***** FLASHBACK – this article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on June 15, 2016
I was recently interviewed by NEWSCHANNEL 3 (ABC-TV) Santa Barbara, California regarding my Muhammad Ali collection and deep interest in boxing.
Continue reading Muhammad Ali – David Martinez Collection*** FLASHBACK – This article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on June 10, 2010. The 2018 World Cup will be held in Russia, and runs from June 14 through July 18.
By Bob Quackenbush / for dmboxing.com
Friday, June 11, 2010 marks the beginning of a month-long sporting event that is viewed by more people around the globe than any other, including the Olympic Games. What is this event? The World Cup soccer tournament. Held every four years, this spectacle captivates audiences from Asia and Africa, to North and South America, and, of course, Europe. People from all walks of life will be watching on everything from fuzzy-imaged old TV’s to the fanciest LCD/HD big screens, as well as in person at stadiums throughout the host nation which is South Africa.
Why would an article about soccer (or “football” as it is known in most of the world) show up on a boxing website? The reason is that the two sports crossed paths over thirty-two years ago in a special way. On October 1, 1977, the great Pele, generally acknowledged as the most outstanding soccer player of all time, was wrapping up his career at Giants Stadium playing his final game with the New York Cosmos of the old North American Soccer League. A true ambassador of the sport, Pele, who had played his entire career for Santos F.C. of Brazil, and for the Brazilian National Team, came to the United States in 1975 to play for the Cosmos and to give the sport a “shot in the arm” in the USA. This match was his testimonial game, as the Cosmos faced his former club, Santos, with Pele playing one half for each team.
*** FLASHBACK – this article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on September 8, 2008
By David Martinez / Boxing Historian
I have rated many fighters in many different divisions, eras, and ethnic groups. One of my first ranking features that I posted on this Web site (see Archives / August 2007 or Rankings on menu to view) was my view of the top ten heavyweights of all time (i.e.) “Rating the Heavies”, in which I have gotten some criticism for not including Mike Tyson in my elite group.
First let me say that it is always a pleasure to write what I have seen in my 48 years of following boxing as a sport I deeply love. I have seen every heavyweight champion fight, either by living during his era, by film or by speaking with individuals who actually saw these champions fight, even at the turn of the 20th century. I respect everyone’s opinions and, of course, have mine to tell after having studied this very subject, giving a great degree of research on my part.
As I get older, the majority of people who have disputed that Tyson could have beaten Ali or Holmes if they fought in their primes are mostly people whom, if I asked, “Who was Cassius Clay?”, would not know the answer any more than they would know that George Reeves was the first Superman. This simply tells me that they never knew the fighter that beat a more feared man than Tyson ever was, that being Sonny Liston, and who also survived the biggest knock down in his career in the 1963 Henry Cooper fight, and all when he was Cassius Clay.
*** FLASHBACK – this article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on November 23, 2010
This is the sixth of a six part series of my personal accounts of Muhammad Ali. In Memory of Ali, I have displayed six articles and also included photos of my collectables for viewing.
By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com
This is the last of a six part series on Muhammad Ali. It has truly been my pleasure to share with you my personal accounts of THE GREATEST heavyweight champion in my era of boxing.
For those of you who have missed any of this special series, you can simply go to the menu on this website and click on the category, Ali , to view each part.
*** FLASHBACK – this article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on October 23, 2010
This is the fifth of a six part series of my personal accounts of Muhammad Ali. In Memory of Ali, I will display these six articles and will also include photos of my collectables now through this month of July for viewing.
By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com
In part five of my six part series on Muhammad Ali, I would like to give you my personal view of ten incredible highlight facts during his boxing career:
*** FLASHBACK – this article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on October 10, 2010
This is the fourth of a six part series of my personal accounts of Muhammad Ali. In Memory of Ali, I will display these six articles and will also include photos of my collectables now through this month of July for viewing.
By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com
In part four of my six part series on Muhammad Ali, I will go back to almost the exact time when I started to follow boxing – 1961. It was June of that year and I just celebrated my thirteenth birthday and as a young boy, I eagerly anticipated every boxing match and its results, as I still do today.
*** FLASHBACK – this article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on September 26, 2010
This is the third of a six part series of my personal accounts of Muhammad Ali. In Memory of Ali, I will display these six articles and will also include photos of my collectables now through this month of July for viewing.
By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com
In part three of my six part series on Muhammad Ali, I will give my personal views of three fights during his career that he emerged victorious – but by close margins and conceivably could of lost as well.
*** FLASHBACK – this article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on September
This is the second of a six part series of my personal accounts of Muhammad Ali. In Memory of Ali, I will display these articles and will also include photos of my collectibles now through this month of July for viewing.
By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com
In the second installment of my six in a series, I will answer a question that is most often asked of me, with regards to Muhammad Ali. That question is which – when was Ali at the height of his career?
First of all, I must say that it has been a blessing to witness the greatest heavyweight champion of this era fight throughout his career (1960- 1981). In my opinion, Ali was at his pinnacle from a stretch after the 1st Floyd Patterson ( November 1965) to his final defense against Zora Folley (March 1967) before he was stripped of the heavyweight title.
By Tom Donelson (BWAA)
Author, Member of Boxing Writers Association of America
Contributor to dmboxing.com since 2008
(Excerpts from my book on black fighters, Boxing in the Shadow)
“Fighters know how to suffer. They demagnify pain and seldom talk about it. Though some fighters have been called “bow-wows” within the sport, thresholds of pain are hard to detect in fighters….Eyes, nose, ears, larynx, kidneys, they all take horrific beatings. But their faces tell where fighters have been, the potholes over which they had to rattle, from the small arenas with the single light bulb and a backed-up toilet in the dressing rooms to the flooding light of the big time”
Boxing heroes are usually defined less by the ease of their victories, than by their defeats and their various comebacks in the course of a career. Fighters are made through the brutal confines of their sport, in which they nearly see death approach, in which their blood is splattered; and yet they somehow persevere. Brutality sells tickets, but more importantly, it seals one’s fame. For Ali, Joe Frazier was his ticket to fame.
*** FLASHBACK – this article originally appeared on dmboxing.com on September 5, 2010
for viewing.By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com
I will start this part #1, by saying that the best closed circuit fight that I ever attended was with my late father, Daniel J. Martinez and two of my best friends, Al Garcia and Hector Ybarra, at the Santa Barbara, California “historic” Granada Theater. On March 8, 1971, we saw the most eagerly anticipated fight that I have ever been involved with in my 48 years in boxing … Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali.
I was so excited come fight time that I left my work early on that Monday afternoon just to be sure I was the first one in line to get tickets and the best seats: front row center balcony. I got both to view the fight.