Sports is big business in Nevada.
Take the Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford fight at Allegiant Stadium in September. That match raked in a reported $47 million in ticket sales alone.
Of course, boxing has a long history in Nevada.The state was the first in the US to legalize professional prizefighting around the turn of the 20th century. Since then, Nevada has hosted some of the sport's biggest bouts.
But now that Las Vegas is home to several professional sports teams, some fans worry that Nevada will lose its place at the heart of professional boxing.
You wouldn't suspect it, just by stepping into Fight Capital Gym on a Saturday morning. Boxers pour sweat as they spar in the ring, and half a dozen college-age men and women are gearing up, stretching and waiting for their turn to hop into the action.
They’re with UNLV’s boxing club, and they’re warming up for their first training session of the Fall 2025 semester.
"It originally started as a hobby. It was something to get me in shape," says Wyatt English, one of the members of the club.
Even though he won the Super Heavyweight National Championship at this year’s U.S. Intercollegiate Boxing Association tournament, English is still considered an amateur.
At one point in Nevada’s history, amateur boxing was popular. Even the late Senator Harry Reid spent time in the ring. Nowadays, not so much.
With the athletic infusion Las Vegas has experienced in the last decade, it’s made experts wonder: What’s next for boxing in the Fight Capital of the World?
"There's a higher return in other sports right now, and that's largely because of the television exposure that, you know, pays the universities to be able to pay the athletes," Bruce Trampler says. He’s an International Boxing Hall of Fame promoter who moved to Nevada in the mid-1980s to work with Vegas-based Top Rank.
He says that Vegas is still a major venue for pay-per-view and large title fights like Álvarez v. Crawford. But, he cautions, this might not always be the case, especially considering the neglect shown to amateur fights.
"There are so many things you can do in Vegas now," Trampler adds. "And so, for the amateurs, specifically, you’d usually be relying on locals — and the locals have more to do.”
Now, at least for the pros, Trampler says, there’s a lot of international, rather than homegrown, interest. “Most of the big-name fighters are in Europe right now, England, the Middle East.”
That’s true for funding, too. Since 2019, boxing has seen an influx of Saudi Arabian money, under the banner of Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season, which was a sponsor of Álvarez v. Crawford.
Some trainers, like Mayweather Boxing and Fitness’ Leonard Ellerbe, see this cash infusion as a positive development for boxers choosing to fight in Vegas, especially since pay-per-view piracy is becoming a growing problem for all combat sports.
“It’s kind of hard to grow the sport from the fighters’ perspective, because that's how they take care of their families," Ellerbe says. "So that's when you have a Turki Alalshikh, who stepped in, and he’s been able to pay the fighters so they can make the big fights.”
Trampler’s more skeptical. Despite the cash infusion, he’s of the opinion that many sports spectators have lost interest. He says it’s not like the old days. "When I moved to Vegas, they had beat writers for [boxing]," Trampler says, "and they would write two or three advance stories the week of the fight. They’d cover the weigh-in. They’d cover the fight. They’d have a post-fight story."
He doesn’t see that anymore. Yet ,experts are cautious to not discount boxing’s future in Las Vegas. Rather, it’s simply changing, as promoters attempt to find the correct fit for a city with so many sports options.
Back at the UNLV boxing club practice, Vegas’ amateur fighters like Wyatt English are seeing individual successes. “As long as I keep winning, I'll definitely keep competing!” he says.
Head coach Jason Croco beams as he talks about his students. “You’re part of a legacy. You don't have to be Mike Tyson or Floyd Mayweather," he says. "You can be that first-time fighter, and you’re still a part of history and a part of a community.”
In the state that was instrumental in bringing boxing into the mainstream, perhaps it really can remain a contender .
Guests: Jason Croco, head coach, UNLV Boxing Club; Leonard Ellerbe, trainer, Mayweather Boxing and Fitness; Wyatt English, boxer, UNLV Boxing Club; Bruce Trampler, promoter, Top Rank
