A Brief But Complete History of Women’s Boxing Trading Cards So Far

 

Collecting trading cards has been a favorite pastime for generations of sports and pop culture enthusiasts of all ages, a hobby that can often prove to be equal parts fun and frustrating, communal and isolating, lucrative and financially draining. Like anything else, it largely depends upon each individual’s personal approach and general mindset, whether you cherish the cards as nostalgic keepsakes or obsessively hoard them with no apparent rhyme or reason or maybe with a future profit margin in mind. There does exist a healthy, sensible middle ground where a collector can find balance between enjoyment for enjoyment’s sake and the rush derived from the thrill of the hunt.        

My, how the hobby has changed. The days of spending an entire afternoon scrutinizing the photos on the front of the card and studying the statistics on the back like you were conducting a serious research project seems to be a thing of the past, sad to say. Modern day collectors seem much more focused on—or distracted by—making endless compromises to attain glittering prizes in the form of bright, shiny cardboard bearing refracted images, celebrity and athlete autographs, or an alleged swatch of ring-worn, game-used, or personally-owned memorabilia sewn in, all of which are limited in number and, therefore, command top dollar to those ready and willing to spend it.

Things first took a turn for the worse in what is referred to as the “junk wax era” of the early 1980s through the mid-90s when the growing number of trading card companies flooded the market with product at an astounding rate in unsustainable competition with one another to gain access to the wallets of collectors who, in turn, were hoping to establish retirement funds based on the value of their slabbed and graded acquisitions. This took all the fun out of collecting cards and turned it into a soulless investment opportunity.

Remember Don West, the ranting and raving late night Shop at Home Channel lunatic who would work himself into a frenzy for hours on end hawking a seemingly endless supply of gem mint 10 Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie cards? He pretty much epitomized the state of the hobby back then.

Simplicity and sentimentality were usurped by greed and delusion. Once upon a time, kids traded cards with their friends in the schoolyard during recess. As adults, many of those same kids who were bit by the collecting bug early on in life instead took to trading one innocent, if similarly far flung, fantasy—that you might someday become a major league ball player just like the ones pictured on your well-loved cards—for the dubious pleasure of indulging in another—that you will be able to pay off your mortgage or your teenager’s college tuition by obtaining and reselling these supposedly valuable cardboard artifacts.

Whenever supply outweighs demand, the bubble will inevitably burst. And so it did in the trading card industry in the 1990s. Just like the bubbles you would blow with the gum that used to come inside every pack. Although sports cards became infamously associated with those rigid, razor-sharp sticks of gum that were as likely to crack a tooth or slice open the inside of your cheek as they were to deface your Tony Gwynn or Darryl Strawberry rookie with a sticky imprint, they were first synonymous with cigarettes.

Introduced in the late nineteenth century as a promotional gimmick employed by tobacco companies to advertise their products, images of wildlife species, historical figures, novelty acts, and athletes printed on rectangular cardboard stock were inserted into packs or boxes of cigarettes with that particular company’s name conspicuously displayed on the front and/or back. Baseball players and prizefighters, owing to the popularity of both sports, were the among the most commonly depicted personalities.

The W.S. Kimball Tobacco Company out of Rochester, New York produced a set of 50 cards in 1887 called Champions of Games and Sport which included Hattie Stewart, the vaudevillian and pugilist who not only called herself ‘The Female John L. Sullivan,’ but had actually sparred with the ‘Boston Strong Boy.’ Stewart was the first female boxer to be featured on a trading card, and nearly 110 years would recede into the past before it happened again.

Ringside Boxing appeared on the sports card market in 1996, available in foil packs of 8 which collectors would have to purchase individually or by the box to assemble the complete set of 80 (including inserts and subsets). Released in the wake of her Sports Illustrated cover story, Christy Martin was the lone women’s boxer in the Ringside set. This would also remain true for the 1997 set of Brown’s Boxing cards.     

Following a dry spell for boxing cards of more than three decades since the release of the 1948 Leaf and 1951 Topps sets, Johnny Brown from Knob Noster, Missouri took it upon himself to independently manufacture his own. What they lacked aesthetically they made up for in scarcity, as the print runs for each set Brown’s put out between 1985 and 2002 were limited to no more than 2,000. This makes some of their more desirable cards quite valuable in today’s marketplace, most notably the 1997 Floyd Mayweather, Jr. rookie.

After including only Christy Martin in 1997, the 1999 Brown’s set featured five women—if you don’t count the two ring card girls, that is—and, believe it or not, none of them was Christy Martin. Instead, Jolene Blackshear, Tracy Byrd, Fredia Gibbs, Bridgett Riley, and Melissa Salamone got cards of their own. Three years later, Brown’s doubled the number of female boxers for its 2002 set. Christy Martin returned to the lineup, as did Fredia Gibbs, in the company of seven other active fighters—Mary Ann Almager, Sumya Anani, Jamie Clampitt, Lisa Foster, Mitzi Jeter, Deborah Nichols, and Marischa Sjauw—who were all joined by 1970s trailblazer and WBAN founder and archivist Sue Fox. This would be Brown’s last set of boxing cards for a little over twenty years until they resurfaced in 2024 with a 40-card set featuring Kim Clavel, Heather Hardy, Shurretta Metcalf, Yesica Nery Plata, Samantha Worthington, and referee Sparkle Lee.

Rounding out Christy Martin’s trading card run up to the present day, she was included in the 2010 Ringside—Round One and 2024 Topps Chrome boxing sets, and was given a variety of St. Patrick’s Day-themed cards in the brand new Leaf Metal release. Not surprisingly, the only other prizefighting female who rivals Christy Martin in terms of trading card representation is Laila Ali.

Courtesy of Germany’s Bravo Magazine, Laila’s first card materialized in 2000. Domestically speaking, Ali’s rookie card appeared as part of the 2001 Sports Illustrated for Kids set, followed two years later by an All Sports Magazine card. In 2007, Laila was featured in a set by Allen & Ginter, the old tobacco company that created the first trading cards in 1880 and was resurrected as a brand by Topps in 2006 as an homage to the hobby’s origins. Allen & Ginter later included then-WBO super-bantamweight world champion Ana Julaton in its 2011 set. A trading card-sized Laila Ali sticker was released by Sports Illustrated for Kids in 2010 and she was naturally included in Leaf’s 2011 Muhammad Ali exclusive set, along with Mia St. John, whose first card was issued by Upper Deck four years earlier.           

Natasha Jonas was the first female amateur boxer pictured on a trading card, in this case by Panini for its 2012 Adrenalyn XL London Olympics set. Jonas’ teammate, flyweight Nicola Adams, who was the first ever British woman to win Olympic gold in boxing competition, would have to wait twelve years to see her own card come to fruition. Perhaps in a good faith effort to make up for lost time, Topps included Adams in both its 2024 and 2025 Team GB sets.

Topps manufactured a US Olympics set in 2016 ahead of the summer games in Rio de Janeiro where Claressa Shields would become the first American boxer, male or female, to win back to back gold medals. Shields was featured on multiple cards in the 2016 Topps set with different variants, including limited edition relics, patches, and autographs. To date, these are the only officially licensed boxing cards featuring the self-proclaimed GWOAT, though there have been a few with Shields as an MMA fighter put out by Skybox and Upper Deck.        

The year after she turned pro, 2016 Olympic quarterfinalist and current three-weight world champion Mikaela Mayer made her trading card debut in the 2018 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions set with several of the same variations mentioned above (relic cards, autographs, etc.) that the modern collector has come to expect. Mayer was also featured in the 2024 Topps Chrome release, the company’s first set of boxing cards since 1951. Besides Mayer and the aforementioned Christy Martin, the 2024 Topps set also included Erika Cruz, Rhiannon Dixon, Marlen Esparza, Seniesa Estrada, Beatriz Ferreira, Terri Harper, Skye Nicolson, Sandy Ryan, Ellie Scotney, Mia St. John, and Yokasta Valle with all the contemporary bells and whistles, including throwback variants commemorating the design of the 1951 Topps boxing cards.   

Hall of Famer Holly Holm has never gotten her own trading card as a boxer but has had plenty dedicated to her as a cage fighting competitor, including a couple of cool Topps releases in 2018 and 2019, which paid tribute to their 1983 and 1984 baseball card designs respectively. Holly’s 2017 UFC opponent Cris Cyborg was featured along with Holm in those same Topps sets, among a whole slew of others as well and has since crossed over into boxing. Quality of opposition notwithstanding, the 40-year-old Cyborg (real name Cristiane Justino) recently stopped Paulina Cardona (27-34-7 going into their bout in Brazil) in the third round to not only remain undefeated as a prizefighter (6-0, 5 KOs) but win the vacant WIBA super-welterweight title, making her the first world champion in both boxing and mixed martial arts simultaneously. Leaf featured Cyborg in boxing gear on a Hit Like a Girl insert card as part of their 2025 Women of Sport set.

While bootleg custom cards won’t factor into this conversation, it is definitely worth pointing out that Amanda and Cindy Serrano for several years now have offered a pair of self-created and authorized trading cards for sale on the merchandise page of their website. As of this writing, the Serrano Sisters card is sold out and there is limited stock left of the solo ‘Real Deal’ Amanda card, which will be autographed upon request. Hurry now while supplies last. After all, FOMO (fear of missing out) is another scourge of the modern trading card collector.

That about wraps up the story of women’s boxing trading cards for now. To be continued, no doubt…    

Was Joltin’ Joe Matisi an Inspiration for Rod Serling’s Requiem for a Heavyweight?

 

While still a student at Antioch College, Rod Serling embarked on a complimentary trip from Yellow Springs, Ohio to New York City to accept the second-place prize in a nationwide scriptwriting contest sponsored by the popular Dr. Christian radio program. His submission was called “To Live a Dream” which told the story of an old boxer dying of leukemia who was not only passing on the tricks of the trade but bequeathing his own personal legacy to the young fighter he was currently training.    

During the broadcast of the award show, Serling offered some brief remarks to host Jean Hersholt, saying that he was “fond of boxing” and making an interesting reference to having “tried my hand in the Golden Gloves.”

Before lacing up the gloves as a flyweight in the Army, Rod is said to have boxed at the Washington Street YMCA in Binghamton, presumably shoulder to shoulder with professional fighters competing in and around the Southern Tier region of upstate New York. Heavyweight hopeful Joltin’ Joe Matisi of nearby Endicott was one of the more recognizable faces in the crowd.

As an amateur, Matisi won both the New York and Inter-City Golden Gloves in 1937 and made his pro debut three years later. Emerging victorious in eight of his first nine bouts, Matisi’s second fight took place on the undercard of Joe Louis’ February 9, 1940 heavyweight title defense against Arturo Godoy at Madison Square Garden.

In September 1941, Matisi pleaded guilty of second degree assault after striking a member of the IBM personnel department during a job interview when he was allegedly told by the employee that “Guineas are not hired here.” Matisi’s blow broke the man’s nose and caused facial contusions, resulting in a potential 30 to 60 month stretch in Attica. Matisi was instead fined $1,000 and had his sentence suspended, conditional upon maintaining good behavior throughout the two and a half-year probation ordered by the judge. Joe insisted that his actions were not those of a hot-tempered tough guy but a proud Italian American protecting his heritage and standing up for his community.   

World War II interrupted his fledgling boxing career, costing Matisi four years of his physical prime which were spent, like Rod Serling, in service to the U.S. Army. Following his discharge, Matisi wasted no time returning to the boxing ring and was featured regularly on local cards hosted by Binghamton’s Kalurah Temple, Johnson Field in Johnson City, and the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

He continued his winning ways after the war, racking up a ten-fight unbeaten streak, concluding eight bouts inside the distance. Unfortunately, one of those knockout victories ended in tragedy. Dave Mason, fighting out of Cleveland, was sent to the canvas four times by Joltin’ Joe before being counted out in the third round and died of a cerebral hemorrhage the following day.

Matisi’s one brush with greatness came in 1947 when he got to go toe to toe with soon-to-be heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles in Buffalo. 47-5-1 at the time, ‘The Cincinnati Cobra,’ as Charles was known, struck down Matisi four times and cruised to a shutout decision. Five months later, Charles too would claim the life an opponent when Sam Baroudi expired from injuries sustained during their February 1948 fight at Chicago Stadium.

Following the loss to Ezzard Charles, Matisi won only one of his last five fights and retired in 1949 with a record of 22-9-2 (15 KOs). Right around the same time that Matisi hung up his gloves, Rod Serling submitted a boxing-themed script titled “Winner Take Nothing” to the radio anthology series Grand Central Station. In his rejection letter, the program’s producer and director Martin Horrell remarked that Serling’s story was “better than average” but would hardly be to the liking of the female listeners who tuned in on Saturday afternoons expecting lighter fare in the way of comedy and romance. With more than a slight trace of prophetic foresight, Horrell suggested that Serling’s effort was best suited for television rather than radio.

Rod Serling worked from a composite of former prizefighters when creating the template for the character of Mountain in the two versions of “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” played by Jack Palance and Anthony Quinn, respectively. Although Serling never specified by name any of the cauliflower-eared, hard luck boxers who served as his various muses, it’s altogether possible that Broome County fan favorite Joltin’ Joe Matisi might have been one of them.

 

This article is a supplement to my book The Twilight Rounds: Rod Serling Explores the Dark Side of Boxing, published by Jobber House Press.