1950 Gottlieb Madison Square Gardens:
Recent pre-Allentown purchase, I found this pristine survivor requiring very little beyond the routine shopping to get it going.
I had never heard of the game, but I was intrigued to add another boxing themed game to the World Champ and Knock Out. Not much information about it, but from what I understand, it came out in June 1950, a few months before the more popular Knock Out.
The game has a 'boxing ring' formed by four one-way gates with the pop bumpers representing the two boxers. So, for an old game, there is a lot of "action" within this area. Backglass has light animation of boxers fighting. Nice Roy Parker artwork.
As a boxing fan, I noticed the graphic of the two boxers on the playfield is almost identical (and assumed inspiration) to one of the photos from the Marcel Cerdan/Tony Zale 9/21/48 Middleweight championship fight. Cerdan, a 2-1 underdog, becomes the first non-American to hold the Middleweight title in the 20th century. The photo of the fighters was from a French newspaper. The graphic on the playfield even has a tiny drop of blood coming from Zale's nose.
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