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The Mirage Goes Dark and Another Storied Venue for Boxing Bites the Dust

Life comes at you fast. It seems like only yesterday that I stood in a crowd of rubberneckers gawking at the artificial volcano that fronted the spanking new Mirage Hotel and Casino. After sundown, it erupted every 15 minutes, sending fireballs into the sky accompanied by a soundtrack of actual eruptions as the air was perfumed with the scent of a pina colada. In those days, late November of 1989 and beyond, the artificial volcano was Southern Nevada’s #1 tourist attraction, supplanting Hoover Dam.
I didn’t come to the 3,044-room Polynesian-themed resort to see the volcano. I came there to see the centerpiece of the grand opening festivities, a prizefight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran, the third meeting between the two gladiators. The Mirage had actually opened for business two weeks earlier, but it was a soft opening, as they say in the trade. The boxing event on Thursday, Dec. 7, 1989, was the cherry on the cake, a spectacle in every sense of the word. Celebrities were chaperoned to their ringside seats on a red carpet, mirroring the Oscars, and a mesmerizing fireworks display, better than New Years Eve, lit up the sky in the interlude between the last preliminary bout and the main event.
Leonard-Duran III was the first of 13 boxing shows at the Mirage, the last of which was staged in 1995. Thirteen isn’t many, but they included some of the biggest fights of the era, five of which – the first five – were staged under the stars in makeshift arenas built specifically for boxing. And now, with the closure of the Mirage today (July 17), another place that housed historic prizefights has dissipated into the dustbin of history.
The accoutrements were better than the fight. Roberto Duran had turned back the clock in his most recent bout, unseating middleweight title-holder Iran Barkley at the Atlantic City Convention Center, but against Sugar Ray he looked older than his 38 years. Leonard was content to out-box Duran and won nearly every round. The final chapter of the Four Kings round-robin (Leonard, Duran, Marvin Hagler, and Tommy Hearns) was a dud.
Two months after the Leonard-Duran rubber match, fringe contender James “Buster” Douglas shocked the world with a 10th-round stoppage of Mike Tyson.
Tyson-Douglas was in faraway Tokyo, but the Mirage became a sidebar to the story of the fight when mischievous Jimmy Vaccaro, who ran the Mirage Race and Sports Book, just for the fun of it posted odds on the match. That gave the Mirage a monopoly as it would be the only property in the bookmaking universe to take bets on the outcome of the fight.
The betting line bounced around a little bit and at one point the odds favoring Mike Tyson stood at 42/1. This price would come to be etched in stone. “42 to 1” became the title of an ESPN “30 for 30” documentary.
It wasn’t lost on Mirage founder and chairman Steve Wynn that Buster Douglas would be the perfect poster boy for a gambling establishment. After all, Buster was the Joe Blow that knocked out Superman and won the big jackpot. Wynn’s attorneys succeeded in extricating Douglas from the clutches of Don King and he was matched against Evander Holyfield, a former cruiserweight champion who was 24-0 with the last six wins coming as a heavyweight.
Worldwide, Douglas vs. Holyfield was a much bigger attraction than Leonard-Duran III. The Mirage reportedly credentialed 1,200 members of the media, many from overseas.
In the days leading up to the fight, there were rumors that Buster Douglas had been lax in his training. Those rumors were confirmed when Douglas weighed-in at 246 pounds, 14 ½ pounds more than he had carried for Mike Tyson.
Counting the intermissions between rounds, the fight lasted a shade over nine minutes. In the third frame, Buster missed with an uppercut and Holyfield countered with an overhand right that landed on the temple. Buster fell to the canvas and made no attempt to rise as referee Mills Lane tolled the 10-count. As he lay there, picking at his nose, the scene was reminiscent of the famous photo of Jack Johnson lying on his back with his right arm shading his eyes from the sun at the conclusion of his 1915 fight with Jess Willard, a match that would always beg the question of whether Johnson was faking it.
Steve Wynn, who could be charming but was a perfectionist with a volatile temper, was livid. On the streets of Las Vegas, there was talk that Wynn had Douglas and his crew evicted from their hotel rooms even before the arena was locked down. If it were true that Buster Douglas was given the bum’s rush like some deadbeat inhabitant of a fleabag hotel, he would have been the first millionaire to experience this indignity. His purse was reportedly $24 million with $19.9 million guaranteed (roughly $40 million in today’s dollars).
Wynn partnered with promoter Bob Arum for the Leonard-Duran fight. For Douglas-Holyfield, he decided to go it alone, eliminating the middleman. By his reckoning, he had people on staff who were quite capable of getting all the moving parts to mesh into a coherent whole. But manufacturing a megafight is a complicated undertaking and Wynn would discover that he had over-reached. Plus, he had soured on boxing after two stinkers.
History would show that Steve Wynn would never again commit a large amount of money to host a prizefight. But this didn’t mark the end of boxing at the Mirage as Wynn owed Don King some dates as part of the out-of-court settlement that freed Buster Douglas from King’s grasp and a handful of promoters with lesser clout (e.g., Kathy Duva, Cedric Kushner, Dan Goossen) would anchor an occasional show there in a four-wall arrangement.
Don King’s first two Mirage promotions pit Mike Tyson against Razor Ruddock. Tyson stopped Ruddock in the seventh round on March 18, 1991. The stoppage by referee Richard Steele, which struck many as premature, sparked a wild melee in the ring between the opposing handlers. The sequel in June went the distance. Tyson copped the decision. Take away the three points that Ruddock was docked for low blows and Tyson still would have won.
King also promoted the last of the outdoor shows at the Mirage, a September 14, 1991 card topped by Julio Cesar Chavez’s super lightweight title defense against Lonnie Smith. In hindsight, this event was historically important.
Although Chavez was a massive favorite and the weather was oppressively hot, the Mexican Independence Day weekend fight attracted a larger-than-expected turnout of mostly Mexican tourists with deep pockets. In future years, many big fights in Las Vegas would be noosed to a Mexican holiday weekend. Chavez vs Smith was the ice-breaker.
In addition to Leonard, Duran, Holyfield, Tyson, and Chavez, future Hall of Famers Riddick Bowe, Jeff Fenech, Azumah Nelson, Buddy McGirt, and Michael Carbajal appeared at the Mirage. “Big Daddy” Bowe never headlined a show at the Mirage but had three fights here preceding his memorable trilogy with Evander Holyfield.
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Steve Wynn divested his interest in the Mirage in 2000 and the property became part of the MGM consortium. In December of 2021, the property was purchased by the Hard Rock organization whose parent company, as it were, is the Seminole Indian tribe of Florida. The transition from the Mirage to the Hard Rock is expected to take almost three years. When the renovation is finished, the property will have a new hotel tower shaped like a giant guitar. The guitar, the symbol of the Hard Rock brand, couldn’t hold the volcano’s jockstrap, but it is what it is in the city that constantly reinvents itself.
Back when the Mirage opened, the charismatic Steve Wynn was the most admired man in town. An innovator and a true visionary, Wynn melded the sensibilities of Walt Disney and Bugsy Siegel and changed the face of the Las Vegas Strip. Wynn still has a large footprint in Las Vegas reflected in two look-alike five star hotel-casinos, the Wynn and the Encore, but, incredibly, he is now persona non grata in the city that once worshiped him. His fall from grace is not a proper subject for this website. Suffice it to say that Wynn, now 82, was quite the philanderer in his younger days and his recklessness caught up with him.
Yes, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since that memorable night almost 35 years ago when Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran formally christened the newest and brightest jewel on the Las Vegas landscape. Those were the days, my friend, and for some of us it seems like only yesterday.
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A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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Oscar Duarte KOs Miguel Madueno in a Battle of Mexicans at Anaheim

No surprise. It was a Mexican beat down.
Oscar Duarte emerged victorious over fellow Mexican slugger Miguel Madueno by knockout to become a regional WBA super lightweight titlist on Saturday.
“Miguel (Madueno) is a gentleman and a warrior,” said Duarte. “He is a tough fighter but it was our night tonight.”
Chihuahua, Mexico’s Duarte (29-2-1, 23 KOs) started slowly but brutally stopped Sinaloa, Mexico’s Madueno who had never been knocked out before. The crowd at Honda Center in Anaheim roared its approval.
Not even new world titlist Keyshawn Davis was able to stop Madueno last July.
The taller Madueno opened up the first two rounds behind a stiff jab and some movement around the stalking style of Duarte. Though both Mexican fighters connected, it was Madueno who opened up stronger.
Then came the body shots.
“I knew he was going to move around when he felt my punches,” said Duarte.
The muscular Duarte had built a career as an inside fighter specializing in body shots. In the third round the light brown haired Duarte finally targeted the body and immediately saw results. Madueno had to change tactics.
Duarte had lost to Ryan Garcia by knockout 14 months ago in Texas. But since that loss he became the first to defeat Jojo Diaz by knockout and then last November beat down Uzbekistan’s Botirzhon Akhmedov. He was scheduled to fight Regis Prograis but an injury to the former world champion forced Madueno to step in as a replacement.
No matter.
Duarte began revving up the steamroller from the third round on with a pounding assault to the body and head that would not allow Madueno to dig in. A left hook to the chin by Duarte wobbled the Sinaloa fighter who had fought many times under the Thompson Boxing flag. The now departed Ken Thompson must have been proud at Madueno’s valiant performance.
It just wasn’t enough.
Madueno had success bouncing overhand rights on Duarte’s head but it was not enough. He battled through brutal exchanges and kept battling but the muscle-bound Duarte could not be halted.
In the fifth round Madueno tried to return to the long jabs and though he had early success, Duarte unleashed a three-punch combination to stop the nonsense. They both battled in a corner and Madueno emerged with blood streaming down his left eye. The referee ruled the cut was due to a blow.
“I felt his punches and I knew he was coming down,” Duarte said.
Duarte sensed the kill and opened up the sixth round with a bludgeoning six-punch volley. Madueno countered with a clean left hook. It was not a good exchange and it looked bad for the Sinaloan.
In the seventh round, Duarte looked like a Rhino that had just sharpened his horn and charged forward with bloodlust. The Chihuahua Mexican seemed determined to end the fight and connected with a right that staggered Madueno. Duarte followed up quickly with 17 more big blows to the body and head. Referee Thomas Taylor stepped in with a veering Madueno against the ropes and stopped the fight at 2:09 of the seventh round.
Duarte became the first man ever to defeat Madueno by knockout.
Now holding a regional WBA title, he is poised to fight for a world title.
“I’ll fight any champion. Let’s do it right now,” Duarte said.
Other Bouts
Houston’s Darius Fulgham (14-0, 12 KOs) proved too much for Detroit’s Winfred Harris Jr. (22-3-2) in overwhelming the clinching fighter and forcing a stoppage in the fourth round of their super middleweight bout. Fulgham was in control in every round that included a knockdown in the third round. Referee Ray Corona saw enough and stopped the beating.
Light flyweight Ricardo Sandoval (26-2, 18 KOs) soundly defeated the speedy Saleto Henderson (10-2, 7 KOs) by unanimous decision after 10 rounds. Both fighters showed off great chins but the taller Sandoval out-punched Henderson. Two judges scored it 100-90 for Sandoval and a third judge had it 98-92.

Ricardo Sandoval
An entertaining welterweight clash saw Chicago’s Kenneth Sims Jr. (22-2-1, 8 KOs) outpoint San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda (21-8, 9 KOs) but in the latter part of the match both slugged it out. The fans were pleased by the action. All three judges favored Sims 99-91 twice and 98-92, but Castaneda proved he was not overmatched.
Bakersfield’s Joel Iriarte (6-0, 6 KOs) had no problems against Darel Harris (19-24-2) who he stopped at 1:21 of the second round in a welterweight clash.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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Arnold Barboza Edges Past Jack Catterall in Manchester

In a battle between elite counter-punchers Southern California’s Arnold Barboza Jr. slightly out-worked Jack Catterall in England to win a razor-close split decision and become the interim WBO super lightweight titlist on Saturday.
“It was a chess match,” said Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing.
Barboza (32-0, 11 KOs) managed to overcome a hostile British crowd to defeat hometown favorite Catterall (30-2, 13 KOs) in a battle between defensive masters at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester.
It was a match made for boxing purists who love the art of feints and counter-punches that are a major part of orthodox fighter Barboza and the southpaw Catterall. It was a fight that harkened back to the battle between Sugar Ray Leonard and Wilfredo Benitez in 1979.
Feints and more feints.
Neither fighter looked to give up ground from the first round until the last. Each was cognizant of the other’s ability to counter-strike.
Catterall benefited early from the hometown crowd. With few blows fired and even fewer blows landing, the crowd’s roars for the local fighter might have registered with the judges. Though neither fighter connected more than a dozen punches in any round, the crowd was more pleased with “El Gato” Catterall’s efforts.
No round was clear-cut.
Barboza began to increase his tempo around the third round. Though the fighter from El Monte, California never loaded up on his punches, he was more ready to risk receive incoming blows from Catterall. And they did come.
Perhaps it was Barboza’s steadier use of the jab to the chest and head that made the difference. And when the Californian opened-up with combinations, Catterall was ready with jolting lefts. If not for Barboza’s chin he might have hit the deck from the blows.
In the seventh round Barboza found the target for repeated right hand leads. One after another connected. And when it looked like he might overrun the British fighter, things turned around as Catterall connected below the belt. When Barboza complained to the referee, Catterall delivered three head blows at the end of the round. The referee ruled the blow was low, but still, the follow-up blows did land.
It was anyone’s fight.
From the ninth round on Barboza took the lead as the aggressor while Catterall maintained his counter-punching mode. Though neither fighter could gain separation, Barboza was slightly busier and that may have proved the difference in the final four rounds.
Catterall connected with the heavier punches throughout the fight. But he just never opened-up with combinations and settled for counters. And though he connected often with single blows, combinations were rarely fired by the Manchester fighter. But he was always in the fight.
No knockdowns were scored and after 12 rounds one judge saw Catterall the winner 115-113, but two others gave Barboza the win by 115-113 to become the number one contender for the WBO super lightweight title.
“Since I was little I just wanted respect,” said Barboza. “I got my respect today.”
Catterall was gracious in defeat.
“It was a tricky fight,” Catterall said. “I thought I just did enough.”
Barboza said he does not care who he fights next.
“Anybody can get it,” he said.
Other Bouts
Super featherweight Reece “The Bomber” Bellotti (20-5,15 KOs) belted Michael Gomez Jr. throughout 10 rounds with body shots. Twice he floored Gomez with shots to the liver until the fight was stopped at the end of the ninth round by technical knockout.
In another super featherweight clash James Dickens (35-5, 14 KOs) repeatedly out-maneuvered Zelfa Barrett (31-3, 17 KOs) to win by unanimous decision after 10 rounds.
Welterweight Pat McCormack (7-0, 6 KOs) blasted out veteran Robbie Davies Jr. (24-6) with three knockdowns in six rounds. The fight was stopped at the end of the sixth round in a scheduled 10-round fight.
Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom
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Results and Recaps from Madison Square Garden where Keyshawn Davis KO’d Berinchyk

Top Rank was at the Theater at Madison Square Garden tonight. The main event of the 9-bout card was a battle between Olympic silver medalists Keyshawn Davis and Denys Berinchyk. A 36-year-old Ukrainian, Berinchyk was making the first defense of the WBO world lightweight title he won with an upset of Emanuel Navarrete.
Berinchyk, who turned pro at age 27, was undefeated heading in (19-0, 9 KOs), but Norfolk’s Davis, a stablemate of Terence Crawford, is big for the weight and was the younger man by 11 years and the oddsmakers anticipated that the title would change hands.
Berinchyk has an awkward style which lends itself to messy fights and this match was headed in that direction before Davis took charge in the third frame. He put the Ukrainian on the deck with a left to the body and finished the job in the next round with a wicked punch to the liver that sent Berincjyk to his knees, wincing in pain.
He wasn’t able to beat the count and Keyshawn Davis (13-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC) emerged the new champion. The official time was 1:45 of round four.
Co-Feature
Xander Zayas, ranked #1 at junior middleweight by the WBO, scored a ninth-round stoppage of hard-trying but out-classed Slawa Spomer (20-1). During the fight, Zayas (21-0, 13 KOs) worked the body effectively. Several of those punches strayed south of the border, but it was a legitimate body punch that spelled the end for Germany’s Spomer who was fighting for the first time with Roy Jones Jr in his corner. That punch, a left to the body, was followed by a barrage that led referee Charlie Fitch to step in and stop it. The official time was 2:01 of round nine.
Zayas, fighting for the seventh time at Madison Square Garden, moved one step closer to a title fight.
The first of three fights on the main ESPN platform was a well-matched middleweight contest between Vito Mielnicki Jr and Connor Coyle. In his debut at 160, Mielnicki, the pride of Roseland, New Jersey, seemingly did enough to edge it, but only one of the judges agreed (96-94) whereas the other two had it 95-95, producing a draw. The pro Mielnicki crowd booed the decision.
After the entertaining fourth round, Mielnicki was bleeding from his mouth and Coyle from a cut on the side of his left eye that would eventually bleed more profusely.
The 22-year-old Mielnicki, the younger man by 12 years, failed to win his 13th straight. He’s now 20-1-1. The 34-year-old Coyle, from Pinellas Park, Florida by way of Derby, Northern Ireland, remains undefeated at 21-0-1 and will presumably retain his lofty ranking (#3) in the World Boxing Association.
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The final fight of the ESPN+ livestream showcased the 19-year-old son of Puerto Rican crowd-pleaser Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez, a former two-division world title-holder. “Juanmita” Lopez De Jesus did his dad proud, needing only 59 seconds to put away Bryan Santiago in a super flyweight contest slated for four rounds.
A second-generation Olympian, “Juanmita,” was stepping down in class after coming up short in his last start against two-time gold medalist Hasanboy Dusmatov in the 2024 Paris Games. He ended the contest with a short left hook that put Santiago (1-2-1) down hard, flat on his back.
Abdullah Mason, a 20-year-old, baby-faced assassin from Cleveland continued his rapid ascent up the lightweight ranks with a fourth-round blowout of Stockton, California’s Manuel Jaimes. It was the fifteenth win inside the distance in 17 starts for the undefeated Mason who has lightning-quick hands and appears destined for great things.
Jaimes (16-3-1) had lasted 10 rounds with perennial title challenger Rolly Romero in his last outing and hadn’t previously been stopped. He was on the canvas four times before referee David Fields waived it off at the 1:55 mark of round four.
Rising welterweight contender Rohan Polanco who represented the Dominican Republic in the Tokyo Olympiad, advanced to 15-0 (10 KOs) with a second-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Jean Carlos Torres (22-2). The official time was 1:48 of round two.
Polanco, who trains in Boston, decked Torres with a left-right combination in the opening frame and dropped him again in round two with a left hook. Torres was on his feet but on spaghetti legs when referee Eddie Claudio stepped in and stopped it.
Lanky welterweight Keon Davis, the youngest of the three fighting Davis brothers, improved to 2-0 with a second-round stoppage of Kansas City, Missouri plumber Ira Johnson (3-3). Davis had Johnson on the canvas twice before the bout was finished with Johnson showing no inclination to get up after the second knockdown.
Jared Anderson was expected to win as he pleased against unheralded Marios Kollias, but was extended the full 10-round distance by the Greek invader before prevailing on scores of 98-92 and 99-91 twice.
Despite the wide scorecards, Anderson looked very ordinary in a fight that was fought at a glacial pace. Coming off a humbling defeat to Martin Bakole who roughed-him-up and stopped him, the “Real Big Baby” needed a good showing to restore some of his lost luster but failed to deliver while advancing his record to 18-1 (15).
The only drama was whether Kollias (12-4-1) would moon the crowd on a St. Valentine’s Day as his shorts kept slipping down below the wide strap of his rubber groin protector. They never did fall completely down thanks to referee Fields who repeatedly stopped the action to pull them up.
In the lid-lifter, Chicago construction worker Juan Carlos Guerra (6-1-1) scored a split decision over Nico Ali Walsh (11-2-1). Two judges favored Guerra by 58-56 scores with the dissenter favoring Ali Walsh by the same margin.
Guerra was the aggressor and Ali Walsh, whose career has stalled, didn’t have enough steam in his jab to deter him.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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