Love @ 1st Sight

To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when no one else will.

 1951 Topps Ringside #43

A few months ago, I came across this card over at Scott Crawford On Cards and knew instantly that I had to own a copy for my collection.

Ironically, I'm not a huge boxing fan.  In fact, I haven't really followed boxing on a regular basis since the days of Iron Mike.

But do yourself a favor and take a few seconds to look over this amazing cardboard specimen.  It's over sixty years old, has a simple, yet awesome card design, and features one of the greatest boxers to ever enter the ring.

Robinson went 85-0 as an amateur and won his first 40 fights as a professional.  On February 5th, 1942... he lost his first professional fight to Jake Lamotta.  After that he fought ninety-one more times over the next eight years before he lost again.

When he finally hung up his gloves in 1965 at the age of forty-four, his professional boxing record stood at:  173 wins, 108 knockouts, 19 losses, 6 draws, and 2 no contests.  Out of his 19 losses, 15 occurred after 1956.

Impressive, right?  That's why I had no problem dropping $23.50 for this awesome card.

What about you...

Have you ever seen a card and knew instantly that you had to own it?

If so... what card was it?  What impressed you about the card?  Have you purchased it?

Happy Monday and sayonara!