Fight: Mike Tyson (39-2-1) vs. Lennox Lewis (49-3)
Date: June 8, 2002
Site: The Pyramid, Memphis, Tennessee

This was it. This fight was the end. He hadn’t been Iron Mike in a while but we all still wanted to see him fight. No one thought he would be competitive. Not against 6′7″ giant Lennox Lewis. In fact maybe for the first time the world wasn’t scared of Mike Tyson they were scared for him.

In the poster this fear is amplified. Lewis dominates Tyson in the stark brush stroked canvas. He towers over him confidently while Mike almost cowers. His furrowed brow is not intimidating and steely, his cheek bones look soft, he already looks defeated. In the other posters we’ve looked at Mike was the unmistakable aggressor, the dominant force. Here he’s small, the one about to be bullied.

And he was in eight brutal rounds. Lewis almost seemed to keep him around longer than he had to in order to inflict more punishment. It wasn’t how the greatest heavyweight champ 80’s should have left.

Poster price: $25
at Bob Pace Boxing Memorabilia Store

Post from: EveryJoe

Great Mike Tyson Posters: The Exit

Fight: Mike Tyson (33-0) vs. Tony Tubbs (24-1)
Date: March 21, 1988
Site: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo Japan

This poster is done in a gorgeous art deco style. Iron Mike looks to be literally made of iron, his impenetrable power emphasized by the poster’s metallic tinges and coloration.

Tyson’s glare and confident demeanor are unmistakable. This was the height of his power. He had all three belts and was demolishing everything in his way. He floored Tubbs in the second of this one.

Tyson and Tubbs almost look like futuristic super monsters ready to battle over Tokyo like Godzilla and Megalon. Take special note of the miniature Tokyo Dome in the poster’s bottom center. That’s how big Mike and Tony are.

Poster price: $150
at Bob Pace Boxing Memorabilia Store

Post from: EveryJoe

Great Mike Tyson Posters: Tony Tubbs in Tokyo

ESPN.com’s Boxing site posted a terrific article today about the history, collectibility standards, and emotional pull of promotional Fight Posters entitled Fight Posters Still Getting it Done. Jabandgrapple.com immediately wondered a few things:

1) Where can I buy these historic timepieces?
2) Could they be had for a reasonable price?
3) Do any hold any artistic or design value?

Question #1: Where can I buy these historic timepieces? www.ebay.com was my first thought. And yes, they have hundreds of fight posters on auction. There may even be one on there that I have my eye on. Usual ebay problems apply: their stock is always changing, authenticity and quality is not necessarily guaranteed, but you might get a good deal.

In the past year this Max Baer – Rocky Marciano poster sold for $133 on www.americanmemoribilia.com while this Ken Norton – George Foreman poster went for just $55. Are they rare or valuable? I have no idea. But they are nice looking.

The best place to start you search and get an idea of the market is Bob Pace Boxing Memoribilia. He’s got 18 pages worth of boxing posters all authenticated and heavily scrutinized for quality. I’ve spent far too much time paging through his listings. Pace’s site calls itself “one of the largest suppliers of Boxing Memoribilia in the World.” It would be hard to argue against this claim.

Question #2: Could they be had for a reasonable price? It seems. The most expensive posters on Pace’s site run at $2,500 but most hover around the $50 to $200 range with the more recent fight posters selling at around $25. The poster’s value is directly related to both its rarity and the significance of the fight. Ebay prices are unpredictable but if you know what you’re looking for you might get lucky.

Question #3: Do any hold any artistic or design value? I was really disappointed on this end. The older posters tend to be either bland listings of the fighters involved or uninspired prints of boxers’ faces or full bodies. There’s rarely any cleverness or fun. One exception is this Max Baer – Primo Carnera poster.

The 70’s and 80’s posters are dominated by the works of the handlebar-mustachioed Leroy Nieman and his splotchy colorful semi-abstract works. If you don’t like Nieman’s gaudy oils (and I don’t) then you’re out of luck during this time period. He seemingly did the poster for every major fight.

The 90’s and the 00’s have proved even more design deficient. The even gaudier than Nieman Pen & Pixel gangsta rap CD-cover styled design has taken over. Sadly, clever and subtle graphic design only rarely made its way to boxing posters. The emphasis has always leaned towards substance over style and information over abstraction.

In our next entry we will be posting pictures and links to our favorite Mike Tyson posters that Pace sells. A few cool Iron Mike designs do sneak through the cracks.

Post from: EveryJoe

Boxing Posters For Sale