Knockout

Michael and Jessica talk about boxing and photography, and why both arts have endured beyond their heyday. They cover the bouts between Floyd Mayweather, Jr., and Manny Pacquiao; Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston; Neil Leifer and the second Ali-Liston fight; and Mary Ellen Mark (who died on the 50th anniversary of that rematch) and her subjects.

On the undercard, Michael recalls a “pugilistic incident” with a classmate named Mickey, who drew first blood.

Also discussed:

George Bellows, Stag at Sharkey’s and Dempsey and Firpo

Mayweather-Pacquiao: Kelefa Sanneh in The New Yorker and Carlo Rotella in the Times Magazine

Covers by George Lois: Sonny Liston as Santa Claus; Calling a Title Fight; Ali as St. Sebastian. Also, from our archives, Adam Harrison Levy on The Passion of George Lois

Joyce Carol Oates, On Boxing

Sue Jaye Johnson’s film T-Rex

Knockout font

Dave Mondy, How Things Break

Melissa Harris, Remembering Mary Ellen Mark, 1940-2015

Thanks to MOO for sponsoring this episode. Learn more about Moo Letterpress business cards.

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Image from George Lois’s Esquire cover “Last Man in the Ring”.

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By Michael Bierut & Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.