My Fight Collection: A
Passion or an Obsession?
By Ed Ludwig
Ed Ludwig (right) and Teddy Atlas....
As a young child growing up in Thunder Bay, Ontario my love for the sweet science
slowly began. I remember my parents always watching the great fighters of
the early seventies on television every week. In the good old days the major
networks would always have great fights available to any basic cable
subscriber then again there weren't many channels to begin with. Although I
was very young at that point in time I recalled watching some incredible
fights and along the way asking my parents to explain things to me.
Initially they thought if I was in the same room during an afternoon of
action that I would be playing with my toys or doing stuff that kids do.
They were wrong and a monster was born and not of the animated variety!
When
we moved to Vancouver the one fight that really got me hooked on the sport
of Boxing took place in June of 1985. I was sitting with my parents at the
dinner table getting ready to watch Larry Holmes square off against Carl
"The Truth" Williams. The promos leading up to the main event had me
thinking how cool this was. Two guys talking about what they are going to do
to each other. The build up to it was just amazing for me, an impressionable
fifteen year old at the time. Every Canadian boy would live, eat and breathe
Hockey but not me. When the final bell sounded I was outraged that Larry
Holmes got the decision and won the fight. It seemed so unfair even though
at that point I didn't really have a favorite fighter in any weight class.
Larry would tell me in an interview I conducted with him a few years ago
that the Williams fight was his toughest.
My
curiosity intensified and so did my appetite for more. I remember back in
the 1980's buying my first KO magazine with Thomas Hearns on the cover.
Inside was a very cool two page fold out poster, but my reason for buying it
was to look for any coverage of the Holmes vs Williams fight and what
people had thought. I was hooked on KO magazine and I saved up all the money
I could to order all the back issues I could get. I needed more money so I
got a paper route and even went to the local college to collect bottles and
cans after school to feed my thirst for boxing knowledge. The Ring has always been
the number one publication but I liked KO for its colorful pictures and the
overall layout. The fight, the magazine and meeting Michael Olajide and Tony
Pep at a local fight card in Vancouver when my parents decided to take me
fueled my love for the fight game even more.
As
time passed my collection of magazines grew and then VCRs were introduced.
I can't remember the exact year they became a must have for people but I was
thrilled when my dad spent eight hundred dollars and brought one home. Now I
was able to read all I wanted and I could record the fights on television.
Back in those days I recorded on the SLP mode so I would have more space on
the tape. As I got older I was looking at the eight videotapes I had filled
with fights which were good quality but I wanted so much more. Eventually I
started recording in the SP mode as the picture quality was so much better
and that started at tape number nine. One day about eighteen or nineteen
years ago I picked up an issue of Boxing Digest and you could say my life
changed."
On
the back of the magazine there was a section titled "Collectors Corner" and
it was basically a classified section for people looking to buy or trade
anything related to the Sweet Science. What caught my eye were a few people
looking to trade fights for ones that they had not seen. Looking through my
tapes I realized I had a lot of fights people were looking for and then it
all began for me. One advantage I had was that a lot of Canadian fights were
only shown on CBC and then TSN which were obviously unavailable to people
outside of the country. I wrote letters to various people letting them know
I had what they were looking for, and keep in mind this was before the
internet was introduced so everything was done the old fashion way.
My
collection rose at a rapid rate and by then I had made regular contacts with
people in the United States, Mexico the United Kingdom, etc. In a weird way
we all became one big unit and did whatever we could to get our hands on
what we so much desired. While making tapes for my trading partners I would
watch and relive many good and not so good moments. The deaths of
Cleveland Denny at the hands of Gaetan Hart and Deuk-Koo Kim against Ray
"Boom Boom" Mancini it made me think about the loved ones of fighters. In
the blink of an eye it could be all over and change people's lives forever.
My appreciation also grew when it sunk in how much these competitors put on
the line. To me these were invincible superstars but at the same time they
were human beings.
As
the years passed I was running out of space to put everything. I had tons of
tapes and a few VCRs that were my life line to building a video empire. The
magazines were also piling up. My girlfriend and soon to be wife Tara was
growing more upset and frustrated with me as I had the sport on my brain
24/7 and didn’t want to go out and do things with friends or go to family
functions. When I found out Lennox Lewis was defending his title against
Andrew Golota on the day of our wedding in October of 1997 I asked her if we
could reschedule the wedding because I did not want to miss the fight. I
don’t know what I was thinking and of course the answer was an emphatic no!
It
became an addiction and not just a passion. I would do anything to make sure
I was home to watch fights on television or make sure I was off work to
attend a live card in Vancouver. Nothing mattered more to me than this. I
needed my fight fix and I had to have it, even at the expense of my wedding.
After we were married we had a three hour drive to Seattle as we were
catching a flight the next morning to Las Vegas. The first thing I did when
we checked in to the hotel was phone my buddy to find out the results of the
Lewis versus Golota card. Even after our wedding day it was still consuming
my almost every thought.
A
year before we tied the knot my brother had his wedding the night Mike Tyson
stopped Bruce Seldon and when Tupac Shakur tragically lost his life. I said
to Tara I did not want to go and that I would make it up to my brother. I'm
glad I went to the wedding because that is one thing I could not make up
for. What was I thinking? Eventually I would become very busy with school
and work, so the time I put into the sport became shorter and shorter. I would not
trade as often but when I did we did trades in bulk a few times a year and I
still made sure to get my monthly KO magazine. They stopped printing a few
years ago which upset me and when I looked at my collection I realized I had
all but twelve issues since its inception in 1979. The number two issue
being the earliest was and still is my favorite.
Jumping ahead a few years I had my first taste as a writer. I attended the
rematch between Trevor Berbick and Shane Sutcliffe and when I got home I
realized none of the websites had anything posted on it. Luckily for me, I
brought my pencil and notebook and submitted my recap to a site and to my
surprise it was up and running an hour later. From then on that part of my
life took off. As I started to carve a niche for myself I would let
fighters that I interviewed know that if they were looking for their own
fights or tape of future opponents to let me know. Word quickly spread
amongst fighters and promoters and I would be flooded with e-mails and phone
calls.
If I
had what someone was looking for, it was in the mail the next day and if I
didn't have it I would do my best to get it. I figure I have supplied
footage to over one hundred fighters over the years and not one time did I
ask to be paid for it. Sometimes there would be a rush and I would have to
send it Fed-Ex overnight which isn't cheap. It wasn't about money for me. I
didn't own the copyrights to the footage I was supplying so why charge for
it? It opened a lot of doors for me in the business and I have made many
great friends whom I cherish. Not just because they are professional
fighters but because they are genuinely good people. Guys would tell me when I sent them
something that they wanted to return the favor somehow.
I
said a personalized autographed photo, glove or t-shirt is more than enough.
I like items with my name on it because I will never sell them, to me it's
gold. My home is a shrine with all the memorabilia I have, not to mention the
tape and DVD collection. Thank god for DVD recorders. I have never actually
counted or catalogued everything but I'd take a safe guess that my fights
alone, not including documentaries, talk show appearances, etc., surpasses the
twenty five thousand mark. Much of it is in a storage locker as I don't have
enough room in my home for everything. Having helped guys like Larry Holmes,
Joe Frazier, Wilfred Benitez, Kostya Tszyu, Micky Ward and Oscar De La Hoya
with what they were looking for has been a great feeling. My passion and eventual
obsession opened a lot of doors for me and I got to be part of the life I
always wanted to be part of, and I still am a part of it and for that I am forever
grateful.
Questions/Comments:
tallcoolone1969@gmail.com
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