Las Vegas is synonymous with boxing. The pair go hand in hand with big-time sports events and have done since the 1980s.
From Caesars Palace to Thomas and Mack Center and MGM Grand, more and more venues are dedicating arenas to the sport. With casinos galore up and down Las Vegas Boulevard, gamblers can try their luck or go online at Vulcan Vegas to win big money.
World Boxing News looks back at some of the best venues and forward to where the future lies for boxing on the world-famous strip.
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas
Back in the 1980s, Caesars was the place to fight. Sugar Ray Leonard fought Thomas Hearns there in 1981, two years before Roberto Duran fought Marvin Hagler under Caesar’s watchful eye.
Hagler vs Hearns and Leonard would grace the arena in later years. At the same time, Oscar De La Hoya vs Julio Cesar Chavez occurred in 1996.
Earlier that decade, Caesars hosted heavyweight boxing in the form of Muhammad Ali vs. Larry Holmes and Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney.
Thomas and Mack Center
From 1992 to 2016, the Thomas and Mack Center hosted many massive fight nights in the sport, beginning with Julio César Chávez vs Hector “Macho” Camacho.
Evander Holyfield vs. Riddick Bowe, George Foreman vs. Tommy Morrison, Pernell Whitaker vs. Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis II, and John Ruiz vs. Roy Jones Jr. cemented a legacy.
In the new era, Manny Pacquiao graced the arena three times. Twice against Érik Morales and once against Jessie Vargas in 2016.
MGM Grand Garden Arena
The most infamous clash to appear under the famous lion is Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II on June 28, 1997.
A crowd of 16,279 witnessed Tyson take a bite out of Holyfield’s ear as Mills Lane threw the “Baddest Man on the Planet” out of the contest.
Others include Manny Pacquiao getting knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez and many Floyd Mayweather nights.
Most notably, in 2015, Mayweather and Pacquiao fought out the most lucrative boxing match of all time.
Oscar De La Hoya vs. Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao both took place there. At the time, De La Hoya admitted his fight with Mayweather was the biggest of his career.
“This, by far, has to be the biggest,” De La Hoya told the Las Vegas Review-Journal ahead of their fight. “This promotion has been the biggest.
“The sponsors. HBO. The various magazine photo shoots. We didn’t have this when I was involved in the Trinidad fight. We didn’t have sponsors putting our images on [beer] cans, stuff like that.”
“If we had this kind of promotion when I fought Chavez, Trinidad, and Whitaker. Those fights should have easily surpassed what they did [in revenue],” De La Hoya added.
Finally, Mayweather vs Canelo happened at the MGM and, more recently, Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury II.
Mandalay Bay
Mandalay Bay is most famous for hosting Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo I. The epic fight in 2005 ended with a stunning knockout for Corrales.
Others to take place there include Oscar De La Hoya vs Tito Trinidad and Erik Morales vs Marco Antonio Barrera I.
The future
New venues are popping up on the strip, with The Cosmopolitan and Resorts World dipping their toes into boxing in the past couple of years.
The future is bright.