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

Split Decision: Prizefighting on the Margins

231 As the twenty-first century approached, the public image of boxing took a decidedly downward trajectory. No longer were fights the center of casual conversation in offices and during the late-afternoon happy hour. Now, it seemed, no one really wanted to talk about boxing the way they once did; now the conversations revolved largely around football. The sport that had captured the nation’s attention in the 1920s, and had continued to enjoy vast popularity during the days of such iconic figures as Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson , Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and for a time a young Mike Tyson, found itself by the mid-1990s suffering from a sharp decline in public interest that occurred amid a rising tide of criticism. It also faced an ominous new competitor in the rapidly growing popularity of mixed martial arts. Thus did prizefighting become a victim of its own excesses as well as from changes in the popular culture that had a distinct antiestablishment flavor and tended to embrace “extreme” sports. The causes of boxing’s decline are self-evident. Television continued to extract its toll upon the popularity of boxing by creating an environment in which only championship fights featuring boxers with high marquee appeal attracted a sizable viewing audience. The major networks had long since decided that boxing could not attract sufficient viewing audiences on a regularly scheduled basis and by the 1960s had moved on to other sports with greater appeal. The cost of accessing cable pay-per-view restricted the size of viewing audiences to only the most dedicated fans who were willing to spend upwards of fifty dollars to watch a single bout. In Las Vegas the emphasis was upon hosting high-profile championship fights, for which the price of a ticket tended to exclude the everyday working stiff. Unlike New York City Prizefighting on the Margins Split Decision 232   The Main Event before 1960, casino executives in Las Vegas did little to promote boxing from the bottom up, neglecting to provide opportunities for young boxers to develop their skills. The regular local cards once a mainstay at the Showboat and Silver Slipper were gone—as were the casinos themselves. The underlying intent of the casinos in sponsoring boxing was to attract large numbers of heavy-betting individuals, the muchsought -after high rollers. As such, boxing’s structure in the late twentieth century did not encourage the recruitment of a new generation of fans. Professional boxing had always suffered from cutthroat competition between rival promoters, many of whom were burdened with considerable negative baggage. In an age dominated by the larger than life personage of Don King, that problem was never resolved, but the image of boxing suffered also from the confusion created by three rival governing organizations and a maze of overlapping and confusing new weight classifications. In this way, and many others, boxing’s worst enemies were the men to whom its stewardship was entrusted. In 1921, with professional boxing having achieved a newfound stature and receiving the blessing of state laws and newly created state boxing commissions, the National Boxing Association was set up to create an organization that would sanction title fights and recognize world champions. The NBA established itself as the recognized governing and sanctioning body when it crowned Jack Dempsey heavyweight champion after he defeated Frenchman Georges Carpentier in July 1921. The organization established eight weight classes based on historical precedent that remained unchanged for four decades. The most widely recognized divisions were heavyweight (unrestricted in weight), light-heavyweight (above 175 pounds and under 200 pounds), middleweight (above 160 pounds), welterweight (above 147 pounds), and lightweight (above 135 pounds). In 1962 the NBA, apparently in an attempt to distinguish itself from the National Basketball Association, renamed itself the World Boxing Association, although its primary focus remained the United States. Growing interest in other countries led to the creation of the World Boxing Council in 1963. It eventually became the most prominent sanctioning body for bouts in the United States under José Sulaimán, who assumed the presidency in 1975. He became a powerful figure in international boxing and reputedly extended the WBC’s influence into Split Decision  233 161 countries. Despite competition from rival bodies, the WBC became dominant in the United States, primarily because of its close association with Don King. Critics repeatedly charged that Sulaimán not only did business...