Ok – so yeah that’s me in the directory thumbnail.  I was re-creating John Payne in “Kid Nightingale” for a photo shoot when I was 52. But I’m not even going to PRETEND that I’m a fan of boxing. 

I’ve seen some fights with Ali when I was young, I paid $99 hosting my “gym sons” for the PPV Manny Pacquaio fight (which seemed to end right after it began), I saw Netflix have its big moment with Jake Paul and Mike Tyson (while I was watching "His Three Daughters") and I’ve seen lots of George Foreman grill commercials.

Yep, that’s all I got.  So why is it that I have so many boxers in my collection? 

JACK DEMPSEY was one of the first boxers added to my collection.  The piece was purchased in a collection that I bought, and I ended up going down a rabbit-hole about his life, Hollywood connections, movie making and star-boxer status.  He was a handsome guy and quite the ladies’ man, even marrying a movie star, Estelle Taylor. (I’ll talk about her separately, since she was one of the last people to see Lupe Velez alive).   

MAX BAER and BUDDY BAER - Early crossovers from sports to movies, Max Baer was a BIG boxing star and acted in almost 20 movies. His brother Buddy was also photogenic, a fighter with quite a bit of exposure in his day, and Buddy also had a brush with Hollywood and sprinkled appearances in films dating from the 30’s to the 60’s. Their son and nephew, Max Baer, Jr., played Jethro from “Beverly Hillbillies”. (More on my meeting with Max Jr. and "The Beverly Hillbillies" separately. All I can say is that being part of the Baer family seemed to guarantee some Hollywood camera time. 

Another boxer from way back in the day to appear in movies was MAX SCHMELING. I remember seeing him in one of Richard Lamparski's "Whatever came of ...?" books when I was a teenager. When I got this signed card of him, I thought I'd match it up with an early boxing shot of him. A handsome young pugilist! An acquisition from and shout out to Tony R - Rohatch22 on eBay. Family friend, great guy, fantastic seller of sports and entertainment memorabilia.

JOHN PAYNE - A genial, handsome movie star of the 40's - but internet famous for his beefcake shots as a boxer in "Kid Nightingale". His autograph, with one of those boxing poses is shown here. I'll cover him (and his wives Anne Shirley and Gloria de Haven) later.

SUGAR RAY LEONARD, KEN NORTON, LARRY HOLMES, GEORGE FOREMAN and MARVELOUS MARVIN HAGLER were all purchased in various collections.  These guys were all names that I heard in the background as my dad or grandfather would be watching Wide World of Sports or whatever, but I never really watched a full fight. 

I do remember Sugar Ray Leonard vividly, not for his boxing though, but for his TV commercials as a soda pitchman.  HA! 

Ken Norton starred in a blaxploitation film called “Mandingo” directed by none other than Dino De Laurentiis. THAT film would clearly not be greenlit today!  A deep dive on the internet will show you how collectors have screen captured highly sexualized moments of the film. Especially the homoeroticism and moment where the slave owner is clearly hitting on Ken Norton's character. Ken Norton was damn handsome. How about this scene from YouTube of "Black Slave being boiled alive" ... would they even make this movie in 2025??

Larry Holmes is a wealthy retiree with multiple businesses; kudos to him!  As with any type of performer or athlete at the top of their game .... making big money is one thing. KEEPING that money is another thing. GROWING that money from something other than their field, is to be applauded indeed.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler has one of THE BEST autographs.  I wish I had a better one in my collection; other than the small magazine photo signed in the dark area.  But you can see from the photocopied 8x10 how this champ would sign an autograph – big bold and beautiful!  As a Marvelous person should.

RIDDICK BOWE – There was a signed Everlast glove in an autograph collection that I bought in 2016, which also included Sugar Ray Leonard (and Vanessa Williams, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, Sally Field, Tom Selleck, Billy Joel, Wade Boggs, etc. – quite the random collection).  But regarding Riddick’s glove; with my love of images and flat pieces and my antipathy towards sports in general, I sold it in 2018.  Since my purchase price was $2.87 per piece in the collection I bought, I can tell you that I made a nice profit margin! (And then turned around and spent it on more autographs or vinyl, I’m sure.) 

George Foreman is a household name because of that grill - but I love this autographed magazine photo of him during his early days as a boxing champ. P.S. You won't find me standing near any grill. I hate food smell in my clothes. I got jokes about the grill and smelling like food, but George was a king in the ring. Compilation of his knockouts:

I don’t recall if it was eBay or elsewhere, but I do know 100% that I purchased the HAROLD JOHNSON autograph specifically because I thought it was a great photo.  It wasn’t until this writing that my research of his signature leads me to believe that this prized piece in my boxer collection seems to be signed (and inscribed personally on the back) by someone other than him.  I just can’t deny that the H in Harold on my autograph is a standout singular difference from the H in EVERY other autograph that I’ve seen of his that have either sold or that are currently for sale.  However, I’m clinging to denial and have convinced myself that MY autograph is the ONLY authentic one and everyone else’s is a forgery.  So there. 

MIA ST. JOHN is in my collection due to her Playboy appearance, and a collector of sexy ladies autographs who sold me his whole lot. The reason she got the Playboy layout was because of her fame and notoriety as a female boxer combined with her sex appeal. Mia talked about her Playboy shoot in the "Secrets of Playboy" documentary and how she really wanted to show female empowerment, capitalize on her sexuality HERSELF, get seen by a broader audience outside of the boxing ring and get paid well. And at the time, she was totally knocked by a sports announcer saying - “I wonder if this is one step ahead for boxing or two steps to the rear”. Hypocritical and typical statement made by a man who probably LOOKED at Playboy, but looks down on the women who modeled for the magazine. (I'll dig deeper into Playboy, Hefner and the bunnies, separately.)

Handsome British Olympic Bronze medalist ROBIN REID just happened to be in my “R” binder and so here he is.  Known as “The Grim Reaper”, I found out during my research on him that he appeared in the “controversial film Killer Bitch” … which has an IMDb rating of 1.5.  Boxers and their movie roles should be (probably already is) a podcast.   

“I’m Muhammad.  Muhammad Ali; float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!” I’ve got a lot of great books and magazines on Muhammad Ali, but I never added his autograph to my collection.  My distinct lack of interest in most sports was a detriment in this case because he was an obliging signer for a long time.  He crosses my mind often though, because I was obsessed as a kid with the song “Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)” and it will pop up on shuffle in my workout playlist.   

Take a listen here:

WILL SMITH - Speaking of Muhammad Ali, I'm including Will Smith here - not because it's a boxing photo that I have signed by him. But because I think that "Ali" was his best cinematic performance. It was one of his three Academy Award nominated performances as an actor. Thankfully Ali wasn't around at the Academy Award ceremony for will smack in the face!

Will's transformation into Ali - and a pretty good synopsis of the movie is shown in the trailer here.

Next, we have MIKE TYSON.  What a fantastic picture!  What a beautiful oversized and well-placed autograph.  It was included in a collection of Marky Mark, the Von Erich Brothers and some other “tough guys”.  Everything in the box he sent was authentic, so I was excited to add this Mike Tyson autograph to my collection.  But alas, deep inspection on this autograph revealed that it is simply a high-quality reproduction.  Damn.  Alexander O’Neal’s song “Fake” keeps running through my mind.    

I had an in-person experience with LEON SPINKS at a convention once and it was a sad sitch.  I didn’t have anything for him to sign, but I wanted to see what kind of 8x10 photos he had and the prices he was asking.  There was nobody at his table when I came up to it and he had his back slightly turned and head down, drinking.  When he finally realized we were there, he turned around, and his head lolled back a bit and he mumbled something. It was pretty clear that engaging with him at that specific moment was going to be difficult.  I did the pleasant, no-teeth smile and nod and I walked away.  I’m not sure he even noticed.  He was a great fighter with some physical ailments due to his career and normal human problems.  And he was a boxing champion.  But that day just wasn’t a good time to ask for an autograph. 

After writing the paragraph above, I thought, let me just buy a Leon Spinks autograph to augment my boxer collection and to go with the story.  And what I discovered is that there are TONS of Leon Spinks forgeries on eBay. Like sooooo many!!  And some of them are so bad - missing Leon’s consistent tells in his signature.  The tiny curve down to the right at the top of the L, the sweeping circular crossover of the L going downward, the full spelling out of e-o-n, the consistent separation between the p and the i, his tendency to dot the I with a small circle (not a dot) and his beautiful, looped k.  The forgeries are just sloppy.  But I did find an authentically signed, classic photo of Leon holding his championship belt along with legit provenance. It’s from the estate of a collector who met him in 1997 and 1998, when signed photos were $12 (!!!) and there’s a picture of him with Leon, and Leon at his signing table.  Now I have a happy ending to my Spinks story! 

I can't have a boxers section without mentioning one of the most famous boxing movies, "Raging Bull". Check out this scene "Did you f*** my wife?!?!" with DeNiro and Cathy Moriarty before I talk about the autographs. Keep in mind he won the Oscar and Cathy was nominated.

You'll see here that I have autographs of the REAL characters from the movie; boxer JAKE LaMOTTA and his wife VICKI LaMOTTA. Vicki wrote quite the book, "Knock Out" which I highly recommend - and she posed for Playboy in 1981. The signed photo that you see of her here is from that photoshoot.

Regarding the real actors from "Raging Bull" - I've got DeNiro covered separately - and authentic autographs from him can be hard to find. However, Cathy Moriarty (who played Vicki) is another story. I've had a few autographs of her in my collection and I met her in September of 2025. She is absolutely adorable! Witty, sharp, friendly, generous (gave me free pics) and got a kick out of signing the inscriptions that I asked: "I like the smell of the gym" (from "Raging Bull") and "Why aren't we having sex yet" from "Soapdish". As you can see from our photo together, the two of us got along famously and she was one of my most favorite celebrity encounters. Tidbit: She said that she was not allowed to meet the real Vicki LaMotta before or during the shooting because the story is told from Jake's POV. However, Cathy became close with Vicki after the movie and was in touch with her right up to Vicki's death.  Cathy was just a joy to talk to and her assistant was really complimentary and said that I was nice, authentic and had really good energy - and that's why Cathy gave me a discount and free pictures. When I said to him "Are you telling me that a lot of the fans that come up aren't nice?" And he said "No! They could be weird, or awkward, or pushy and rude. Fans." They need to mind their P's and Q's and lead with some sugar.

Boxers and movies - or male movie stars doing boxing poses. They seem to be endless! But in addition to John Payne, I thought I'd also include boxing poses of Ryan O'Neal (so much to unpack on him and n.b. "The Main Event" is my favorite Barbra Streisand song ... LOL) and Kirk Douglas (also so much to discuss) from "The Champion"

Oh yeah ... and then there's me doing cheesy boxer poses wearing my plushy robe and short shorts. Have I no shame? As my Grandmother used to say "Do it while you can, honey!" - "Do what Gram?" - "ALL OF IT!"

I am.