Fighters most associated with famous venues

There have been storied fight venues throughout boxing history.

And those that stood the test of time developed ‘house fighters’ who were most associated with that venue — basically the king of the ring in that particular place.

So I figured it might be a point of discussion. I’ll throw out a few venues and, for some of them, my choice as their respective ‘house fighter’ or one I’d most associate with it. I welcome discussion on those choices, the ones I list without a particular fighter because none are coming to mind for me right now and any other venues I didn’t include.

Obviously these guys fought other places, but we’re talking about the venue that was their ‘home.’

So here we go:

Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles: Art Aragon. The Golden Boy was the Hollywood villain on the LA fight scene for a number of years in the 1950s in particular, and people would turn out in droves and pay to hopefully see him get beat up. (In the later 1940s he served as the same ‘house fighter’ for Legion Stadium in Hollywood).

The Palace at Auburn Hills, near Detroit, Michigan: Oba Carr fought here many times, a good number of them televised on the USA Network’s Tuesday Night Fights. This was basically where he matriculated while schooling himself in the dark arts of the sweet science.

The Spectrum, Philadelphia: Bennie Briscoe is the choice here because he was the centerpiece of the storied Philly middleweight scene of the 1960s that developed largely in this building. There might be a case for Matthew Saad Muhammad or one of the other middleweights (Boogaloo Watts or Willie the Worm Monroe for instance) but Bennie was the guy who comes to mind for me.

Blue Horizon, Philadelphia: The Blue was named the No. 1 boxing venue in the world at a point in time by The Ring, and Rockin’ Rodney Moore was known as the King of the Blue Horizon. One of the most intimate and quaint arenas anywhere with seating capacity of about 1,300 with fans literally right on top of the action thanks to its balcony seating, the Blue was fight heaven.

Outdoor Arena, Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas: A converted parking lot with temporary stands erected became the center of the fight universe for a time when the city was hosting most major PPV-level fights. I’d say Ray Leonard is the fighter whom I most associate with it.

Some I’d like opinions on:

Felt Forum (of Madison Square Garden), New York City: Interested to see what people think of this one.

Madison Square Garden, New York City: The big arena held a lot of big fights.

Polo Grounds, New York City: Held a lot of big fights in its day.

O2 in Manchester, England: Had a lot of major UK fights in its day.

Silver Slipper, Las Vegas: IIRC, they held weekly fights here. Or maybe it was monthly. Not a major arena but one that regularly hosted boxing for years.

I’m sure there are many more. Let’s see what we can come up with.

 

Sacramento was such a great fight town.

Pete Ranzany, Sal Lopez and Tony Lopez were draws there in succession.

I’d say Ranzany deserves to be called king of the old Memorial Auditorium. Fought Benitez, Cuevas, Randy Shields (twice I think), Armando Muniz and others there.

 

I’ll hand Sonny Liston the honors for Central Maine Youth Center in Lewiston.

 

Denny Moyer, a middleweight from Oregon who relocated to Las Vegas, is probably the pick. For the Silver Slipper casino, which ran weekly fights on Wednesdays for year and years.

Moyer was an NABF champ and unsuccessfully challenged Carlos Monzon for the world title.

Fred Hernandez also fought frequently at the Silver Slipper as a sort of ‘house fighter.’

Both Hernandez and Moyer also fought a lot at the Hacienda, which appears to have run weekly or bi-weekly shows for several year.

 

Nobody was more a ‘house fighter’ at Rahway, N.J., state penitentiary than James Scott, an inmate who rose to the top of the light heavyweight rankings while incarcerated there. HBO brought in Eddie Gregory (later Mustafa Muhammad) as No. 1-ranked world contender and Scott upset him — then NBC (and I think once, CBS) began carrying Scott’s fights from there.

 

In the 1970s, a Texan with money build his own venue — Orlando Sports Arena — in Florida and had regular fights featuring guys in his stable of 25 or so fighters. According to Sports Illustrated, the building was booked for more than 150 events (including wrestling and other sports) in one year. He wanted to build a champion and never quite achieved that.

I’ll nominate Edgar “Mad Dog” Ross, a 154-pounder who rose to No. 2 in the world rankings before losing to Tony Chiaverini, as the man most associated with the venue. Scotty Clark fought for the welterweight title and got KO’d by Pipino Cuevas, but Ross was notable for having a 50-fight win streak (longest in the world at the time I’m pretty sure) and was fairly well known via boxing magazines and such.

Here’s more on the arena, Ashlock and Ross:

https://vault.si.com/vault/1979/05/...world-champ-will-emerge-from-his-spotless-gym