![]() ![]() A far cry from the glittering metropolis of lights it would become in scant decades, the Strip was in its infancy, with the pull of boxing unproven. Dempsey's former manager, he had been a successful matchmaker for decades-but still people doubted his ability to successfully pull off a show in Las Vegas. "Doc" Kearns had been around the block a few times by 1955. Boxing needed a fresh start, and it found one 2,500 miles away in the deserts of Nevada. It had broken the sport and sucked all the meat from its bones. New York simply wasn't a good fit for boxing anymore. In the long run, this will help boxing very much. And people will begin going back to the boxing arenas in person. Now fighters will have to be brought along slowly, on their merits, in small clubs. Now we should see the return of something like normal in boxing. Most of 'em weren't any good anyway, and they were helping to kill the fight game. I'm glad the Friday night fights are gone. Legendary champion Jack Dempsey told Sports Illustrated's William Leggett in 1960: While some decried the loss of what had become a national routine, others thought it was the jolt the sport needed to survive long-term. When NBC pulled the plug on the show in 1960, reaction was split. ![]() Televised boxing killed the sport on the local level, with support of the club shows drying up in the face of competition from broadcast networks. Within five years, all three broadcast networks had weekly boxing shows, reaching 8.5 million fans.īut while Madison Square Garden and even Yankee Stadium may have been packed to the gills for big bouts, the overall effect of this immediate and continued success was disastrous. With audience shares reaching more than 30 percent of available television sets, a second weekly show was soon added, this one televised from the St. The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, broadcast out of Madison Square Garden, debuted nationally on NBC in 1946 and became an immediate sensation on Friday nights, complete with an iconic theme song. Pool-hall pugs, teenage Palookas, guys whose uncles were TV cameramen, anyone could fight on television. Gillette and Pabst Blue Ribbon bought scads of time, and there were fighters battling before network audiences two, even three nights a week. There were bouts from the Garden and Eastern Parkway Arena and St. In some areas boxing was on nearly every night of the week, and so popular that there were riots around store windows that had the fights on display sets. The first TV days of the sweet science were spent in a happy orgy. The two were a perfect fit, according to Sports Illustrated's William Johnson in 1969: Boxing, in fact, was the first sport ever broadcast on television when Willie Pep defended his featherweight title against Chalky Wright in 1944. For decades that was New York, where radio, and later television, created mass interest in the sweet science. Las Vegas, of course, hasn't always been the fight capital of the world. From Muhammad Ali to Sugar Ray Leonard to Mike Tyson to Oscar De La Hoya and beyond, a new star has always filled the void, continuing Sin City's reign as the home of big league combat sports. It's one of the best places in the world."Īnd, while Showtime sports honcho Stephen Espinoza paints a pretty picture, one with Mayweather as an exceptional figure who will never be replaced, in truth a string of stars have been painting the town green for decades. Everything is beautiful," Mayweather told the All Access cameras last week. Every time he fights, it's worth at least $100 million to the Las Vegas economy and $11 million in non-gambling revenue like restaurant tabs and hotel rooms. You can see him year-round in a 20-story mural on the side of the MGM-his presence a constant even as lesser lights flit in and out of the spotlight. Mayweather makes his home in Las Vegas, personally and professionally. ![]()
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