three million. It would be written that S.I. was read by 19 percent of the adult males in the United States.

On Jan. 20, 1984, a swimsuit model, one Babette March, graced the cover. This would be considered the birth of the S.I. swimsuit era, an annual tradition that evolved into a franchise, spawning calendars, DVDs, pageants, and whatnot.

The sport that got the biggest play in this issue was boxing as it featured the second installment of Jack “Doc” Kearns’ memoir, an 8-page excerpt from his forthcoming autobiography (written with Oscar Fraley).

The previous week, S.I. had caused a furor by publishing Kearns’ “confession” that he had loaded Jack Dempsey’s gloves with plaster of Paris before his match with Jess Willard. (Dempsey sued for libel. His attorney won an out-of-court settlement. The legal proceedings delayed the publication of the memoir and when the book was finally released, the offending portion was deleted. By then the wily Kearns, a central character in the Golden Era of Sports, was long dead.)

Christie Martin appeared on the cover of S.I. in 1996 in the April 15 edition, a watershed moment in the history of female boxing. As for the oddest boxer to make the cover, the honor goes to Gypsy Joe Harris, a colorful character from the mean streets of North Philadelphia whose career was cut short when it was discovered that he was blind in one eye. Although Harris owned a win over welterweight title-holder Curtis Cokes in a non-title fight, he wasn’t even ranked when his face appeared on the S.I. cover in June of 1967.

The Gypsy Joe story was by Mark Kram and one surmises it made the cover simply because Kram’s writing was too good to let the story be buried in the table of contents. Over the years, S.I. employed some of the best boxing writers on the planet including none other than the great Budd Schulberg who edited the publication’s early boxing pieces. The list of outstanding wordsmiths is long with special citations going to Kram and to Pat Putnam, the longest tenured of the boxing writers.

“Watching the magazine deteriorate,” wrote Matthew Rees, “has had the feel of witnessing the decline of a once-iconic athlete.”

As the swimsuits became skimpier, so did the magazine as a whole, gutted by the loss of advertising revenue. True, no one bought the magazine for the ads, but they made the magazine heftier which made the price of it seem like a squarer deal. What happened at S.I. happened at other mass circulation news magazines, dinosaurs in a digital age when we can summon up a wealth of information on the smartphone we carry in the pocket of our pants. Perhaps a third of S.I.’s readers got their copy at a newsstand, perhaps an impulsive purchase dictated by who happened to be on the cover and nowadays, in many communities, the only good newsstands are found at an airport and even they are inferior to the better newsstands of yesteryear that catered to a larger demographic by offering a wider range of publications.

In its glory days and beyond, Sports Illustrated was the gold standard of sports journalism. We miss those days. Thanks for the memories.

—

Arne K. Lang is a recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling. His latest book, titled Clash of the Little Giants: George Dixon, Terry McGovern, and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910, was released by McFarland in September, 2022.

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Published

2 days ago

May 6, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Arne's-Almanac-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-(mostly)-Ugly-A-Weeend-Boxing-Recap-and-More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.

In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.

Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.

CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.

****

Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.

Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”

And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.

Joey Archer

Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer

Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.

Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)

Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.

Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.

In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.

When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.

Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.

May he rest in peace.

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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

4 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

Published

4 days ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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