A blog entry that’s purely visual today because I’m lazy like that. Plus it allows a follow-up of sorts to my last entry, which seemed 60% preoccupied with ’80s boxing without this site becoming little more than a bunch of disperate pugilism-themed missives. It’s easy to deify the matter-of-fact main event and undercard listings of fight posters from earlier in the 20th century, with their densely columned mass of names, prices and occasional boasts of prowess, plus some killer typography, but I was raised in the Don King and Frank Warren ruled time when the heavyweights like Tyson, Berbick and Holmes, and middleweights as powerful as Duran and Hagler entertained.
It was a big budget era of pay-per-view, HBO and that damned crown logo, and I’m easily suckerpunched by this lurid aesthetic. From the unique, kinetic imagery of LeRoy Neiman to treated photos, to bold taglines and Bud logos, these battles were treated in promotional terms as EVENTS – cinematic grudge matches. Whether they’re cable TV promos, onsite posters, booze sponsorships, or closed circuit screenings, these, in my eyes, are sporting materpieces.
Imagery swaggerjacked from the superb http://www.kofightposters.com, where, in the event of a future fortune, I hope to bankrupt myself with framed beauties in the following vein…
GWARIZM 