BoxRec

Is really Yankee Stadium the Mecca of Boxing or is it Madison Square Garden in New York City or Caesars Palace in Las Vegas?

There's a saying that Yankee Stadium is the House That Ruth Built. But, it looks like the same could it be said for boxing.

So many great boxing historic moments were captured there:
Louis vs Schmeling I and II,
Marciano vs Charles I and II
Johansson vs Patterson
Marciano vs Moore
Ali vs Norton III
Zale vs Graziano, etc, etc, etc

To you, which place was the real boxing Mecca?
Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium or Caesars Palace.

There were other great venues for boxing like the Polo Grounds in New York City and Chicago Stadium in Chicago. But, let's talk about the Main Three venues.

This just caught my eye because a lot of boxing history was done at Yankee Stadium. Your thoughts.

MSG cause it was used so much more.

MSG for me too because I grew up watching the big fights in the Garden. Yankee Stadium hosted the third Ali-Norton fight in 1977 but it was pretty chaotic, by all accounts. The New York police were on strike so it was anarchy in the Stadium. The verdict left a nasty taste, too.

I noticed that they fought mostly in the month of June
in stadiums back then.

Makes sense that it would be in the summer with it being outside. The mega fights used to be outside where they could larger crowds. There were not nearly as many fights in Yankee Stadium as MSQ or later Vegas.

Notice that they were almost all way back, before our time. So Yankee Stadium would not seem to be the Mecca for us. Vegas started crowding out MSQ Garden in the 1970s, so Vegas probably seems to many of us to be the Mecca.

Always thought that in the long run, that it hurt boxing have almost all of the big fight fights in one place.

I'd go with MSG. They've all had great and huge fights obviously but MSG has a long history. Also imagine watching Louis-Schmeling in an arena as huge as Yankee Stadium. This was before the accompanying big screens, kids.

Caractacus wrote: ↑27 Sep 2024, 14:05 I noticed that they fought mostly in the month of June
in stadiums back then.

June 15th and June 20th both are days of a few big cards for some reason.

Now, I can see why they call Madison Square Garden, the Capital Mecca of the Boxing World.

The greatest and most anticipated fight of all time was set there: Smokin' Joe Frazier vs Muhammad Ali, March 8, 1971 for the Heavyweight Championship of the World!

And the best fight at Yankee Stadium was?

The Muhammad Ali vs Zora Foley heavyweight title fight in March 1967 was the first one in a long time at the MSG in New York City. What heavyweight title bout was the last before this one? It happened like 16 years before that date.