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warshawlaw You know Lennox Lewis is defending his title next week in LA? Well, the promoters set up a free public workout at Universal Studios today, which is like 5 minutes from my office. So I went over there. The setup was great. The ring was in the middle of a public square and the barricade was mayby 10 feet from ringside, so we got to watch the action right up close.
The first guy working out was Shane Mosley. Unbelievable speed. Couldn't even follow his hands at times. He is gonna kill DeLaHoya in September--you heard it here first. I tried like hell to get his autograph, but for some reason he wouldn't sign. He was signing for lots of people, but I realize it was mostly all nice stuff that he signed, not just a card like I had.
Lewis's workout was really impressive. He is gigantic (I'm 6'4" 245# and he was taller than I am). He and I weigh around the same but he is all muscle. And very smooth on his feet. Look for him to do a lot of jabbing and slipping on Klitschko. I think it will go the distance with Lewis cutting him up all the way unless Vitaly lands a lucky one. His trainer is Emmanuel Steward. The guy is 58 years old and looks like he's 40. Great physique. There was a pretty big crowd and the handlers wouldn't let Lewis stop walking to sign, so he got only a few sigs on the walk. AND MINE WAS ONE!!!!! I have a 74" reach, so I got on the front barricade and leaned over, and got a sigature and a handshake. Really just a scrawl, but what the hell, it's my favorite champ since Ali. Got it on a 1991 Kayo card.
Steward was another story. He is also training Lucia Riker, a woman boxer. She was working out after Lewis, and virtually no one was watching. I was about 10 feet from Steward and he was more or less standing around, so I asked for his autograph and he signed a 1991 Kayo card for me. Funny thing is that they spelled his name wrong on the front ("Stewart") and he corrected it. He then flipped over the card, crossed out his birthdate and wrote in a different one!! I guess he's signed a lot of these.
So, overall it was a pretty good day, considering I'd not even heard about the workout until this morning when I saw an item in the paper.
Remember a few weeks ago when we had the string about becoming turned off or jaded on sports collecting? This was very refreshing. It was really nice to go collecting for a change, as opposed to bidding, buying and selling, and whining about the same. You forget what a kick it is to see such finely honed athletes up close and personal, and to get a momento to mark the occasion. If you have the chance to go to a promotional event where any signining is incidental, it may be worthwhile simply to remind you that we collect for many reasons but one of the main ones is the admiration we feel for the athletes.
Doesn't hur that these guys are all among the "good guys" in the sport. . .
06-15-2003, 09:55 PM
Slightly off the subject but still card collecting related
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