Looking at those photos of the moon, man, it is just littered with craters from meteor strikes. The Moon has thousands of craters because it lacks an atmosphere to burn up meteors, and it has no geological activity (like plate tectonics or erosion) to erase them. Without wind, water, or active volcanoes to wash away or bury impacts, craters from billions of years of cosmic collisions—including the "Late Heavy Bombardment"—are preserved in time. It's fascinating. These are the largest impact craters on planet Earth, Vredefort and Chicxulub being the largest. Of course Chicxulub was the impact event that rendered the Dinosaurs extinct.
The Vredefort impactor is fascinating, the event happened about 2 billion years ago in South Africa, about twice the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. The crater is so old that you can barely see the remnants of it, but you can make out the outer rings of the crater. The asteroid that created the Vredefort crater is estimated to have released 100 million megatons (100 trillion tons) of TNT upon impact, roughly the equivalent to billions of atomic bombs.
Scientists Have Been Underestimating the Asteroid That Created the Biggest Known Crater on Earth
By: Evan Gough
Planetary Science
Ancient impacts played a powerful role in Earth's complex history. On other Solar System bodies like the Moon or Mercury, the impact history is preserved on their surfaces because there's nothing to erase it. But Earth's geologic activity has erased the evidence of impact craters over time, with some help from erosion.
Earth's complex history has elevated its status among its Solar System siblings and created a world that's rippling with life. Ancient giant impacts have played a role in that history, bringing catastrophe and disruption and irrevocably changing the course of events. Deciphering the role these giant impacts played is difficult since the evidence is missing or severely degraded. So how do scientists approach this problem?
One crater at a time.
The most well-known giant impact on Earth is the Chicxulub impactor which wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago and cleared the way for mammals to become preeminent. But there've been other giant impacts, including one in South Africa. It's called the Vredefort Crater, and it's Earth's largest confirmed impact crater.
"Understanding the largest impact structure that we have on Earth is critical."Natalie Allen, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University.
The Vredefort impactor struck Earth about 2 billion years ago during the Paleoproterozoic Era and is now located in South Africa. Previous research put the Vredefort impactor at between 10 to 15 km in diameter, and the crater — or impact structure as scientists call them — was about 160–300 km (100–200 mi) across when it was formed. Erosion has reduced its size in the two billion intervening years, though, making the nature of the impactor, the size of the crater, and the impact's effects difficult to gauge accurately.
The Vredefort crater is a two-billion-year-old impact structure located in South Africa. Image Credit: Google Earth.
But new research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets arrives at a different size and impact velocity for the Vredefort impactor. The study's authors say that the impactor was larger than thought, struck Earth at a greater velocity than thought, and had devastating and far-reaching consequences.
The study is " A Revision of the Formation Conditions of the Vredefort Crater. " The lead author is Natalie Allen, a Ph.D. student in the department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University.
"Understanding the largest impact structure that we have on Earth is critical," Allen said in a press release. "Having access to the information provided by a structure like the Vredefort crater is a great opportunity to test our model and our understanding of the geologic evidence so we can better understand impacts on Earth and beyond."
More recent impacts like the Chicxulub event also had far-reaching and catastrophic consequences. Chicxulub caused megatsunamis, violent earthquakes, firestorms that turned forests to ash and cinders, atmospheric dust accumulations that caused global temperatures to drop for a sustained period of time, and of course, the extinction of the dinosaurs. But Earth was much different when the Vredefort impact event occurred in the Paleoproterozoic Era. There were no animals and no forests.
Previous estimates for the Vredefort impactor place it at about 15 km in diameter with an impact velocity of 15 km/s. That would excavate a crater about 172 km in diameter. The crater has eroded extensively in the intervening two billion years, so earlier geologic evidence supported the "15x15" estimation. But the problem is that the crater is now understood to be much larger. The most relied-upon modern estimation for the crater is between 250 to 280 km (155 to 174 miles.) To help sort out the discrepancy, the authors of this study brought new tools to bear on the Vredefort impact event in the form of computer simulations.
The researchers ran simulations with the "impact code iSALE2D (impact Simplified Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian)" tool. It's a shock physics simulation tool that helps researchers understand impact events. Scientists use it to simulate impacts and reproduce their effects. Their simulations led to an impactor size and velocity that more accurately reflects modern evidence. The researchers say that the Vredefort impactor was actually either a 25 km diameter body travelling at 15 km/s or a 20 km diameter body travelling at 20 km/s.
This table shows some of the simulation results in the study. Each combination of impactor diameter and velocity produces a different-sized crater or impact structure. C in the right column reflects previous estimates for the Vredefort impactor, while A and B reflect the study's results. Image Credit: Allen et. al. 2022.
The size of the crater isn't the only evidence that lines up with the impactor's revised diameter and velocity. Certain features in the rock under the impact site also suggest a larger impactor than thought. Researchers have found shock-metamorphic features in the Vredefort impact structure, including "... breccia, shatter cones, planar deformation features in quartz and zircon, and melt," the authors write. Their location suggests that the impact was more powerful than thought.
This image from the study shows the Vredefort dome today, with different parts of the impact structure labelled. PDFs are Planar Deformation Features which are present in zircon and quartz and caused by powerful shocks. Shatter cones are rare geological features which only form under impact sites. Granophyre is a geologic feature also formed by impacts.
These revised results for the Vredefort impact mean that the impact was more energetic than previously thought. The impact dwarfs that of the dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impactor. Chicxulub was catastrophic for life on Earth at the time, so the Vredefort impact would've been a mega-catastrophe. However, it left no record of a mass extinction and no consistent layer of ash around the globe like Chicxulub did. What havoc did the Vredefort impactor wreak on Earth?
"Unlike the Chicxulub impact, the Vredefort impact did not leave a record of mass extinction or forest fires, given that there were only single-cell lifeforms and no trees existed two billion years ago," said Prof. Miki Nakajima, one of the paper's authors also from Johns Hopkins. "However, the impact would have affected the global climate potentially more extensively than the Chicxulub impact did."
The impact thickened the atmosphere with dust and aerosols, blocking out sunlight and causing temperatures to drop. At the time, oxygen was accumulating in the atmosphere, and photosynthetic organisms were widespread and had been around for a billion years already. What happened to them?
"This could have had a devastating effect on photosynthetic organisms," Nakajima said. "After the dust and aerosols settled—which could have taken anywhere from hours to a decade—greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that were emitted from the impact would have raised the global temperature potentially by several degrees for a long period of time."
This image from the study shows three simulation runs, A, B, and C, at three distinct times with different impactor sizes. The top row is at t = 0.0 seconds, right at the time of impact. The middle row is at t = 80 seconds, and the bottom row is at t = 1500 seconds, 25 minutes after impact. The blue arrows in the bottom row show the point at which the crater reached equilibrium when the physical forces from the impact subside, and the crater takes its final shape. A and B more closely resemble the Vredefort crater. Image Credit: Allen et. al. 2022.
As we see all around us, a temperature rise of only a couple of degrees has a powerful effect on the global climate. Flooding, hurricanes, droughts and other phenomena are occurring with greater frequency in our warming world. Geologic evidence is hard to come by, but two billion years ago, Earth was just coming out of the Huronian Glaciation, so there was likely a lot of ice on the planet's surface. If the Vredefort impact raised global temperatures, melting might have raised the ocean level considerably. The impact may also have heralded a period of violent storms, though there's no way of knowing for sure.
The authors refrain from an exact explanation of the consequences for life on Earth at the time. But they do arrive at several conclusions.
Previous estimates of the crater size and the impactor size don't match the geologic evidence. The weaker impact from previous research is unable to create enough pressure to create the geologic features at the Vredefort impact site.
Impacts of this size also create a melt sheet under the impact site. While much of it would've eroded over the two billion years, the team's models show some should still exist under the center, where it's found today.
Another of their conclusions concerns the locations of the land masses two billion years ago. We know the continents have drifted considerably and were even joined together in the past, but pinning down their precise locations at specific times is difficult. Scientists have found ejecta from the Vredefort impact at different locations around the globe, especially in Karelia, Russia, and they know how far ejecta can travel from an impact of a given energy. So with a more accurate understanding of the energy of Vredefort's impact, the authors were able to constrain the location of Karelia at the time of impact. When the Vredefort impact struck, Karelia was between 2,000 to 2,500 km from the impact site. Now they're four times as distant from one another.
The Karelia region straddles Russia and Finland. The study shows that at the time of the Vredefort impact, Vredefort and Karelia were between 2,000 and 2,500 km apart. Now they're almost 10,000 km apart. Image Credit: Google Earth.
"It is incredibly difficult to constrain the location of landmasses long ago," Allen says. "The current best simulations have mapped back about a billion years, and uncertainties grow larger the further back you go. Clarifying evidence such as this ejecta layer mapping may allow researchers to test their models and help complete the view into the past."
It'll be difficult for scientists to ever understand what happened to life on Earth when the Vredefort impactor struck. The vast quantities of gases released, along with all the dust, may have rendered photosynthesis ineffective for large parts of the globe. It may have taken ten years for all that dust to settle and for the gases to leave the atmosphere. It was a catastrophe any way you slice it.
Life on Earth has run a gauntlet of catastrophic impacts, extinctions, and global climate gyrations. The dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impactor puts heavy emphasis on that. But this study shows that massive impacts may have shaped the course of life on Earth, even when that life was only single-celled. What specific effects did the Vredefort impact have on life's long evolutionary journey?
"The global effects of this impact would have been extensive," the authors write. "The liberation of climatic gases would have altered the global climate, but predictions further than that require study beyond the scope of this work."
You know, it's fascinating the way scientists discovered that an asteroid is how the dinosaurs went extinct. How they went extinct was hotly debated for years, then Physicist Luis Walter Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, proposed the asteroid impact theory in 1980, supported by nuclear chemists Frank Asaro and Helen Michel. They discovered high levels of iridium at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-T) boundary, indicating a massive asteroid impact caused the dinosaur extinction 66 million years ago. They literally solved the biggest murder mystery in history,
how the most dominant group of land-dwelling creatures in Earth's history, reigning supreme for approximately 165 million years, disappeared forever. This is a photo of Luis Walter Alvarez, left, and his son Walter, right, at the K–T boundary in Gubbio, Italy, in 1981.
After Luis Walter Alvarez and his son Walter discovered the culprit that killed the dinosaurs, the next logical thing to do was to look for the crater, but scientists couldn't find it. As it turned out, PEMEX oil company was surveying the Yucatan Peninsula in the late 1970, mapping the ocean floor for potential drilling spots. The Chicxulub impact crater was finally found through geophysical surveys in the late 1970s by PEMEX oil geophysicists Glen Penfield and Antonio Camargo, who identified a massive, buried arc-shaped anomaly under the Yucatán Peninsula. Later, in 1990-1991, researchers Alan Hildebrand and others confirmed it as the K-T boundary impact site using core samples containing shocked quartz, tektites, and melt rock. Absolutely fascinating story. This is a photo of Glen Penfield, the geophysicist that discovered the anomoly at the bottom of the Yucatan Peninsula.
The Chicxulub asteroid impact 66 million years ago destroyed approximately 75% of all plant and animal species on Earth. While it was massive, it wasn't the biggest extinction level event in Earth's history. The biggest was the "End Permian Extinction" which occurred 251 million years ago, caused by the Siberian Traps eruptions. "The Great Dying" as it is also called, wiped out 90% of all species on Earth, killing roughly 95–96% of marine species, while approximately 70% of land-based vertebrate species perished. Life came that close to being DONE, to put it in boxing terms, life was "on the ropes." This extinction event was caused by massive, prolonged volcanic eruptions in modern-day Siberia, which released immense amounts of carbon dioxide and toxic gases, causing extreme global warming and ocean acidification. The volcanic activity lasted for up to 2 million years, driving the most severe extinction event in Earth's history. Great read by Michael Benton.
The Siberian Traps eruptions would have been something to behold, nothing but lava as far as the eyes could see. The Siberian Traps eruptions covered an estimated area of 1.9 million to over 2.7 million square miles (5 to 7 million square kilometers) of Siberian basaltic rock, a region roughly the size of the United States or Europe, these eruptions formed a Large Igneous Province with layers of lava up to a mile thick.
The Siberian Traps were basically one big continuous pump, the pumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it pumped CO2 and other greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere for nearly 2 million years, poisoning the atmosphere, estimated to have raised global temperatures by 8°C to 10°C (14.4°F to 18°F). Some models suggest even higher, more intense regional heating in the tropics. It's basically the same thing we're doing today, pumping CO2 and greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere, albeit by different methods, and the effects are starting to show, global temperatures are slowly rising, glaciers are melting, ocean levels are rising. It's comical that people believe global warming is a hoax, mostly idiot right-wingers who let Trump and Fox News tell them how to think, what to believe in. Don't trust vaccinations, don't trust science, don't trust doctors, don't trust judges and the judicial system, what a joke. Here is a phenomenal documentary about the Siberian Traps, the End Permian Extinction, backed up by research, science, and facts.
"The Onion Farmer" Carmen Basilio wears his crown after defeating Sugar Ray Robinson for the world middleweight championship by 15-round split decision on September 23rd, 1957 at Yankee Stadium.
The battle-scarred face of former European lightweight champion Fred Bretonnel, from France, who turned pro at 14 years old and amassed a record of 42–18-14 (13 KOs) before committing suicide by hanging himself in 1928 at the age of 23.
"l disagree with people saying you have to hate somebody to be in the right frame of mind to win. They say you have to put petrol in your water and eat raw meat. That's complete nonsense as far as I'm concerned. You either have it or you don't. The difference between a good fighter and a great fighter is self-confidence. You must be ready and think at all times. Even if you can't win, you must think that you're gonna win."
"Battling" Jim Johnson, early 1900s heavyweight that came within a hair of beating the great Jack Johnson for the world heavyweight title on December 19th, 1913, at the Élysée Montmartre in Paris, France. Battling Jim was a gladiator, who fought and held his own with the best of his era.
The Grueling Truth
Battling Jim – The Johnson Who Fell Just Short
By: Chris LaForce
Publish Date: 11/29/2023
Fact checked by: Mike Goodpaster
John Arthur “Jack” Johnson is universally recognized as one of Boxing’s great heavyweight champions. His reign, unfortunately, was marked by a dearth of talent among the white heavyweights, but there were certainly some formidable black dreadnoughts practicing their craft at the time. Sam Langford, Joe Jennette (sometimes spelled Jeanette or
Jeannette) and Sam McVea (or McVey) were a trio who made their way into Boxing’s Hall(s) of Fame and were an ordeal for any fighter to trade punches with. The irony here is that Jack pulled the old “color line” against them, saying, “Two black boys don’t draw flies.” Meaning, of course, that the amount the public would pay to see them duke it out wouldn’t be enough to warrant the risk involved. That was crap. Plenty of green was offered for these fights.
Johnson fled the United States in June 1913 to escape the persecution of white bigots who detested his audacity. “Li’l Artha” had the courage to live his life according to his own choices rather than submit to the dictates of a largely racist society which had instituted the “Jim Crow”laws. He married several white women over the years, and the real surprise is that he wasn’t lynched at some point. When the government convicted him to a one-year prison sentence on trumped up charges via the recently-enacted Mann Act
(which prohibited interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”)
Jack Johnson, circa 1907
Jack furtively escaped into Canada, taking a steamship to France. On December 19 of that year, despite his claim that he would never defend his world title against another of his race, Jack had a bout against a large (usually listed at 6′3″ and 220 pounds)* and useful, but limited black boxer by the nom de guerre, “Battling” Jim Johnson.
Jim’s height has also been given as 5′11″, and existing footage of a 1910 bout he had with Sam McVea makes him look much shorter than 6′3″.
The contest was held at the Premierland Français at Elysee and Montmartre in Paris, and was only the second real fight the “Galveston Giant” had engaged in for nearly 3½ years. Coupled with wine, women, and the night life of Paris he’d been enjoying, it can be understood that Jack wasn’t quite prepared for a stern test. His namesake, Jim, was a hard rock whose pugilistic career began in 1908, and who was known for his strength and stamina. “Battling Jim” had already faced many of the top names of the era, including Sam McVea (August 7, 1910 Draw 15; November 19, 1910 Lost by KO 18), Joe Jennette (July 29, 1912 No Decision 6; October 30, 1912 No Decision 10; January 1, 1913 No Decision 10; January 21, 1910 Lost by Foul 15 [or 12]); and Sam Langford (May 14, 1910 No Decision 6). He had defeated several other good heavyweights, such as “Big” Bill Tate and Tom Cowler, but was considered a fringe contender.
The legend says that Jack claimed a broken arm and had a friendly referee terminate the bout as a draw after 10 of the scheduled 20 rounds, and that Jim should have captured the crown that day. This, in turn, might ultimately have allowed the likes of Sam Langford, Joe Jennette, or Sam McVea to have a crack at the bauble and a taste of the championship. The French newspaper Le Figaro wrote on the day of the fight, December 19, 1913, just prior to the actual event, that the match was to be “un combat un dix reprises de trois minutes” (a battle of 10 rounds, of 3 minutes each). This is at odds with the popular notion that the bout was originally slated for 20 frames, but was halted after only 10, due to the injury sustained by Jack. The following fight account is an amalgam of multiple sources, mostly contemporary.1
“Battling” Jim Johnson
The opening round wasn’t notable, but in round two the champion landed “a couple of smashing body blows with his left hand.” No real harm was done, however. The majority of his follow-up attempts to the midsection in this and later rounds were blocked by “Battling” Jim, who, it was said, fought out of a deeper crouch than Jim Jeffries. This allowed “Battling” Jim to land his own rattling blows to the stomach. He forced the action, largely making the fight, though Jack certainly got in more than his share of left jabs to the head. He
doubled up on it, got in a multitude of right uppercuts as well and moved adroitly on his feet. Le Figaro claimed that Jack broke the radius of his left arm in round 5, when Jim crashed home a powerful right hand to his elbow. From the 6th to the end of the match, the latter was on the defensive. In the 7th stanza, Jim broke through the guard of the champion on three occasions, raking his foe with sharp uppercuts. Le Figaro wrote “…by the 7th round, Johnson’s broken face read defeat.” If not for the great defense of “Li’l Artha,” his young challenger might have knocked him out. It was only Jack’s superior boxing ability and supreme skill that enabled him to see the finish.
At the final bell ending the 10th round, Jack staggered to the ropes, clutching his left arm and saying he’d broken it. When the angry and disbelieving crowd demanded to know just when this alleged injury occurred, they received the reply that it was in the 3rd frame. The referee declared the fight a draw, allowing the champion to retain his title. The New York Times said, “It was the general impression among the spectators that the injury had been sustained in the last minute of the fight, when Jim Johnson rushed Jack to the ropes and the two went to the floor, with Jack’s arms closed about Jim’s waist. Both men jumped up quickly, but Jack was plainly exhausted and he fell against the ropes as the gong sounded. Then, he tottered to his corner, holding his left arm and declaring it was broken.”
The paper added that the fistic monarch’s foe had “battered him all around the ring” and would have taken him out if the bout had proceeded much longer. It must be said that Jack Johnson showed courage and fortitude in enduring the pain to the end. Strangely, another great black heavyweight, the “Brown Panther” Harry Wills would, in 1917, lose on a TKO (Technical Knockout) due to a broken left wrist in a fight with Jim Johnson. This occurred in round two, when he stopped a right uppercut with his elbow. The scheduled duration of fights around the world varied, often being 20, 25 or even 45 rounds. Jack’s next defense of his crown (in 1914) would be 20 rounds. If the 10-rounder on this day had been slated for 15 or more, it is a virtual certainty that the name of “Battling Jim” would have entered the ledger as the 2nd African-American world heavyweight champion.
“Battling” Jim Johnson’s life was taken in 1918, along with millions of others, in the great Spanish Flu epidemic. He contracted the lethal illness and was admitted to a hospital while waiting for a fight with Sam Langford to be rescheduled. A few days after being removed from hospital, Jim died of pneumonia. He was only 31. As for Jack, he died exactly as it was claimed he’d predicted, in a high-speed car crash, near Raleigh, North Carolina. While the legend, fame, and notoriety of the “Galveston Giant” will persevere, the other Johnson missed a date with fistic immortality by little more than a hairsbreadth.
It's a shame that there are only a few trading cards that feature "Battling" Jim Johnson, here is the 1911 W.D. & H.O. Wills with a Scissors back, these cards came with a few different variation backs, there's also a Wills's cigarettes back. I've seen a custom trading card featuring Johnson on eBay a while back, I believe it was a Helmar Brewing Co. card, but it's no longer available for sale. Nevertheless, this is a sweet card that I really like.
The 1912 Cohen, Weenan & Co. Jim Johnson. These cards came with different colored letters variation backs, Green, Black, and Grey, the Grey is by far the most difficult to find. The "Teofani and Magnums" cigarette company and "Hudden & Co." also put sets out using identical images of these cards. The 1927 Hudden & Co. Famous Boxers set is legendary and is one of the rarest boxing card sets on this planet.
This is my personal favorite image of "Battling" Jim Johnson, with the mustache. Final thought on Jim Johnson, this man fought Sam Langford 12 times, Joe Jeanette 10 times, Harry Wills 3 times, Sam McVea 7 times, and Jack Johnson, that's a meat grinder of a resume. Some people would refer to Jim Johnson as a journeyman, and that's fair, but he was an incredibly dangerous journeyman. I've seen "Battling" Jim Johnson on film and he was a rough customer with brutal punching power.
It's unbelievable that we actually have fight footage of "Battling" Jim Johnson, about 6 minutes of his fight against the all-time great and Hall of Famer Sam McVea in 1910 was filmed. Now, Sam McVea was built like a brick $hithouse, and McVea could bang, he iced 60 opponents during his career. On film, Johnson roughs McVea up and gets the better of him, he utilizes clinching tactics very well, he's able to smother McVea's attacks and lands a few good power shots that put McVea on the retreat. "Battling" Jim Johnson's official record is 28-17-7 (24 KO), he most always came up short against the best he faced during his era, but his record doesn't tell the whole story, the man could fight.
How about some G.I. Joes? This is Storm Shadow, 1984, Cobra Ninja, Peach file card version, still sealed in it's original manufacturer packaging. This puppy is $4,399 on eBay.
Zartan, 1984, master of disguise, with Swamp Skier. This was really cool, Zartan could change colors like a Chameleon and he came with a swamp skier that could float on water. He also had a mask accessory you could put on his face, a disguise.
“I turned my life around in prison. I haven't had a beer, and I've been off the cocaine for years. There was a time when I never thought I'd be able to tell anyone that. I just thank Holy God. The fact I'm off the booze and drugs doesn't mean I'm a better person than somebody who can't beat their addiction. The only person I'm better than is the guy Dicky Eklund used to be.”
- Dicky Eklund
Real change isn’t about comparing yourself to others, it’s about becoming better than who you used to be. Overcoming struggles, especially ones that once felt impossible to escape, takes honesty, humility, and constant effort.
Lionel Rose’s meeting with Elvis Presley in December 1968 was a moment that brought together two icons from vastly different worlds. The 20-year-old Aboriginal boxer had risen from humble beginnings in Gippsland, Australia, to become the world bantamweight champion, a national hero, and the first Indigenous Australian to win the title. Meanwhile, Elvis Presley, the undisputed King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, was at the peak of his fame, filming "The Trouble with Girls" in Los Angeles. Despite their different backgrounds, they shared a deep respect for each other’s craft.
After an intense training session preparing for his title defense against Chucho Castillo, Lionel received word that Elvis wanted to meet him. Without hesitation, he peeled off his gloves, showered, and rushed to the MGM studio lot. When he arrived, he was greeted with a warm, unmistakable voice— “Hey, Lionel! What’s doin’?” Rose, in awe of Elvis, was surprised when the King of Rock 'n' Roll admitted he was just as impressed by him.
The two spent hours talking about boxing, music, and life. Rose, who had learned to fight from his father in tent boxing shows, had captured the world’s attention by defeating Japan’s Fighting Harada, proving that a boy from the Australian bush could stand among the greats. That meeting with Elvis was not just a personal highlight—it was a recognition of Rose’s impact beyond the boxing ring.
Years later, Lionel Rose remained a symbol of resilience and inspiration, not just for Aboriginal Australians but for anyone who dared to dream big despite the odds. As he once said, “It doesn’t matter where you come from; it matters where you go.”
Awesome image of Sandy Saddler wearing the kilt. He was one of the greatest featherweights to ever live, murderous puncher, he iced 103 opponents. I actually own this photo, I apologize for the poor scan, the photo is lying around my trailer somewhere and I can't seem to find it, I had to use an old eBay scan and blow it up.
"The Irish Lullaby" Jimmy McClarnin rides his motorcycle in the 1930s. One of the greatest fighters in history period, nobody except the great Harry Greb chopped down more Hall of Famers than McClarnin.
Love this image of Victor "The Animal" Galindez, it reminds me of a 1930s werewolf movie. And it's very fitting because Victor Galindez fought like a wild man, he wasn't called "The Animal" for nothing.
"This is a very unforgiving sport. When you do good, people are easy to jump on the bandwagon. As soon as you stumbIe, they hide under the shade tree."
Check out what I picked up on eBay the other day, the 2025 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Magenta printing plate 1/1 for the Zhilei Zhang Goudey card. Absolutely sick, Magenta is one of my favorites, it's one of the most beautiful colors in nature. Zhilei Zhang is a bad a$$, he's nicknamed "Big Bang" because he is a brutal puncher, he has some of the heaviest hands I've ever seen on a heavyweight.
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Looking at those photos of the moon, man, it is just littered with craters from meteor strikes. The Moon has thousands of craters because it lacks an atmosphere to burn up meteors, and it has no geological activity (like plate tectonics or erosion) to erase them. Without wind, water, or active volcanoes to wash away or bury impacts, craters from billions of years of cosmic collisions—including the "Late Heavy Bombardment"—are preserved in time. It's fascinating. These are the largest impact craters on planet Earth, Vredefort and Chicxulub being the largest. Of course Chicxulub was the impact event that rendered the Dinosaurs extinct.
The Vredefort impactor is fascinating, the event happened about 2 billion years ago in South Africa, about twice the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. The crater is so old that you can barely see the remnants of it, but you can make out the outer rings of the crater. The asteroid that created the Vredefort crater is estimated to have released 100 million megatons (100 trillion tons) of TNT upon impact, roughly the equivalent to billions of atomic bombs.
Scientists Have Been Underestimating the Asteroid That Created the Biggest Known Crater on Earth
By: Evan Gough
Planetary Science
Ancient impacts played a powerful role in Earth's complex history. On other Solar System bodies like the Moon or Mercury, the impact history is preserved on their surfaces because there's nothing to erase it. But Earth's geologic activity has erased the evidence of impact craters over time, with some help from erosion.
Earth's complex history has elevated its status among its Solar System siblings and created a world that's rippling with life. Ancient giant impacts have played a role in that history, bringing catastrophe and disruption and irrevocably changing the course of events. Deciphering the role these giant impacts played is difficult since the evidence is missing or severely degraded. So how do scientists approach this problem?
One crater at a time.
The most well-known giant impact on Earth is the Chicxulub impactor which wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago and cleared the way for mammals to become preeminent. But there've been other giant impacts, including one in South Africa. It's called the Vredefort Crater, and it's Earth's largest confirmed impact crater.
"Understanding the largest impact structure that we have on Earth is critical."Natalie Allen, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University.
The Vredefort impactor struck Earth about 2 billion years ago during the Paleoproterozoic Era and is now located in South Africa. Previous research put the Vredefort impactor at between 10 to 15 km in diameter, and the crater — or impact structure as scientists call them — was about 160–300 km (100–200 mi) across when it was formed. Erosion has reduced its size in the two billion intervening years, though, making the nature of the impactor, the size of the crater, and the impact's effects difficult to gauge accurately.
The Vredefort crater is a two-billion-year-old impact structure located in South Africa. Image Credit: Google Earth.
But new research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets arrives at a different size and impact velocity for the Vredefort impactor. The study's authors say that the impactor was larger than thought, struck Earth at a greater velocity than thought, and had devastating and far-reaching consequences.
The study is " A Revision of the Formation Conditions of the Vredefort Crater. " The lead author is Natalie Allen, a Ph.D. student in the department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University.
"Understanding the largest impact structure that we have on Earth is critical," Allen said in a press release. "Having access to the information provided by a structure like the Vredefort crater is a great opportunity to test our model and our understanding of the geologic evidence so we can better understand impacts on Earth and beyond."
More recent impacts like the Chicxulub event also had far-reaching and catastrophic consequences. Chicxulub caused megatsunamis, violent earthquakes, firestorms that turned forests to ash and cinders, atmospheric dust accumulations that caused global temperatures to drop for a sustained period of time, and of course, the extinction of the dinosaurs. But Earth was much different when the Vredefort impact event occurred in the Paleoproterozoic Era. There were no animals and no forests.
Previous estimates for the Vredefort impactor place it at about 15 km in diameter with an impact velocity of 15 km/s. That would excavate a crater about 172 km in diameter. The crater has eroded extensively in the intervening two billion years, so earlier geologic evidence supported the "15x15" estimation. But the problem is that the crater is now understood to be much larger. The most relied-upon modern estimation for the crater is between 250 to 280 km (155 to 174 miles.) To help sort out the discrepancy, the authors of this study brought new tools to bear on the Vredefort impact event in the form of computer simulations.
The researchers ran simulations with the "impact code iSALE2D (impact Simplified Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian)" tool. It's a shock physics simulation tool that helps researchers understand impact events. Scientists use it to simulate impacts and reproduce their effects. Their simulations led to an impactor size and velocity that more accurately reflects modern evidence. The researchers say that the Vredefort impactor was actually either a 25 km diameter body travelling at 15 km/s or a 20 km diameter body travelling at 20 km/s.
This table shows some of the simulation results in the study. Each combination of impactor diameter and velocity produces a different-sized crater or impact structure. C in the right column reflects previous estimates for the Vredefort impactor, while A and B reflect the study's results. Image Credit: Allen et. al. 2022.
The size of the crater isn't the only evidence that lines up with the impactor's revised diameter and velocity. Certain features in the rock under the impact site also suggest a larger impactor than thought. Researchers have found shock-metamorphic features in the Vredefort impact structure, including "... breccia, shatter cones, planar deformation features in quartz and zircon, and melt," the authors write. Their location suggests that the impact was more powerful than thought.
This image from the study shows the Vredefort dome today, with different parts of the impact structure labelled. PDFs are Planar Deformation Features which are present in zircon and quartz and caused by powerful shocks. Shatter cones are rare geological features which only form under impact sites. Granophyre is a geologic feature also formed by impacts.
These revised results for the Vredefort impact mean that the impact was more energetic than previously thought. The impact dwarfs that of the dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impactor. Chicxulub was catastrophic for life on Earth at the time, so the Vredefort impact would've been a mega-catastrophe. However, it left no record of a mass extinction and no consistent layer of ash around the globe like Chicxulub did. What havoc did the Vredefort impactor wreak on Earth?
"Unlike the Chicxulub impact, the Vredefort impact did not leave a record of mass extinction or forest fires, given that there were only single-cell lifeforms and no trees existed two billion years ago," said Prof. Miki Nakajima, one of the paper's authors also from Johns Hopkins. "However, the impact would have affected the global climate potentially more extensively than the Chicxulub impact did."
The impact thickened the atmosphere with dust and aerosols, blocking out sunlight and causing temperatures to drop. At the time, oxygen was accumulating in the atmosphere, and photosynthetic organisms were widespread and had been around for a billion years already. What happened to them?
"This could have had a devastating effect on photosynthetic organisms," Nakajima said. "After the dust and aerosols settled—which could have taken anywhere from hours to a decade—greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that were emitted from the impact would have raised the global temperature potentially by several degrees for a long period of time."
This image from the study shows three simulation runs, A, B, and C, at three distinct times with different impactor sizes. The top row is at t = 0.0 seconds, right at the time of impact. The middle row is at t = 80 seconds, and the bottom row is at t = 1500 seconds, 25 minutes after impact. The blue arrows in the bottom row show the point at which the crater reached equilibrium when the physical forces from the impact subside, and the crater takes its final shape. A and B more closely resemble the Vredefort crater. Image Credit: Allen et. al. 2022.
As we see all around us, a temperature rise of only a couple of degrees has a powerful effect on the global climate. Flooding, hurricanes, droughts and other phenomena are occurring with greater frequency in our warming world. Geologic evidence is hard to come by, but two billion years ago, Earth was just coming out of the Huronian Glaciation, so there was likely a lot of ice on the planet's surface. If the Vredefort impact raised global temperatures, melting might have raised the ocean level considerably. The impact may also have heralded a period of violent storms, though there's no way of knowing for sure.
The authors refrain from an exact explanation of the consequences for life on Earth at the time. But they do arrive at several conclusions.
Previous estimates of the crater size and the impactor size don't match the geologic evidence. The weaker impact from previous research is unable to create enough pressure to create the geologic features at the Vredefort impact site.
Impacts of this size also create a melt sheet under the impact site. While much of it would've eroded over the two billion years, the team's models show some should still exist under the center, where it's found today.
Another of their conclusions concerns the locations of the land masses two billion years ago. We know the continents have drifted considerably and were even joined together in the past, but pinning down their precise locations at specific times is difficult. Scientists have found ejecta from the Vredefort impact at different locations around the globe, especially in Karelia, Russia, and they know how far ejecta can travel from an impact of a given energy. So with a more accurate understanding of the energy of Vredefort's impact, the authors were able to constrain the location of Karelia at the time of impact. When the Vredefort impact struck, Karelia was between 2,000 to 2,500 km from the impact site. Now they're four times as distant from one another.
The Karelia region straddles Russia and Finland. The study shows that at the time of the Vredefort impact, Vredefort and Karelia were between 2,000 and 2,500 km apart. Now they're almost 10,000 km apart. Image Credit: Google Earth.
"It is incredibly difficult to constrain the location of landmasses long ago," Allen says. "The current best simulations have mapped back about a billion years, and uncertainties grow larger the further back you go. Clarifying evidence such as this ejecta layer mapping may allow researchers to test their models and help complete the view into the past."
It'll be difficult for scientists to ever understand what happened to life on Earth when the Vredefort impactor struck. The vast quantities of gases released, along with all the dust, may have rendered photosynthesis ineffective for large parts of the globe. It may have taken ten years for all that dust to settle and for the gases to leave the atmosphere. It was a catastrophe any way you slice it.
Life on Earth has run a gauntlet of catastrophic impacts, extinctions, and global climate gyrations. The dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impactor puts heavy emphasis on that. But this study shows that massive impacts may have shaped the course of life on Earth, even when that life was only single-celled. What specific effects did the Vredefort impact have on life's long evolutionary journey?
"The global effects of this impact would have been extensive," the authors write. "The liberation of climatic gases would have altered the global climate, but predictions further than that require study beyond the scope of this work."
You know, it's fascinating the way scientists discovered that an asteroid is how the dinosaurs went extinct. How they went extinct was hotly debated for years, then Physicist Luis Walter Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, proposed the asteroid impact theory in 1980, supported by nuclear chemists Frank Asaro and Helen Michel. They discovered high levels of iridium at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-T) boundary, indicating a massive asteroid impact caused the dinosaur extinction 66 million years ago. They literally solved the biggest murder mystery in history,
how the most dominant group of land-dwelling creatures in Earth's history, reigning supreme for approximately 165 million years, disappeared forever. This is a photo of Luis Walter Alvarez, left, and his son Walter, right, at the K–T boundary in Gubbio, Italy, in 1981.
After Luis Walter Alvarez and his son Walter discovered the culprit that killed the dinosaurs, the next logical thing to do was to look for the crater, but scientists couldn't find it. As it turned out, PEMEX oil company was surveying the Yucatan Peninsula in the late 1970, mapping the ocean floor for potential drilling spots. The Chicxulub impact crater was finally found through geophysical surveys in the late 1970s by PEMEX oil geophysicists Glen Penfield and Antonio Camargo, who identified a massive, buried arc-shaped anomaly under the Yucatán Peninsula. Later, in 1990-1991, researchers Alan Hildebrand and others confirmed it as the K-T boundary impact site using core samples containing shocked quartz, tektites, and melt rock. Absolutely fascinating story. This is a photo of Glen Penfield, the geophysicist that discovered the anomoly at the bottom of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Chicxulub crater, the scene of the crime of the extinction of the Dinosaurs.
The Chicxulub asteroid impact 66 million years ago destroyed approximately 75% of all plant and animal species on Earth. While it was massive, it wasn't the biggest extinction level event in Earth's history. The biggest was the "End Permian Extinction" which occurred 251 million years ago, caused by the Siberian Traps eruptions. "The Great Dying" as it is also called, wiped out 90% of all species on Earth, killing roughly 95–96% of marine species, while approximately 70% of land-based vertebrate species perished. Life came that close to being DONE, to put it in boxing terms, life was "on the ropes." This extinction event was caused by massive, prolonged volcanic eruptions in modern-day Siberia, which released immense amounts of carbon dioxide and toxic gases, causing extreme global warming and ocean acidification. The volcanic activity lasted for up to 2 million years, driving the most severe extinction event in Earth's history. Great read by Michael Benton.
The Siberian Traps eruptions would have been something to behold, nothing but lava as far as the eyes could see. The Siberian Traps eruptions covered an estimated area of 1.9 million to over 2.7 million square miles (5 to 7 million square kilometers) of Siberian basaltic rock, a region roughly the size of the United States or Europe, these eruptions formed a Large Igneous Province with layers of lava up to a mile thick.
The Siberian Traps were basically one big continuous pump, the pumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it pumped CO2 and other greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere for nearly 2 million years, poisoning the atmosphere, estimated to have raised global temperatures by 8°C to 10°C (14.4°F to 18°F). Some models suggest even higher, more intense regional heating in the tropics. It's basically the same thing we're doing today, pumping CO2 and greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere, albeit by different methods, and the effects are starting to show, global temperatures are slowly rising, glaciers are melting, ocean levels are rising. It's comical that people believe global warming is a hoax, mostly idiot right-wingers who let Trump and Fox News tell them how to think, what to believe in. Don't trust vaccinations, don't trust science, don't trust doctors, don't trust judges and the judicial system, what a joke. Here is a phenomenal documentary about the Siberian Traps, the End Permian Extinction, backed up by research, science, and facts.
Back to the boxing photos, great image of "Hands of Stone" Roberto Duran chillin' by his Trans-Am in 1979.
A photo of "Schoolboy" Bobby Chacon having a TV dinner that I just ran across, awesome image.
Check out this photo of Sonny Liston stretching his neck during a workout.
"The Onion Farmer" Carmen Basilio wears his crown after defeating Sugar Ray Robinson for the world middleweight championship by 15-round split decision on September 23rd, 1957 at Yankee Stadium.
The battle-scarred face of former European lightweight champion Fred Bretonnel, from France, who turned pro at 14 years old and amassed a record of 42–18-14 (13 KOs) before committing suicide by hanging himself in 1928 at the age of 23.
Another photo of Fred Bretonnel, look at the broken nose.
"l disagree with people saying you have to hate somebody to be in the right frame of mind to win. They say you have to put petrol in your water and eat raw meat. That's complete nonsense as far as I'm concerned. You either have it or you don't. The difference between a good fighter and a great fighter is self-confidence. You must be ready and think at all times. Even if you can't win, you must think that you're gonna win."
Hey, look who it is! Love you girl.
Another awesome photo Ingemar Johansson, aka "The Hammer of Thor."
Another cool image of Marvin Johnson, three-time light heavyweight champion. Man, he had one of the most brutal uppercuts in boxing history.
James "Lights Out" Toney.
Leon Spinks shoots a game of pool in the late 70s.
"Battling" Jim Johnson, early 1900s heavyweight that came within a hair of beating the great Jack Johnson for the world heavyweight title on December 19th, 1913, at the Élysée Montmartre in Paris, France. Battling Jim was a gladiator, who fought and held his own with the best of his era.
The Grueling Truth
Battling Jim – The Johnson Who Fell Just Short
By: Chris LaForce
Publish Date: 11/29/2023
Fact checked by: Mike Goodpaster
John Arthur “Jack” Johnson is universally recognized as one of Boxing’s great heavyweight champions. His reign, unfortunately, was marked by a dearth of talent among the white heavyweights, but there were certainly some formidable black dreadnoughts practicing their craft at the time. Sam Langford, Joe Jennette (sometimes spelled Jeanette or
Jeannette) and Sam McVea (or McVey) were a trio who made their way into Boxing’s Hall(s) of Fame and were an ordeal for any fighter to trade punches with. The irony here is that Jack pulled the old “color line” against them, saying, “Two black boys don’t draw flies.” Meaning, of course, that the amount the public would pay to see them duke it out wouldn’t be enough to warrant the risk involved. That was crap. Plenty of green was offered for these fights.
Johnson fled the United States in June 1913 to escape the persecution of white bigots who detested his audacity. “Li’l Artha” had the courage to live his life according to his own choices rather than submit to the dictates of a largely racist society which had instituted the “Jim Crow”laws. He married several white women over the years, and the real surprise is that he wasn’t lynched at some point. When the government convicted him to a one-year prison sentence on trumped up charges via the recently-enacted Mann Act
(which prohibited interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”)
Jack Johnson, circa 1907
Jack furtively escaped into Canada, taking a steamship to France. On December 19 of that year, despite his claim that he would never defend his world title against another of his race, Jack had a bout against a large (usually listed at 6′3″ and 220 pounds)* and useful, but limited black boxer by the nom de guerre, “Battling” Jim Johnson.
The contest was held at the Premierland Français at Elysee and Montmartre in Paris, and was only the second real fight the “Galveston Giant” had engaged in for nearly 3½ years. Coupled with wine, women, and the night life of Paris he’d been enjoying, it can be understood that Jack wasn’t quite prepared for a stern test. His namesake, Jim, was a hard rock whose pugilistic career began in 1908, and who was known for his strength and stamina. “Battling Jim” had already faced many of the top names of the era, including Sam McVea (August 7, 1910 Draw 15; November 19, 1910 Lost by KO 18), Joe Jennette (July 29, 1912 No Decision 6; October 30, 1912 No Decision 10; January 1, 1913 No Decision 10; January 21, 1910 Lost by Foul 15 [or 12]); and Sam Langford (May 14, 1910 No Decision 6). He had defeated several other good heavyweights, such as “Big” Bill Tate and Tom Cowler, but was considered a fringe contender.
The legend says that Jack claimed a broken arm and had a friendly referee terminate the bout as a draw after 10 of the scheduled 20 rounds, and that Jim should have captured the crown that day. This, in turn, might ultimately have allowed the likes of Sam Langford, Joe Jennette, or Sam McVea to have a crack at the bauble and a taste of the championship. The French newspaper Le Figaro wrote on the day of the fight, December 19, 1913, just prior to the actual event, that the match was to be “un combat un dix reprises de trois minutes” (a battle of 10 rounds, of 3 minutes each). This is at odds with the popular notion that the bout was originally slated for 20 frames, but was halted after only 10, due to the injury sustained by Jack. The following fight account is an amalgam of multiple sources, mostly contemporary.1
“Battling” Jim Johnson
The opening round wasn’t notable, but in round two the champion landed “a couple of smashing body blows with his left hand.” No real harm was done, however. The majority of his follow-up attempts to the midsection in this and later rounds were blocked by “Battling” Jim, who, it was said, fought out of a deeper crouch than Jim Jeffries. This allowed “Battling” Jim to land his own rattling blows to the stomach. He forced the action, largely making the fight, though Jack certainly got in more than his share of left jabs to the head. He
doubled up on it, got in a multitude of right uppercuts as well and moved adroitly on his feet. Le Figaro claimed that Jack broke the radius of his left arm in round 5, when Jim crashed home a powerful right hand to his elbow. From the 6th to the end of the match, the latter was on the defensive. In the 7th stanza, Jim broke through the guard of the champion on three occasions, raking his foe with sharp uppercuts. Le Figaro wrote “…by the 7th round, Johnson’s broken face read defeat.” If not for the great defense of “Li’l Artha,” his young challenger might have knocked him out. It was only Jack’s superior boxing ability and supreme skill that enabled him to see the finish.
At the final bell ending the 10th round, Jack staggered to the ropes, clutching his left arm and saying he’d broken it. When the angry and disbelieving crowd demanded to know just when this alleged injury occurred, they received the reply that it was in the 3rd frame. The referee declared the fight a draw, allowing the champion to retain his title. The New York Times said, “It was the general impression among the spectators that the injury had been sustained in the last minute of the fight, when Jim Johnson rushed Jack to the ropes and the two went to the floor, with Jack’s arms closed about Jim’s waist. Both men jumped up quickly, but Jack was plainly exhausted and he fell against the ropes as the gong sounded. Then, he tottered to his corner, holding his left arm and declaring it was broken.”
The paper added that the fistic monarch’s foe had “battered him all around the ring” and would have taken him out if the bout had proceeded much longer. It must be said that Jack Johnson showed courage and fortitude in enduring the pain to the end. Strangely, another great black heavyweight, the “Brown Panther” Harry Wills would, in 1917, lose on a TKO (Technical Knockout) due to a broken left wrist in a fight with Jim Johnson. This occurred in round two, when he stopped a right uppercut with his elbow. The scheduled duration of fights around the world varied, often being 20, 25 or even 45 rounds. Jack’s next defense of his crown (in 1914) would be 20 rounds. If the 10-rounder on this day had been slated for 15 or more, it is a virtual certainty that the name of “Battling Jim” would have entered the ledger as the 2nd African-American world heavyweight champion.
“Battling” Jim Johnson’s life was taken in 1918, along with millions of others, in the great Spanish Flu epidemic. He contracted the lethal illness and was admitted to a hospital while waiting for a fight with Sam Langford to be rescheduled. A few days after being removed from hospital, Jim died of pneumonia. He was only 31. As for Jack, he died exactly as it was claimed he’d predicted, in a high-speed car crash, near Raleigh, North Carolina. While the legend, fame, and notoriety of the “Galveston Giant” will persevere, the other Johnson missed a date with fistic immortality by little more than a hairsbreadth.
A few more photos of "Battling" Jim Johnson. This is a great image of him.
"Battling" Jim Johnson on a French boxing magazine in 1910.
"Battling" Jim Johnson on a postcard from the time period.
Another postcard from the time period featuring "Battling" Jim Johnson.
It's a shame that there are only a few trading cards that feature "Battling" Jim Johnson, here is the 1911 W.D. & H.O. Wills with a Scissors back, these cards came with a few different variation backs, there's also a Wills's cigarettes back. I've seen a custom trading card featuring Johnson on eBay a while back, I believe it was a Helmar Brewing Co. card, but it's no longer available for sale. Nevertheless, this is a sweet card that I really like.
The 1912 Cohen, Weenan & Co. Jim Johnson. These cards came with different colored letters variation backs, Green, Black, and Grey, the Grey is by far the most difficult to find. The "Teofani and Magnums" cigarette company and "Hudden & Co." also put sets out using identical images of these cards. The 1927 Hudden & Co. Famous Boxers set is legendary and is one of the rarest boxing card sets on this planet.
Great image of "Battling" Jim Johnson, with the gloves and folded arms.
This is my personal favorite image of "Battling" Jim Johnson, with the mustache. Final thought on Jim Johnson, this man fought Sam Langford 12 times, Joe Jeanette 10 times, Harry Wills 3 times, Sam McVea 7 times, and Jack Johnson, that's a meat grinder of a resume. Some people would refer to Jim Johnson as a journeyman, and that's fair, but he was an incredibly dangerous journeyman. I've seen "Battling" Jim Johnson on film and he was a rough customer with brutal punching power.
It's unbelievable that we actually have fight footage of "Battling" Jim Johnson, about 6 minutes of his fight against the all-time great and Hall of Famer Sam McVea in 1910 was filmed. Now, Sam McVea was built like a brick $hithouse, and McVea could bang, he iced 60 opponents during his career. On film, Johnson roughs McVea up and gets the better of him, he utilizes clinching tactics very well, he's able to smother McVea's attacks and lands a few good power shots that put McVea on the retreat. "Battling" Jim Johnson's official record is 28-17-7 (24 KO), he most always came up short against the best he faced during his era, but his record doesn't tell the whole story, the man could fight.
How about some G.I. Joes? This is Storm Shadow, 1984, Cobra Ninja, Peach file card version, still sealed in it's original manufacturer packaging. This puppy is $4,399 on eBay.
Zartan, 1984, master of disguise, with Swamp Skier. This was really cool, Zartan could change colors like a Chameleon and he came with a swamp skier that could float on water. He also had a mask accessory you could put on his face, a disguise.
Destro, Enemy Weapons Supplier, 1982.
Cobra Commander, 1982, Enemy Leader.
Serpentor, 1986, Cobra Emperor, with Air Chariot.
Crimson Guard Commanders, (Crimson Twins, Tomax and Xamot) ,1985.
Snake Eyes, Commando, 1982.
Music break. This is just a masterpiece song and video, Billy Joel's best in my opinion.
“I turned my life around in prison. I haven't had a beer, and I've been off the cocaine for years. There was a time when I never thought I'd be able to tell anyone that. I just thank Holy God. The fact I'm off the booze and drugs doesn't mean I'm a better person than somebody who can't beat their addiction. The only person I'm better than is the guy Dicky Eklund used to be.”
Real change isn’t about comparing yourself to others, it’s about becoming better than who you used to be. Overcoming struggles, especially ones that once felt impossible to escape, takes honesty, humility, and constant effort.
Lionel Rose’s meeting with Elvis Presley in December 1968 was a moment that brought together two icons from vastly different worlds. The 20-year-old Aboriginal boxer had risen from humble beginnings in Gippsland, Australia, to become the world bantamweight champion, a national hero, and the first Indigenous Australian to win the title. Meanwhile, Elvis Presley, the undisputed King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, was at the peak of his fame, filming "The Trouble with Girls" in Los Angeles. Despite their different backgrounds, they shared a deep respect for each other’s craft.
After an intense training session preparing for his title defense against Chucho Castillo, Lionel received word that Elvis wanted to meet him. Without hesitation, he peeled off his gloves, showered, and rushed to the MGM studio lot. When he arrived, he was greeted with a warm, unmistakable voice— “Hey, Lionel! What’s doin’?” Rose, in awe of Elvis, was surprised when the King of Rock 'n' Roll admitted he was just as impressed by him.
The two spent hours talking about boxing, music, and life. Rose, who had learned to fight from his father in tent boxing shows, had captured the world’s attention by defeating Japan’s Fighting Harada, proving that a boy from the Australian bush could stand among the greats. That meeting with Elvis was not just a personal highlight—it was a recognition of Rose’s impact beyond the boxing ring.
Years later, Lionel Rose remained a symbol of resilience and inspiration, not just for Aboriginal Australians but for anyone who dared to dream big despite the odds. As he once said, “It doesn’t matter where you come from; it matters where you go.”
Awesome image of Sandy Saddler wearing the kilt. He was one of the greatest featherweights to ever live, murderous puncher, he iced 103 opponents. I actually own this photo, I apologize for the poor scan, the photo is lying around my trailer somewhere and I can't seem to find it, I had to use an old eBay scan and blow it up.
"The Irish Lullaby" Jimmy McClarnin rides his motorcycle in the 1930s. One of the greatest fighters in history period, nobody except the great Harry Greb chopped down more Hall of Famers than McClarnin.
Gene Tunney, "The Fighting Marine", carries a load of wood while training for Tom Heeney in 1928.
Love this image of Victor "The Animal" Galindez, it reminds me of a 1930s werewolf movie. And it's very fitting because Victor Galindez fought like a wild man, he wasn't called "The Animal" for nothing.
This is one of my favorite images, Mike Rossman's brother Andrew provokes Victor Galindez and quickly finds out that you don't want to do that.
This Victor Galindez highlight video, I can't count how many times I've watched it, and the music really makes epic.
One more photo of Victor Galindez, great up-close shot of "The Animal."
"This is a very unforgiving sport. When you do good, people are easy to jump on the bandwagon. As soon as you stumbIe, they hide under the shade tree."
Check out what I picked up on eBay the other day, the 2025 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Magenta printing plate 1/1 for the Zhilei Zhang Goudey card. Absolutely sick, Magenta is one of my favorites, it's one of the most beautiful colors in nature. Zhilei Zhang is a bad a$$, he's nicknamed "Big Bang" because he is a brutal puncher, he has some of the heaviest hands I've ever seen on a heavyweight.
The granite-chinned George Chuvalo ripping the speed bag apart.