Think back on the most legendary boxing matches of the last 60 years. Odds are Bob Arum was connected to most or all of them. The legendary promoter and founder and CEO of Top Rank has promoted nearly 2,500 fights over the last six decades, including the “Thrilla in Manila” with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in 1975, the “No Mas” fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran in 1980, and the epic three-round war between Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler in 1985. He recently spoke with Las Vegas Magazine about the future of boxing in a rapidly expanding sports town.

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Did any city benefit more from boxing than Las Vegas?

No. Remember, for a long time the only place that you could legitimately bet on a fight was in Las Vegas. No other place was legal to bet on a sporting event. That came later, but it was in Las Vegas that it was legal. So I mean, yeah, Vegas was made for boxing and indeed is made for all professional sports. And that’s why in 10 years, if not less, it will be a home for every professional sport of note in the world.

What do you think is the future of boxing in Las Vegas?

We’re now in an era where it’s competing with other professional sports. Who would have believed—we have an NFL team, an NHL team, we have a women’s professional basketball team? All of them get attention, and rightly so, and all of them are featured on television. So again, there are other sports, UFC for example, that are competing for attention with boxing. It’s not like it used to be, where boxing almost had a monopoly on attention as far as professional sports was concerned.

Do you think that’s going to be to its detriment, or do you think it will continue to be successful?

I think it can be successful, but it won’t have the same aura that it had before, because it has to share the spotlight with so many other professional sports, which it didn’t have to do before. That’s only going to get bigger, because we’re about to have a professional major league baseball team, we’re about to have an NBA team. So all of that takes away from the importance of boxing. Boxing still has a place, but it will never again be the dominant force in Las Vegas that it once was.

Is there one moment or fight you would choose as the most memorable of your career in Las Vegas?

The fight that I think epitomized the era and was a sensational fight and people who were alive then and watched it still talk about was Marvin Hagler against Tommy Hearns. Those three rounds were the best three rounds in the history of boxing. Two great fighters at the peak of their powers going at it hammer and tongs. There’s been nothing since as wonderful as that fight. It was crazy. I remember Joan Rivers was sitting next to me, and after the first round, she looked at me and said, “Are they all like this?” I said, “No Joan, you’re watching something really special.”

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What impact has boxing had on Las Vegas?

Remember, when boxing really made its imprint on Las Vegas, Vegas was a city which had only one sports team, and they weren’t even a professional team. It was the Runnin’ Rebels basketball team. As far as professional athletes sports was concerned, boxing was the only game in town. Everything that we have now came later.

And how important do you think you’ve been to the sport, not just in Las Vegas but around the world?

Well, I know, it’s hard to say, because when you’re doing it, you think you’re the most important person. But then you realize you’re not—you’re just one of the people who have been doing it, and I’ve been doing it on a permanent kind of basis. So I made the impact with my promotions in Las Vegas, and all over the world, but it’s essentially been who the fighters are that have come to us who we’ve been able to showcase. In other words, there was a period of time when the biggest attraction in boxing was Muhammad Ali. Now, I promoted 25 Ali fights, but again, I promoted those fights, but the guy who was really driving the promotions was Ali. And then later on, I did seven of the nine Four Kings fights —Hagler, Leonard, Hearns and Duran. And while I was the promoter, it was the fighters in whatever way we paired them, who were stirring the drink. So it’s really hard to take credit for these events when the reason the events were successful was because of the participants, rather than anything else. It’s really the fighters and their personality that makes the event so special.

You’ve been a major figure in boxing for more than six decades. Where does your untiring enthusiasm for the sport come from?

I don’t know. It comes from, I guess, the way I’m built. If I’m involved in something, I’m going to do it enthusiastically. And make it as good as I possibly can. So, again, I know I have a great drive in me to do it, and that fits the role that I have as a promoter.

What is your reaction to the enormous sports growth in Las Vegas in just the last 10-15 years? Did you see this coming?

Yes and no. I never realized—when I first started promoting in boxing in Las Vegas for Ali, Las Vegas was a relatively small town. There was no Summerlin then, there was a limited number of people. So the whole atmosphere was different. Now it’s awash in professional sports, and soon it will be a deluge. So boxing will have its fans, and will have its moments, but will never again have the dominance that it had in the '70s and '80s.

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You’re a longtime Las Vegan. What are some of your favorite restaurants?

Well, you know, I don’t think there’s any place in a relatively small area has as many good restaurants as Las Vegas. And to name ’em all is really fruitless, because I’m going to leave out some. Every major hotel has two or three fantastic restaurants, and generally they have a parent restaurant in some other city. For example, there’s Cipriani’s (at Wynn), which I love. Now Cipriani’s obviously didn’t start in Las Vegas. It started in Italy, but then came to New York and other places before it came to Vegas. But once they come to Vegas, they become tremendous magnets for tourists. Carbone is one of the most popular restaurants in New York in Little Italy, and there’s Carbone now here in Las Vegas in Aria. Milos, which is great New York restaurant, which is largely fish dishes, is extraordinarily popular in New York, and now it's become popular in Las Vegas at The Venetian Resort. And I could go on and on and on. Mother Wolf, which is at Fontainebleau, cut its bones in California. And it’s fantastic. And we have some original restaurants here. Wynn has SW Steakhouse that’s really great, and Venetian Resort has Cut, another good steak restaurant. So Vegas has some of the best restaurants in the world, many of which are progeny of restaurants that became famous in places other than Vegas. Nobu for example. The list is endless. You can come to Las Vegas and spend a month here and just scratch the surface on the restaurants that we have. And it’s cuisine from all over the world. I think the Chinese restaurant Wing Lei at Wynn is the best Chinese restaurant in the world. And a lot of experts agree with me. And I said that and I meant it—world! It’s better than any Chinese restaurant in China itself. Or in Hong Kong, or in Macau. I mean, we can be proud of the cuisine here in Las Vegas.

How about favorite shows over your time here?

The residencies are fantastic. At Caesars, they have Rod Stewart, Elton John was fantastic. They had Celine Dion. They have stars that come in not just for a week or two weeks, but they come in for a month or two months. Or for years. I mean it’s great, and we love Bette Midler. She came to Las Vegas, and my wife became very friendly with her. And because of that connection, she is a really close friend of ours, and we see her all the time. So you know, a lot of people who live in Las Vegas become very friendly with those performers in the resident shows because they come to Las Vegas, and they have to be friendly with somebody, so they find their friends in Las Vegas.

When historians look back on the history of boxing in Las Vegas decades from now, what would you like them to say about you?

That I was one of the pioneers of bringing this sport out west to Las Vegas, and I helped build Las Vegas as a sports capital of the world. And as a mecca for boxing. I mean, when I first started in boxing in the '60s, there was one mecca, and everybody acknowledged it, and that was Madison Square Garden. But as we went into the ’70s and ’80s that shifted, and the mecca of boxing was Las Vegas. The biggest fights, the most important fights, the biggest money fights, those took place in Las Vegas. So in that regard, I was a pioneer. But again, I don’t take credit for that. I think that would have happened with or without me. But I was a prominent force in that happening just because I was in Las Vegas, and I loved Las Vegas, and I loved doing these events in Las Vegas. So I benefitted by the real acceptance of the major casinos in Las Vegas tying themselves to boxing and using boxing as a means to bring customers into Las Vegas. So it’s more like, to be honest with you, being in the right place at the right time.

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