Las Vegas was the fight capital of the world… but here’s the inside story of why Sin City abandoned boxing

The sun is setting over The Strip as Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran enters the Mayweather Boxing Club for the final leg of his ‘run to the gym.’

The 72-year-old cutman is one of the most respected figures in boxing and has worked with fighters such as Andre Ward, Tyson Fury and both Klitschko brothers.

From time to time, Duran tours the fight clubs of his adopted hometown, just to “shoot shit,” he says. “God, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

We are just days away from the heavyweight title rematch between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. But in this corner of Chinatown, within walking distance of the casinos and chaos, all is quiet.

Some members of the Mayweather clan are gathered on plastic chairs. A couple of fighters are finishing their training. This was once the epicenter of boxing’s biggest fights, where Floyd Mayweather honed his craft before heading a few minutes south to make his fortune.

Mayweather’s name remains above the door. His face is still seen above the ring on posters and paintings. Signs still remind fighters to pay their dues and leave their weapons at home. But today, Floyd is elsewhere and so are the eyes of the boxing world.

Five years ago this month, Anthony Joshua defeated Andy Ruiz in Diriyah. It was the first heavyweight title fight in the Middle East and the night the sands began to move away from Nevada toward the Saudi Arabian desert. Fury and Usyk will meet again on Saturday in Riyadh.

However, for a long time this was Fight Town. The world capital of boxing. Now, as one figure says, boxing has been virtually “abandoned” in Las Vegas. Many fear he will never return. At least not like before. Boxing now has new bedfellows. The same goes for Sin City.

In recent weeks, Las Vegas has hosted Formula One, a rodeo, the NBA Cup Final and a gathering of golf’s biggest stars. The city already has NFL, NHL and WNBA teams; Work is underway to build an MLB franchise in ‘Sports Town USA.’ But as things stand, there is only one world title fight in Las Vegas on the calendar.

Never mind that many in boxing still call this home. At the Mayweather gym, Durán hugs former world champions Cornelius Boza-Edwards and Joel Casamayor. And every three minutes the bell rings to signal the end of another round. Even after the gym has emptied.

‘The Immortal’ Joe Louis stands near the roulette tables inside Caesars Palace. The former heavyweight champion did not participate in the first big Las Vegas fight, which took place in an old stadium in 1955. He never fought here. But the Brown Bomber was “pivotal” as boxing took over Las Vegas.

Louis worked as a receptionist at Caesars and his statue remains in the casino.

“When we traveled around the world, people would come up to us and say, ‘I met Joe Louis at Caesars Palace!'” recalls Gene Kilroy, Muhammad Ali’s right-hand man and former Las Vegas casino executive. ‘That’s how it all started here. The athletes would come, then the people would come. And then came the fights.

In this neon city, green always shines brighter, and boxing offered hotels an avenue for their favorite customers: people who have money and are willing to risk it in the casinos.

“I remember they said that when Elvis was at the Hilton, the decline in the game wasn’t as high, but boxing… I had a guy who came here and lost $12 million for the Ali-(Larry) Holmes fight,” Kilroy says.

‘He took a photo with Ali. Had dinner with Ali. That was the highlight of his life. He wasn’t worried about $12 million.

Televised fights, meanwhile, offered “publicity” at a time when many Americans were still learning about the (err, unique) appeal of Las Vegas.

‘Lloyd Price, the great singer, said that when the fights are here, forget about getting a hotel room. You couldn’t even get a call because it was so busy,” Kilroy says.

“When Ali fought Leon Spinks (in 1978), I invited Elvis’ father.” They met after The Greatest lost. ‘Ali said, “I hope I haven’t disappointed you,”‘ Kilroy recalls. The answer? “You could never let me down, my son loved you very much.”

Few figures have fused boxing and entertainment like ‘Stitch’ Durán. He was hired as Wladimir Klitschko’s cutman after working on their Las Vegas ‘fight’ in the film ‘Ocean’s Eleven’.

He belonged here and so did boxing. The shine, the spectacle, the money. “The story,” says former welterweight king Shawn Porter. The gyms were a “hotbed” of talent and when the call came to fight on The Strip, the fighters knew: “We’ve finally done it.”

Gaming revenues allowed casinos to offer promoters unmatched profits; Fans were guaranteed a week of vice and violence in this ‘Disneyland for adults’.

“It was a more legitimate and magnetic destination for fights than any other place I covered them,” says legendary HBO broadcaster Jim Lampley.

Great fights took over the city; Frank Sinatra and other celebrities would crowd the ring.

“It was magical,” says a source. And so it continued until recently. Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor in 2017, Porter says, is “the only fight I’ve ever been in that brought out every actor, every comedian, every musician and every athlete.”

He remembers running into Ice Cube and introducing himself. “I know who you are,” the rapper responded. “My jaw dropped.”

The fight itself didn’t work out, but many other fights lit up the Strip. The Caesars parking lot became hallowed ground thanks to Ali, ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns and Co. Mayweather made the MGM Grand his second home; This city made him the highest paid athlete in the world. At their peak, Mayweather’s fights were said to be worth more than $100 million to the Las Vegas economy.

Few rounds in history have been as gloriously chaotic as the tenth between Diego Corrales and José Luis Castillo at Mandalay Bay, when Corrales jumped off the mat – twice – before stopping his rival.

Next year will mark 20 years since that fight, and 18 years since Corrales’ death at only 29 years old. His widow, Michelle Corrales-Lewis, now dedicates her life to preserving the legacy of boxing in Las Vegas. She is executive director of the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame.

“There was a time when (if) you got to the lights of Las Vegas… that meant something,” Corrales-Lewis says. “I can only keep praying that they have (fights) here again.”

The problem? Las Vegas had begun looking elsewhere even before Saudi Arabia reached into boxing’s deepest pockets and took control of the sport. “It just doesn’t capture the city like it used to,” says Tim Dahlberg, who chronicled boxing history here in ‘Fight Town.’

Kilroy believes the beginning of the end came when the Klitschkos controlled Germany’s heavyweight division. Others blame the promoters – for fear of having sought “fool’s gold” – and the boxers for fighting too rarely.

For a long time, gambling just meant boxing venturing into the wilderness. Casinos would struggle to host big fights.

Now? “It would be difficult” to get anyone interested, Dahlberg says. That’s despite Porter insisting that gyms are “heating up” once again and that Saudi Arabia will “never replace a fight in Las Vegas.”

Other sports now offer more reliable income and hotels have found different sources of income. Like conventions. “There’s always another way,” says Kilroy, who is 84 and still lives here.

Corrales-Lewis hopes that one day a boxing museum will open on The Strip. Sports are not history yet. But in Chinatown, when Durán leaves the Mayweather Boxing Club, the sun has almost set.

“There was a very serious romance between the city and boxing, and they both benefited incredibly from it,” Dahlberg says. ‘It was a great time. But eras come and go. And this one practically no longer exists.