Some Shadow Boxing

After yesterday’s curt editorial I want to go light today.

There are some oddities in the 2011 SportsKings Ringside Round 2 boxing release that had me confused about some decisions about specific cards and their inclusion in the set.

When I saw a couple Arturo Gatti memorabilia cards with an image of a shadow boxer I was initially confused. Was it just a bad design choice by SpoortKings/ITG, was there a mistake or was this done with intent? I looked to see if all of the memorabilia cards on this specific insert were all with shadow boxers, but it was just the Gatti so it wasn’t a bad design choice. I looked in to other cards in the set and found a couple more cards with shadow boxers instead of the fighter’s image, including Julio Cesar Chavez, which led me to believe this was done with intent.

I tried to find any information about why some cards had fighter images and some were shadow boxers and I came up with the theory that Dr. Price was not able to work out a deal with the fighters, or in the case of Gatti, his family, to include their likeness on the cards but the set was probably already in production, so he had to make a last-minute decision to just go with a shadow boxer on the relic cards and I am willing to bet they were also in the base set but removed off of the checklist.

I am sure this wasn’t how the process was begun, contracts probably weren’t completed, and the set was put in motion. Not ideal, but I would be satisfied with one of these cards if I collected the boxer.

Vintage Card Of The Month: 1939 Churchman's Cigarettes Boxing Personalities Gene Tunney

This month’s VCoM is a boxing card from 1938 Churchman’s Cigarettes. Churchman’s Tobacco is an English company go back to the 1700s and in 1898 they began inserting cards in to their packs with football players (soccer) being the first subjects. They continued to include cards in their tobacco products until around 1940 or 1941, ceasing due to the war. Over the 40 year period the cards included footballers, cricket players, golfers, tennis players, boxers and even got Babe Ruth in to a 1929 set.

My brother was in the Navy and in the mid-90s he was stationed in England and he found a card shop in the town he was living in that he enjoyed visiting. The owner wanted Michael Jordan cards and I was just beginning my vintage collection so my brother and I worked a deal where I would ship him Jordan cards and the owner of the shop would ship me tobacco era cards. In one of those shipments he sent a nice selection of the 1938 Churchman’s Boxing cards, which this Tunney card was included.

Gene Tunney was a fighter bewtween 1915 and 1928 and in that 13 career he fought 85 fights going 65-1-1-1 with 48 KOs, the other 17 fights were Newspaper Decisions (A no decision bout by record but a decision is made by a newspaper) and do not count for or against his record. During his time he was the American Light Heavyweight Champion between 1922-23 and World Heavyweight Champion between 1926-28.

If you are wondering, yes now I regret sending all of the Michael Jordan cards. Every Jordan card that I pulled for a 2-3 year period were shipped to my brother, so figure probably 100 or so cards that I would have loved to have in my collection. Now had I received the 1929 Babe Ruth card I would have been fine but alas no luck.

The Devil's Snow Strikes Twice

 It was just announced that boxing Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury has tested positive for cocaine a couple of days ago and will most likely lose his belts at his November 4^th hearing, which was initially set following charges related to a prohibited substance arrest from last June but will now take in to account his failed drug test too.

 

I will also note that Greg Hardy has probably put his NFL career in jeopardy with his arrest for possession of cocaine three days ago.

One thing that I would like to point out is that Tyson Fury, a man who is 25-0 and holds 5 different boxing championship belts (for now anyway) does not have a single card. We have more cards with politicians on them in the last 5 years than we have cards with boxers (not named Ali) on them. If I am not mistaken we have seen more of Topps and Panini employees on cards than boxers recently.

It May Be Late But It Will Finally Happen

The fight for the ages is finally set, Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Manny Pacquiao on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

After years of blaming each other and coming up with reasons not to fight the talk is finally done, the time and place is set and we will see who unifies the Welterweight world titles (Mayweather- WBA & WBC and Pacquiao WBO). Most will agree that this fight is probably 5 years to late but it will still be entertaining to see how it all goes down.

Mayweather collectors are very limited in their options with a handful of cards in various Brown’s Boxing, Ringside and Sportkings releases. Pacquiao collectors on the other hand have more options with Pacman appearing in a number of Topps releases over the past 4 years, which include official autographs.

RIP Ken Norton Sr.

 For the second time in less than a month we lose a boxing legend, Ken Norton Sr. passed away today at the age of 70 years old. Over the past few years Norton has had some serious health issues including multiple strokes, cancer, heart attack and major surgeries and was actually residing in a hospice following a stroke last year.

 

Norton, who had a 42-7-1 (33 knockouts) career record, is known for his battles with Muhammad Ali in the early 1970s including when Norton broke Ali’s jaw on the way to a split decision win in their first bout in 1973. Ali won the next two fights but Norton earned Ali’s respect to the point where Ali said he never wanted to fight Norton again. In 1978 Norton won the vacated WBC title after beating Jimmy Young in an eliminator match, he lost the title a couple of months later to Larry Holmes. Following his loss to Holmes he only fought a couple of more times before retiring in 1981.

 

There are not many options for his cards, Norton was included in some early 1990s-era sets like Kayo and All World, which can be found for a couple of dollars each, but then nothing until the Ringside sets of the past few years. He has a couple of autographs in the 2011 Ringside Boxing Round Two release as well as the Lead Muhammad Ali release, prices don’t seem to be very set though with only a couple of cards showing activity.

RIP Tommy Morrison

Boxer Tommy Morrison, former WBO Heavyweight Champion, passed away Sunday at a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska at the age of 44 years old. Cause of death has not been announced but Morrison has been bed ridden for the past year and may have been suffering from HIV or AIDS (His wife claims that he was actually suffering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, not HIV).

 

Initially diagnosed with HIV in 1996, Morrison accepted that his reckless lifestyle was to blame for contracting HIV and announced his retirement. In 2006 he went on to claim that his 1996 tests were false positives and that HIV is a government conspiracy. There is some disagreement on tests that he took in 2006 and 2007 but eventually went on to fight two more “staged” matches in 2007 and 2009. He finished his career at 49-3-1 with 44 knockouts.

 

During his heyday in the 1990s Morrison appeared in a number of boxing sets including Kayo, Ringlords and All World but because there were very few boxing sets after the mid-90s he did not show up in a major release until the 2011 Ringside Round Two set, which included both autographs and relics for Morrison.

 

He was a prolific signer and his autographs can be found on everything ranging from action figures to posters with prices starting around $30 for 8x10 pictures, $50 for signed gloves and action figures and over $60 for larger pictures and posters.

Preview: Ringside Boxing Round 2

Schedule Release Date: August 3, 2011

Box Configuration: 8 cards per pack/box

SRP: $100/box

Box Break:

1 Autograph card

1 Memorabilia card

3 Base cards

3 Turkey Red cards

My Thoughts:

Outside of the occasional boxer being added to a release (Like Allen & Ginters and Goodwin Champions) boxing has gotten very little love for the past decade but with Creative Cardboard Concepts Ringside Boxing Round One last year and Leaf’s Muhammad Ali set this year things have changed. CCC is now set to release Ringside Boxing Round Two in August and they are gaining attention with the release.

Last year the release was 10 packs per box with 4 cards per pack, autographs were seeded 1:2 boxes and memorabilia cards were also seeded 1:2 boxes and box prices were around $40-45 each. The change this year to 8 card pack/boxes, while a reduction in cards, now seeds both autographs and memorabilia cards to 1 per box. With these changes comes a double in box prince too. Is the change worth it? Only time will tell.

The 100-card base set consists of 5 different subsets with Gold (#/9) and Onyx (1/1) parallels the Mecca Turkey Red cards will also have both parallels. A big plus is the addition of cut signatures along with Ringside Seat memorabilia cards that contain fight tickets, 1/1 ring side logo relics and there are even 1-per-case hand numbered Muhammad Ali toppers #/10

Pros:

Hard-signed autographs

Appears to be a solid checklist

Turkey Red cards

Cut signature cards

Muhammad Ali limited case-toppers

Cons:

Pricey at $100/pack

Rating:

It is difficult to rate the set because I have only seen a handful of cards, last year’s set was decent and if it is similar to last years product I would expect a solid release.

Will There Ever Be Love For Boxers?

After tonight’s Manny Pacquiao-Sugar Shane Mosley fight, which Pacman won in a 12 round decision, it got me thinking about the boxing collecting world. It seems like up until recently the sport has not had much love and honestly the major card companies are still not even really looking in that direction.

Besides Leaf’s 2011 Muhammad Ali release and Creative Cardboards 2010 Ringside Boxing release is there even anything on the horizon? Besides a possible 2012 Muhammad Ali set from Leaf I do not even hear any rumblings.

 Now we do see some companies cherry pick boxers like Topps is including 3 boxers autographs in their 2011 Allen & Ginters release (Pacquiao, Jake LaMotta and Micky Ward) but they are also including ice dancers, a Parkour runner and a couple of chefs in the autographs insert so it seems like they are just grabbing people now. Hell they put employee cards in last year's set, what is next on the checklist, the delivery guy's worn sweat socks relics?

I think part of the problem may be that there are multiple boxing organizations (WBO, WBA, WBC and IBO among others) so I am not sure how a card designer would work this, would they have to sign each organization as well as individual boxers? I guess that could make for a logistical nightmare.