COLLECTOR’S SHOWCASE GET WITH THE PROGRAM By Dan Rafael
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in the final seconds and gloriously won it for $450.54, far less than my maximum bid. I have never seen one since, and I still have it in my saved searches. The Pryor-Arguello II program isn’t tough to find. But that first fight? Impossible. Even though it was held at a major stadium, Miami’s Orange Bowl, and drew tens of thousands of fans for a highly anticipated bout. The scarcity of the program was so odd to me that I made it a point to speak to people who I knew attended, including those who worked for the promoter, Top Rank, to see if there was any explanation. Nobody knew. Perhaps it will be a mystery forever, but at least I have one. My programs have come from attending fights, Seidman, eBay, other dealers and fellow collectors I’ve bought from or traded with. At fights, I always pick up extras, which sometimes pays off nicely. Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, of course, fought four great fights between 2004 and 2012 in one of boxing’s most storied rivalries. I covered all four at ringside and have multiple programs from each fight. Programs from the final three bouts are not plentiful, but they’re around and can be had for a couple of hundred dollars or less. But not the first fight, which is easily one of the rarest programs from a popular fight post-2000. I bought several on fight night and years later wondered why they were so rarely seen, compared to the rest of the series. As I came to find out, it didn’t have a large print run to begin with, as Pacquiao and Marquez were not yet big box office. Then I found out the real reason from the publisher: When the fight was over, the unsold stock was literally thrown away. I can’t complain, because I was able to trade one of my extras to help me obtain one of my grails – a
very scarce program from the 1996 pro debuts of future heavyweight greats Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, who debuted on the same card. As thrilled as I am to have it in my collection, it irritates me to this day that while then-WBO lightweight titlist Artur Grigorian graces the cover as the headliner, neither Klitschko is pictured or even mentioned despite the hype for their debuts and a section of the program interior focusing on them. As many programs as I’ve collected over the past 40-ish years – nearly 3,000 (including duplicates) – there remain plenty of others on my want list, such as Ali-Frazier III, Lennox Lewis’ pro debut against Al Malcolm, and the program that includes the pro debut of Arturo Gatti, my all-time favorite fighter, on a card co- headlined by his brother, Joe Gatti, and Mark Breland. I did check off one of my biggest grails in March after decades on the hunt for this rare program in top condition at a price I could live with: (5) Mike Tyson’s 1985 pro debut against Hector Mercedes in Albany. Only a few hundred were produced (if that), and many were undoubtedly crumpled up and/or thrown away on fight night. The four-pager includes a photo and information about undercard fighter and future Tyson trainer Kevin Rooney on the cover along with Tyson. Inside is a scorecard, undercard information and ads for Albany-area businesses. It’s made of thin paper stock and extremely hard to find in nice shape, if you can find one at all. In all my years of looking, I’ve seen only a few. And when you find one, whatever the condition, it’s expensive. A nice one runs in the low four figures. A friend of mine had owned a high-grade one since the 1980s. He decided to sell, and we worked out a deal. It was another biggie checked off my list. Now on to the next.
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M y name is Dan Rafael, and I am a boxing programaholic. Around the time my obsession with posters was born circa 1987, which I detailed a couple of issues ago, I also got hooked on programs. If done right, they provide nice photos, background on the fight and fighters, undercard information and even advertisements representing the times. They are like cool time capsules. I grew up in the Albany, New York, area about 90 minutes from the International Boxing Hall of Fame. So when I was in high school and college in the early 1990s, each June a good friend of mine and I would drive to Canastota on induction weekend. Staying over was out of the question, because neither of us had money for that in those days. So we would make a day trip on Saturday to take in the activities on
the museum grounds. But for me, the highlight was the boxing collectible show that took place at Canastota High School, which is a short walk from the museum. Dealers from all over would set up at the show, which remains an annual part of the weekend, to sell boxing stuff. I was a regular at card shows back then, but they were geared toward the major team sports. Having a show dedicated only to boxing was like a dream. I would save up a few
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hundred dollars from my part-time job and go to the show looking for programs. Inevitably, I’d find myself at Jay Seidman’s table. As the proprietor of Seidman Productions, he produced merchandise for major fights (still does), including programs and posters, beginning in the early ’80s, and always had a good selection at reasonable prices. That is where my program mania began. Around 12 years later, after I began covering boxing for USA Today in 2000, I would see Jay at fights I was covering and that he had made merchandise for. We had become friends and he asked if I wanted to write stories for the programs he was publishing. That was a quick yes, and I’ve been doing it since – getting merchandise for my collection as compensation. A good deal for both of us. Any program collector has a
want list of “grails” they are searching for. Slowly but surely through the years, I’ve checked many off my list, including high-grade copies of scarce programs from (1) Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier I , George Foreman- Frazier I, the (2) Wilfred Benitez- Sugar Ray Leonard/Vito Antuofermo-Marvin Hagler I doubleheader (for an absolute steal at $202.10 via auction), Ken Norton-Larry Holmes, (3) Salvador Sanchez-Wilfredo Gomez and (4) Aaron Pryor-Alexis Arguello I , the last of which, for unclear reasons, is exceptionally rare. In 25 years of looking – patience is a virtue in collecting – I have seen three Pryor-Arguello I programs. The first two were in weak condition at big prices. The third I saw in 2020 on eBay, and it was in tremendous shape. I put in a very high bid (to me anyway)
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