COLLECTOR’S SHOWCASE CARD
men’s and women’s ranks.” These are not traditional paper cards. Rather, they are made of “chromium paper,” which gives them a shiny, metallic look and feel. Topps has used that technology for premium sets since 1996. The last time Topps put out a boxing product was its iconic 1951 Ringside set that included stars of the time such as Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta, as well as past legends such as Henry Armstrong and John L. Sullivan. That 96- card collection was produced in two 48-card series and has long been one of the most popular pugilistic sets, which the company has been producing since the 19th century.
As impressive as the set looks, if there is one drawback, it’s that the boxers are limited to those who fight under the Top Rank, Golden Boy Promotions and Matchroom Boxing banners with a few others included as well, such as Jake Paul. That means, for example, there is a lack of fighters from the deep Premier Boxing Champions and Queensberry Promotions rosters. Nonetheless, there is still a diverse group of fighters to hunt for and some nice-looking subsets, including Ring Generals; Stablemates; 1951 Ringside, which are cards that pay homage to the look of the famed original Topps boxing set; Future Stars; Helix; Smash Hits; and Be First die-cuts. The honor of being on card No. 1 goes to Paul. The set is also filled with rookie cards – as in the fighter’s first appearance on a trading card, even though many are hardly rookies in the sport – including Dmitry Bivol, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, Brian Norman Jr., Xander Zayas, Jai Opetaia, Diego Pacheco, Andy Cruz, Emanuel Navarrete, Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington, Conor Benn, Floyd Schofield and Oscar Collazo, among many others. You want established stars and champions? The set includes fighters such as Tyson Fury, David Benavidez, Ryan Garcia, Errol Spence Jr., Jaron “Boots” Ennis, Vergil Ortiz, Oscar Valdez, Keyshawn Davis and Mikaela Mayer. And if you are looking for legends, the set also has you covered with cards of Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns (including a card featuring both Kings that is dual
W eek after week, there is an array of sports card set releases, mainly representing the major team sports – soccer, baseball, football, basketball and ice hockey. There are also sets regularly produced for collectors devoted to golf, tennis, auto racing, MMA and more. There is even a regular pipeline of cards for those who collect professional wrestling and non-sports properties such as Star Wars. But boxing fans? We have been all but ignored, with precious little produced in recent decades, and nothing done in a major way since the mainstream release of the Kayo, All World and Ringside sets of the 1990s. Since then, boxing fans have had only the ongoing series of Seidman Productions cards, which are inserted into fight night programs produced by the company and quite limited, or the chance of getting lucky by finding a fighter or two included in a multi-sport set or some other oddball release. At long last, however, boxing fans have gotten the royal treatment with a serious set to collect that comes with many of the bells and whistles that have become the hallmark of modern trading card releases, including autographed cards, limited-edition numbered cards, refractors and plenty of parallels to chase. SCORE By Dan Rafael
Topps 2025 Chrome cases and boxes were available to pre-order in early September
with the product shipping later in the month, and they sold out on the Topps website within a few minutes. I was poised in front of my computer at the moment the pre-sale went live and attempted to buy a case. I successfully added it to my cart, and when I went to pay for it, suddenly it disappeared because it had sold out before I could complete the order. As a die-hard boxing collector, I was not happy. At all. As disappointing as that was, there was at least a silver lining in that it meant there was at least tremendous interest in boxing and a market for the product, which probably bodes well for future releases. There are 100 cards in the base set, and the cards come eight per pack with 12 packs per box and 12 boxes per case. Topps guarantees that each box will contain two autographed cards, four numbered parallels, four inserts and a total of 20 parallels. If you could snag any boxes during the pre-sale, they cost $89.99 apiece but have been going for three times that on the secondary market.
There’s plenty of variety in the Topps boxing set, with both new-age stars and old-school greats featured.
Topps, the granddaddy of sports cards, released its first boxing set in 74 years, Topps Chrome Boxing, which is officially designated as a 2024 product that was delayed until 2025. Topps bills the set as having “a mix of champions, contenders, rising stars and legendary names from the
signed), Floyd Mayweather Jr., Roy Jones Jr., Oscar De La Hoya and Christy Martin. Happy hunting.
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