Boxing in Las Vegas

by Leah Bailly | Mar 6 2008

No town in the world worships the “sweet science of bruising” like Las Vegas. Those jabbing fists, the manic crowd, the girl with the numbered cards glistening under all those flash bulbs. The Fight of the Century. championship of the world. No sport has been as mythologized or memorized as world class boxing.  Real aficionados can rattle off fight statistics like a shopping list. Those heavyweight moments: when managers strike it rich, when gamblers rake in millions, when a contender raises a weary glove.

Las Vegas, with its casino ballrooms and high-rolling sports betting, is aptly named “the boxing capital of the world.” The odds on a big fight in Vegas can move millions between sportsbooks. Nothing gets a good gaming crowd together like a few rounds in the ring. When the big weights come to town, hotels and casinos are packed. The Roulette wheels are loaded, stakes are high and night clubs are swarmed with starlets until dawn. Sin City is a town that puts on a hell of a show. From giant outdoor matches to arena fights, the venues in Las Vegas are world class. 

Show Me the Money

Some of the biggest fights of the century took place on the Strip. Mike Tyson vs. Trevor Berbick. Muhammad Ali falling to Larry Holmes in Caesars Palace’s giant outdoor arena. Caesars was identified as early as the 1970s as the Vegas mecca for major boxing matches. The Palace featured such monumental battles as retired Sugar Ray Leonard’s pulverizing upset to clinch the 1987 title from favorite Thomas “Hit Man” Hagler. In 1989, Michael Moore stomped undisputed champion Evander Holyfield at the Palace, leading to his untimely retirement.  And who can forget the crazed “Fan Man” of 1993, who launched off the Excalibur with only a glider and electric fan straight into the ring’s outdoor lights, stalling the title fight. Between its Circus Maximus Showroom, its heavy betting and bustling casinos, Caesars Palace was Sin City’s ideal fight night venue for decades.

Now, nearly a dozen big casinos host major boxing matches in Las Vegas. The Orleans, built in 1996, is the local favorite for viewing a good matchup, with a regular crowd and intimate seating. The Showroom, housed in one of Vegas’ off-Strip casinos, is perhaps a little too kitsch in its faux Mardi Gras theme. But bad style doesn’t stop such events like the Orleans Crown Boxing. Light and featherweight championships are often on the ticket, and real boxing fanatics love the reasonable prices ($25 a seat). The Orleans was also the first to house female championship bouts in 2006. This week’s big draw is ex UNLV-basketball-star- turned-boxer Kaspars Kambala in his debut. History in the making.

Golden Boys

Among the big ticket events of this season is the Battle of the Planet, hosted by Planet Hollywood. Presented by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and HBO, the bout between American Bernard Hopkins and Welsh superstar Joe Calzaghe may prove to be one of the year’s most momentous. Planet Hollywood has named the Thomas and Mack Center as the venue of choice, record holder in Nevada for largest boxing crowds. A stadium seating nearly 20,000 for ringside events, the Thomas and Mack is equipped with mega-screens, full service bars and terrible event parking. With a fight like the Battle of the Planet, the tickets are not cheap, ranging from $250-$1,500, depending on proximity to the ropes.

The Mandalay Bay will also feature a Golden Boy fight this year, in what is Vegas’ classiest boxing venue. In a match-up between super featherweight Juan Manuel Marquez and world champion Manny Pacquiao, tickets for this bout are priced around $2,000 for ringside seats. Past Mandalay Bay fights have included some of the highest grossing fights in history, including Trinidad vs. La Hoya in 1999.  Praised for its high-rolling Craps and modern sportsbook, the Mandalay Bay also features the enormous Events Center, seating 12,000 for top-rank boxing and UFC events. 

But perhaps Las Vegas likes its boxing for the spectacle, more than the bloodshed.  Such venues as the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino feature hot boxing showdowns at their venue, the Joint. But it is the nightclubs and Blackjack tables that really hum on fight nights at the Hard Rock. The Bellagio sings the same tune.  A chance to fill their 45,000 square foot ballroom with drinking, high-rolling fans is an opportunity to play host to America’s premier gamblers. Most hotels offer package deals for fight nights, including steak dinners, box seats and access to the big money tables once the fight is over. 

The Sweet Science

What culture praises that gladiator style sparring more than America? Who loves their 15 rounds of jabs and uppercuts and their man in the golden shorts spitting blood into a bucket? What other guts and gore event draws glamorous dolls and big spenders to cheer on such intense man-on-man combat. The theories of America’s obsession with the sweet science vary. Some are stuck in the statistics, the strategy of a fighter’s carefully placed punches. Some simply love the money, such high stakes based on such simple human tendencies. But most real boxing fans revel in the poetry, the magic of a featherweight’s footsteps with a heavyweight’s blow. 

Boxing is a sport of heroes. From the old school Jack Johnson, to new school La Hoya, to living legend Ali, the sport is haunted by revolutionaries, underdogs.  These men became our warriors in the face of a volatile century. There were the featherweights, our little brothers, lean and twitchy around every furious punch.  The middleweights, tiptoeing around the ropes. And the heavies, the Tyson and George Foreman types, the monsters, out of the corner swinging. American viewers have been stunned for decades by their speed and muscle. And Las Vegas is the perfect boxing capital of the world, a town ever searching for that elusive knockout victory.

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