BOXING
THE sport magazine
™
Buck The Bartender
On Boxing
Las Vegas -  Back in the Good Old Days in Las Vegas, some pretty smart people at Caesars
Palace decided that of all of the Big Tent events that could make the casino number one, boxing
was the biggest tent of all. No arena? No problem. They built temporary arenas in the parking lot
and turned Vegas into the boxing capital of the world. Soon Madison Square Garden was just
another venue when it came to mega boxing events.

Who thought it would ever end? But end it did, when the wonks with name tags convinced
multiple casinos to co- promote at a common public arena. The thrill was gone. So was the
panache. The vanilla weasels won out and an era was over.

The chances of Vegas ever recapturing that glory rest on an independent strip casino,not one of
the cookie cutter conglomerates, deciding to make boxing their thing and bringing back the glory.

It could happen. In fact it will happen. One smart owner on the strip, or even a trendy boutique
like the Palms could rekindle what was a unique Vegas attraction. Let's hope it happens. We miss
the spectacle here in Vegas. And I think boxing misses it even more.

Buck Shot: What makes boxing so unique is that anyone can get into the fight game. Rich, poor,
smart, not so smart, theres a place for you in boxing. Why then are there so few characters left in
the fight game? Theres no Two Ton Tony Galento, no Sonny ‘The Bear’ Liston, no ‘Iron Mike’
Tyson. The acts of Bob Arum and Don King have more than worn thin. Today they are more
annoying than colorful. Have the times simply changed? Or is it that boxing, in losing it's limelight,
still has these characters but we just no longer hear about them. Have you noticed that both
boxing and basketball suffer from the same problem? There was no one like Muhammad Ali or
Michael Jordan in their sports. But since they have left, we have had to suffered a parade of
pretenders who imitated the flash but missed out on the fundamental skills that these two
champions had. Watching pro basketball and pro boxing is punishing at times as we have to
suffer through the histrionics of the pretenders sans the skills. Wish I had the answer as to how
to turn that around. In the meantime both sports suffer artistically. Its just a matter of time before
they suffer financially as well
Can Vegas Come Back?