Max Baer vs Rocky Marciano Boxing Poster
In 1967, ring experts wondered if a computer, fed a set of human variables, could predict a fair outcome to a fight between men of different eras, styles, and abilities. Fight fan Murry Woroner began by gathering a group of boxing experts who owned some of the most complete libraries of information on the subject. With their help, Woroner created a rating sheet that broke the skill of boxing down into 58 "factors" such as speed, hardness of punch, accuracy, prior injuries, susceptibility to cuts, courage, ability to defend, and killer instinct and the field was reduced to 16. Next, through yellowed newspaper accounts, old motion pictures, and interviews with each living contender except Gene Tunney they distilled a punch-by-punch story of each fighter's bouts for his 5 best years. This information was to be put into the computer along with each man's reactions in varying situations, so that the machine could predict a most probable response to any given event.
The data was fine tuned as it was fed into an NCR-315 that condensed thousands of random facts and made 60 million calculations over 18 months which finally produced the simulated bouts. Realistic audio was created and marketed to radio stations, and the finished tapes were shipped to bank vaults at Western Union for delivery to participating stations shortly before air time. The finished product was a series that was exciting enough to raise a sweat on the in-the-flesh fighters, who cheered themselves on along with millions of other listeners.
This is a rare 14” by 21” Drewry’s Beer promotional poster from that series of broadcasts in the late 60’s which pitted Max Baer against Rocky Marcian. Baer bested highly favored Jack Johnson, while Marciano took out Tunney in the first round of the tournament, both decisons. The “Livermore Larruper” (Baer) beat the “Brockton Blockbuster” in their quarterfinals match, with a TKO in the 13th round; Max later lost in the next round to Jack Dempsey. The poster is on thick stock and has some toning due to age; it appears that another item was displayed or stored over the bottom 7”, as it is much lighter in color. There’s slight edgewear and a little diagonal creasing in the upper right corner, yet overall the poster grades out at Very Good to Excellent. Are YOU Ready to R-R-R-UMBLE?
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