WILLIE "WILL O' THE WISP" PEP - EPHEMERA SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: LEON SPINKS, ALEXIS ARGUELLO, CARLOS ORTIZ, RAY "SUGAR RAY" LEONARD, MARVELOUS MARVIN HAGLER, AARON PRYOR, CHRISTY MARTIN, MICHAEL SPINKS - HFSID 279481

BOXING CHAMPS: WILLIE PEP, LEON SPINKS, ALEXIS ARGUELLO, CARLOS ORTIZ, SUGAR RAY LEONARD, MARVELOUS MARVIN HAGLER, AARON PRYOR, MICHAEL SPINKS, CHRISTY MARTIN
This 30x25½ gold Everlast banner is signed by nine former champion boxers, including Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Leon and Michael Spinks and Sugar Ray Leonard, as well as Christy Martin, who won the World Boxing Council women's equivalent of the lightweight championship.
Ephemera signed "Marvelous/Marvin Hagler", "SRL", "Leon Spinks", "Carlos Ortiz", "Christy Martin", "Willie Pep", "Mike Spinks Jinx", "Alexis A" and "Aaron Pryor". 30x25½. Gold fabric Everlast banner hanging from a wooden dowel and yellow-and-black string. Captioned: "®/EVERLAST/U.S.A./Choice of Champions®". Nicknamed "Will o' the Wisp" for his elusiveness, PEP (1922-2006, born Guglielmo Papaleo in Middletown, Connecticut) is one of boxing's all-time great artists. Legend has it that Willie once won a round without throwing a punch. He turned pro in 1940 and won his first 63 fights. Pep was World Featherweight Champion from 1942 to 1948 and 1949 to 1950. His professional record was 230-11-1, with 65 KOs. LEON SPINKS (1953-2021) born in St. Louis, Missouri, won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1976 Olympics, then, two years later, won the heavyweight crown in a split decision over Muhammad Ali on February 15, 1978. Ali regained the title seven months later. Spinks' brother, Michael, won the heavyweight title in 1983. They are the only brothers to hold world titles. Nicaraguan boxer ARGUELLO (1952-2009), turned pro in 1968 and won 14 championship fights. He was WBA Featherweight Champ (1974-1977), WBC Super Featherweight Champ (1978-1980) and WBC Lightweight Champ (1982-1983) before he faced Aaron Pryor in 1982 for the WBA Junior Welterweight title to achieve his goal of titles in four boxing divisions. Arguello lost that fight with a TKO in the 14th round and was KOd in the tenth round in the rematch in September 1983. Although he announced his retirement after his second loss to Pryor, Arguello returned to the ring, winning one fight in 1985, 1986 and 1995. Arguello, who had a record of 80 wins (64 KOs) and eight losses, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992. He was voted mayor of his hometown of Managua, Nicaragua in 2008. ORTIZ, born in 1936 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, was a world junior welterweight champion (1959-1960) who later held the lightweight title (1962-1968). He retired with a record of 63-7-1, scoring 30 knockouts while being knocked out only once (in his last fight). He's a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. LEONARD, born Ray Charles Leonard in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1956, had a lifetime record of 36-3-1 with 25 knockouts. He was a World Champion boxer in five different weight divisions: Welterweight (1979, 1980-1982), Junior Middleweight (1981), Middleweight (1987), Light Heavyweight (1988-1989) and Super Middleweight (1988-1990). Leonard was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997. HAGLER (1954-2021) was World Middleweight Champion from 1980-1987. He legally added "Marvelous" to his first name in 1982. His career professional record was 63-3-2, with 52 knockouts! Hagler's successful defense of the middleweight title against Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns was a legendary slugfest. A doctor almost awarded Hearns the fight until Hagler, his face bleeding profusely, was asked whether he could still see his opponent. Hagler replied, "Well, I ain't missing him, am I?" Allowed to continue, Hagler attacked aggressively and scored a TKO of Hearns later in the round. PRYOR, born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1955 and known as "The Hawk", was WBA Light Welterweight Champ from 1980 to 1983 and IBF Champ from 1983 to 1985. Pryor, who began his professional career in 1976 following the Olympic Games (he was a U.S. boxing team alternate), defended his title 11 times before retiring in 1991 with a 39-1 record (35 KOs). He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2001 and named a "Living Legend" by the Word Boxing Association in 2002. MICHAEL SPINKS, born in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1956, is the older brother of fellow champ Leon Spinks. Michael won the gold medal in men's middleweight boxing at the 1976 Olympics before turning pro in 1977. Spinks had a 31-1-0 record, winning 21 by knockout and claiming the WBA Light Heavyweight Championship (1981-1985), WBC Light Heavyweight  Championship (1983-1985), Undisputed Light Heavyweight Championship (1983-1985), IBF Light Heavyweight Champtionship (1984-1985) and IBF Heavyweight Championship (1985-1987). His one lost match (and the only one he lost by knockout) was also his last, against a then-undefeated Mike Tyson in 1988. Spinks' Sept. 21, 1985 match against heavyweight Larry Holmes was called Upset of the Year by Ring Magazine; the win made Spinks the first light heavyweight to win the IBF Heavyweight belt. MARTIN, born Christy Renea Salter in Bluefield, West Virginia in 1968, is also known as "the Coalminer's Daughter" and "Million Dollar Baby". Since turning pro in 1989, Martin has compiled a 47-5-3 record as of this biography, with five wins and one loss by knockout. Probably her best known bout, and the one that led to her getting on the cover of Sports Illustrated, was a March 16, 1996 match against Deirdre Gogarty, an undercard match that some say was more exciting than the main event (Mike Tyson vs. Frank Bruno). Martin has won the WBC women's equivalent of lightweight championship of the world. Lightly soiled and creased. Some signatures touch or have low contrast, but are still legible. Banner comes rolled. Otherwise in fine condition.