Worth seeing boxing museums/memorials or other attractions?

Are you on drugs. Give me 3 museums.

 

I can't name any museums, aside from Canastota's HoF, but I've seen or heard about displays or exhibits over the years.

When I was a kid we visited a wax museum at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. They had a wax figure of Max Baer wearing one of Baer's original robes. As a kid I thought that was something. No other boxing, though.

At the African American History Museum in DC they advertised having a nice exhibit for Muhammad Ali, "former three time WBA champion," as they said.

The Smithsonian had another Ali exhibit featuring Ali's gloves from the Foreman and third Frazier fights. (Except the supposed Foreman fight-worn gloves were red, not brown. Made me question everything else I saw in the Smithsonian that day, which was probably an overreaction on my part.)

 

I would like to read more on this myself.

The only boxing museum that I’ve ever seen, was a small one a few years ago, in Pula, Croatia.

It was very interesting.

They had lots of old gloves and boots etc on display, with a write up about each fighter.

There was memorabilia from the 30’s and 40’s.

A great way to pass an hour on.

 

There seem to be precious few physical museum type places dedicated to boxing or boxers, although I’m sure as noted there are probably ways various cities have paid tribute to their hometown boys.

There does appear to be a museum devoted to WBC champions (WBC Legends of Boxing Museum) in San Bernardino, California.

There are, however, many public displays honoring boxers. Ezzard Charles has a mural and I think now a statue in Cincy. Joe Louis has a statue of a fist in his honor in Detroit and an 8-foot statue in the town square in Lafayette, Alabama, where he was born. Of course Rocky Balboa has one in Philly, haha.

The late Hank Kaplan assembled what has been called the greatest and largest collection of boxing memorabilia (posters/clippings/etc.). He ran a magazine in the 1970s that lasted into the ‘80s, I think, International Boxing Digest. His archives are housed at the Brooklyn College Library and are available to view by appointment.

Sadly, Jimmy’s Corner bar in New York near the theater district closed during the COVID shutdown. Lots of great posters and photos on the wall, although not arranged museum style.

Maybe we can widen this discussion a bit to include statues and other attractions.

 

There is boxing history all over the place, but it usually doesn't take the form of a museum.

Look for pubs, restaurants, and former boxing venues, that reflect the history of the sport.

 

THIS

 

Inductees to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, which has a multi-story building in downtown Birmingham, include Joe Louis, Evander Holyfield, Petey Sarron and, of course, George Wallace (the politician, not the comedian).

Wallace won an SEC championship as a boxer back in I think the 1920s when he was a student at the University of Alabama. Boxing was a sponsored sport in the league.

 

When Ring Magazine had its offices in downtown Manhattan and Nat Fleischer and his successor Nat Loubet led the magazine, they had a portion of the office space designated as a Ring Museum. I went there in 1978 and as I remember it was not a large area - maybe about the size of an average living room. The one thing that stands out in my mind was bronze casts of the fists of various heavyweight champions - I remember seeing casts for Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Primo Carnera, Joe Louis, and Rocky Marciano, among others. There were probably gloves used by some of the old time greats. I don't know where the Ring offices are these days or if the museum section still exists anywhere. The fist casts were interesting, but the collection of exhibits was not as extensive as I had expected.

 

I used to go to the ring and stare at the fists and maybe buy an old ring magazine and then walk to dempseys resturant ..... It was great