HOLMES, LARRY-MIKE WEAVER & ROBERTO DURAN-CARLOS PALOMINO ON SITE POSTER (1979)

On June 22,1979 at Madison Square Garden in New York world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes met Mike Weaver for the WBC Heavyweight Title. Holmes won the bout by TKO in the 12th round. On the undercard Roberto Duran scored a ten round decision over Carlos Palomino. There was a crowd of 14,136 at Madison Square Garden. The gate was $771,982. The fight was shown on closed circuit television in 45 locations and on Home Box Office, which had about two million subscribers at the time. HBO paid $150,000 to televise the fight after the three major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—turned it down. Holmes said that he contracted the flu in the middle of training camp. The WBC rated Weaver as the No. 8 heavyweight contender. Weaver, a heavy underdog, gave Holmes a much tougher fight than expected. The following is from "Holmes-Weaver 30 years later" by William Dettloff: Holmes won the first three rounds with the jab. Weaver won the next two. By the fight's midway point the crowd was solidly in the underdog's corner. As Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "As soon as Mike Weaver landed one of those big right hands, the people in the rafters started chanting 'WeaVER, WeaVER' for a heavyweight most of them had never heard of until the match was made." Back and forth it went over the middle rounds, not always pretty, but damned compelling. Holmes jabbed and tried to land rights. Weaver bombed him back with right hands and left hooks. Holmes claimed later not to be bothered by the crowd. "I heard them yelling for him but it didn't mean anything. At the time, he was beating the hell out of me. So they yelled for him. When I was beating the hell out of him, they was yelling for me," he said. The two pounded away at one another in the eighth and ninth rounds. At the start of the 10th, Holmes told Weaver, "I'm the champion. There's no way you're gonna beat me." Weaver replied: "I'm gonna try." They slugged away through the 10th and deep into the 11th. Both men were hurt more than once. With 12 seconds left in the 11th, Holmes willed everything he had left into a right uppercut that caught Weaver clean and dropped him hard. The rest between rounds wasn't enough. At the start of the 12th Holmes pinned Weaver against the ropes and pummeled him until referee Harold Valan stopped it. Finally it was over. "Roberto Duran knocked Carlos Palomino down in the sixth round, mixed boxing with punching and pounded out a 10-round unanimous decision over the former welterweight champion Friday night at Madison Square Garden. The fight was a preliminary to Larry Holmes' World Boxing Council heavyweight title defense against Mike Weaver, but it was the fight most of the fans came to see. Duran didn't disappoint them. The 28-year-old Panamanian, who gave up the lightweight title because of trouble making the 135-pound limit, showed he is deadly serious about becoming welterweight champion. He feinted with his head and shoulders, he jabbed, he countered and of course, he put on the deadly pressure that led to his nickname 'Manos de Piedra' — Hands of Stone. He especially put on the pressure in the second half of the fight, overwhelming Palomino....At the beginning of the sixth round, Duran walked out and knocked down Palomino with a left-right. Palomino bounced up immediately and took the mandatory eight count. He survived the round, but before it was over, he was cut at the corner of his right eye and under the left ear. Palomino held his own in the seventh round, scoring well with hooks inside, but then Duran took complete command in the final three rounds — often smiling from the sheer joy of battle." - Associated Press. Presented here is an original, on site poster for this event
This is an original, cardboard, on site poster which pictures Holmes, Weaver, Duran and Palomino. Bold color and print. Bold, clear images. No center crease. No tack holes. Clean front and back. Minor edge and surface wear. 16" x 28."