The Main Event: Boxing in Nevada from the Mining Camps to the Las Vegas Strip

Photos

Spectators watch the long-anticipated championship fight between Bob Fitzsimmons and Jim Corbett in Carson City on St. Patrick’s Day 1897. Promoter Dan Stuart of Dallas lost money at the gate, but royalties for the motion picture put him in the black. Note the small wooden shack on the far side of the ring that housed the delicate cameras that captured the fight on film. The edited film became the first feature-length motion picture in history. Courtesy Nevada Historical Society. Reno businessmen eagerly anticipated a flood of tourists for the Fight of the Century on Fourth of July weekend, 1910. They were not disappointed, as this picture reveals fans departing one of the chartered trains hours before the fight. Courtesy Nevada Historical Society. fa c i n g pa g e : Top: Getting ready to rumble: Battling Nelson (left) and Joe Gans shake hands before their three-hour, forty-two-round fight began on Labor Day 1906. This fight began Tex Rickard’s spectacular career as the nation’s first great promoter. The fight also served its primary purpose of luring out-of-state high rollers to Goldfield, where they bought large amounts of dubious mining stock. Courtesy Nevada Historical Society. Bottom: Jack Johnson poses with a sparring partner before an appreciative crowd at Rick’s Resort, located west of Reno on what is today Mayberry Drive. Unlike his opponent Jim Jeffries, who was sullen and withdrawn during the training period, a relaxed Johnson joked with and entertained spectators at his training site. Courtesy Nevada Historical Society. Renoites were delighted when Jack Dempsey promoted a fight between two heavyweights eager to earn a shot at the heavyweight title held by Max Schmeling. The attraction of recently opened legal casinos turned out to be a bigger attraction than the fight between the “Livermore Butcher” and the “Bouncing Basque.” Courtesy Neal Cobb Collection. To accommodate the anticipated twenty thousand spectators for the BaerUzcudun fight, investors commissioned Reno’s celebrated architect Frederic DeLongchamps to design an arena. Local men eager for employment erected the elegant wooden arena in the middle of the racetrack at the fairgrounds. Jack Dempsey is standing in the ring in this rare photograph. Courtesy Colleen Rosencrantz Collection. A capacity crowd of twenty thousand watches the action between Maxie Baer and Paulino Uzcudun under a blazing July 4 sun. Approximately half of the spectators did not buy tickets for the fight but were admitted after purchasing tickets to the horse races that George Wingfield was promoting. Courtesy Colleen Rosencrantz Collection. fa c i n g pa g e : Top: Governor Fred Balzar was full of fight when he visited the Steamboat Springs training camp of Paulino Uzcudun in 1931. The governor was fresh off a major political victory when in March he signed legislation legalizing wide-open casino gambling. Posing with him is Hearst newspaper sportswriter Bob Edgren and his son. Courtesy Colleen Rozencrantz Collection. Bottom: Jack Dempsey points to the location of the soon-to-be-erected arena while standing in the middle of the racetrack. With him are the major investors in the promotion, the notorious bootleggers, casino operators, and alleged associates of gangster Baby Face Nelson: Bill Graham (left) and Jim McKay. Courtesy Colleen Rosencrantz Collection. It was not an auspicious beginning for prime-time boxing in Las Vegas when former Jack Dempsey manager Jack Kearns promoted a heavyweight fight at Cashman Field on May 2, 1955. Several cowboys watch from atop the cheap seats as Archie Moore wins a close decision over Niño Valdés. Kearns predicted a crowd of fourteen thousand, but fewer than six thousand bought tickets. Courtesy Las Vegas News Bureau. Caesars Palace became the main focus of boxing in Las Vegas during the 1980s. On October 2, 1980, an overflow crowd estimated at twenty-nine thousand filled a wooden arena to watch Larry Holmes soundly defeat an inept Muhammad Ali. Because of Ali’s physical condition, many experts said the much-anticipated fight should never have occurred. Courtesy Las Vegas News Bureau. Joe Louis became a popular Las Vegas figure when he was employed during the early 1970s by Caesars Palace to interact with guests. His job included betting heavily at...