LAS VEGAS — We’ve seen banners raised for championship hockey teams and women’s basketball teams. For indoor soccer teams and minor league baseball teams.
Thursday, the folks at MGM gathered at the Grand Garden Arena to raise a banner — to themselves.
The facility, which opened in 1994 with the express purpose of taking the crown from Caesars Palace as Las Vegas’ mecca for boxing, will stage its 100th fight card Saturday night as Gervonta “Tank” Davis (29-0, 27 knockouts) will look to defend his WBA lightweight belt against undefeated Frank Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round contest.
Whether Davis-Martin makes its own special history, we’ll have to wait and see. But among those previous 99 fight cards staged in the Grand Garden, we’ve witnessed some of the best to lace up a pair of gloves.
Mike Tyson. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Manny Pacquiao. Oscar De La Hoya. Julio Cesar Chavez. Evander Holyfield. George Foreman. Canelo Alvarez. Miguel Cotto. Shane Mosley. Bernard Hopkins. The MGM could open its own Boxing Hall of Fame with all the greats that have graced its ring over the decades.
When Kirk Kirkorian was building the new MGM Grand after the original on Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard suffered a catastrophic fire in 1980 which killed 85 people, he wanted a facility on the property that could play host to boxing. Kirkorian, a big fight fan, was hoping to lure some big cards away from Caesars Palace, which had constructed a special outdoor venue that could seat 24,000 and had been the site for major boxing events in Las Vegas.
Daren Libonati, who had worked at the Thomas & Mack Center for Dennis Finfrock and would follow Finfrock to the new MGM as the Grand Garden’s booking director, believed they could do big business.
“He said, ‘I want the world to forget that Caesars Palace did boxing. Can you do it?’” Libonati said of owner Kirk Kirkorian. “His passion for boxing drove our passion and we made it work.”
The arena’s sightlines have always been great for combat sports, be it boxing or mixed martial arts. It was designed specifically for boxing as well as concerts.
The Grand Garden, despite its smaller capacity than Caesars or the Thomas & Mack, which could hold almost 20,000 for boxing, eventually became the place every big-name fighter wanted to perform at as the final bout at Caesars’ outdoor arena was in 1996. For Mayweather, who along with Pacquiao would fight 15 times, including against each other in 2015, the Grand Garden became his second home. How popular was he? The MGM plastered a mural of Mayweather on the outside of its hotel that was 20 stories high. No other boxer has had that kind of treatment.
"This is a special place," said Scott Preston, the current general manager of he Grand Garden Arena. "There's a mystique, an allure to it.
"This is the home of championship boxing. Floyd could have fought anywhere in the world. But he chose to fight here."
For me, the Grand Garden represents a place where the unusual can happen. It started with the first-ever fight card where Frankie Randall, a huge underdog, upset Julio Cesar Chavez. Libonati, who booked the fight, took a lot of heat for the matchup. But he believed Randall could deliver a great fight.
"It was a big gamble," he said. "Caesars had all the big fights and I'm trying to sell Frankie Randall in our very first fight. Thank God it worked out."
But nothing was more unusual than the Tyson-Holyfield rematch in 1997 where Tyson was disqualified for biting Holyfield’s ear and chaos ensued inside and outside the ring. Trouble spilled into the casino and the Metropolitan Police Department had to assist MGM security in restoring order.
I was sitting in the back of the press section and when the first bite came from Tyson, I said to the person next to me, "Did he do what I think he did?" It was so surreal.
Then there were the weird judging decisions, led by Tim Bradley’s 12-round split-decision win over Pacquiao in 2012. It was a fight that Pacquiao seemingly was winning comfortably. But when the scores were announced, it was Bradley who had his hand raised in victory.
They would fight two more times — in 2014 and again in 2016 with Pacquiao winning by unanimous decision in both.
And there were the beatdowns. Pacquiao sending De La Hoya into retirement in 2008 after Hopkins handed Oscar his lunch back in 2004. Mayweather stopping Ricky Hatton in 2007 and Pacquiao doing the same to Hatton with a second-round KO in 2009. Tyson knocking out Bruce Seldon in the first round in 1996.
And the big fights brought out the big-name celebrities. Athletes. Actors and actresses. Musicians and singers. Politicians. A-listers. B-listers. you name it. If there was a huge fight, you could count on the stars coming out to watch.
"Sitting here now is bizarre for me," Libonati said of the Grand Garden, which cost $30 million to build. . "I remember every seat, every manifest, every deal we negotiated. To me, this was the sexiest big little arena in the world."
The Grand Garden doesn’t do as many fights as it used to. Saturday’s card will be only the fourth since 2022. There’s so much competition now with venues that can and do support boxing. You can go across the street to T-Mobile Arena. A true mega-fight could be held inside Allegiant Stadium. Smaller fights can go to the Orleans Arena or the Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson. The MSG Sphere is entertaining doing a boxing show and is expected to host a UFC card later this year as UFC 306 will be held on Sept. 14. And the Thomas and Mack and Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay remain potential landing sites for fights.
And that’s just here in Vegas. I would expect the Clippers’ Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., to be a player for boxing and there’s still Madison Square Garden in New York and Barclays Center in Brooklyn as competition along with Saudi Arabia, which may be putting together a mega-deal for the sport long term.
How will Las Vegas respond? Will it remain a major player in boxing? Will the allure of fighting here remain strong for boxers and their promoters?
Time, and money, will tell. But as they raised a glass Thursday to toast the achievement of 100 boxing events, the Grand Garden knows it has history on its side. And no amount of money will change that.
When asked what Kirkorian would say about his boxing venue if he were alive today (he died in 2015), Libonati didn't hesitate.
"He would be so proud," Libonati said. "He would have said, 'You did it!'"