Ranking the Most Underrated Venues in Boxing

This list has a definite regional bias. It couldn't be any other way. One the thing that tends to makes all venues, whether sandwich joints or night clubs, "underrated" is that they are more well known to the locals than they are to the larger world.

I'm a Northeast guy, so this is a Northeast list. These are all venues that have consistently hosted world-class boxing cards worthy of national television.

These all smaller venues, which means you won't get a bad seat. But some of them have seen boxing history made and will again.  

If this article was being written even a year ago, the historic Roseland Ballroom on 52nd Street in Manhattan would be featured prominently. Regrettably, it closed in April, so I couldn't resist at least noting its tragic demise.

Emerging in the 1920s, the Roseland provided a backdrop at every stage of 20th century popular music, from the jazz age in the 1920s, through the Disco boom of the 1970s and up until this year, when Lady Gaga was its final performer.

It was a site for poor girls in the 1930s selling dances for a dime a piece and for a Hillary Clinton birthday party in this century.

In boxing, it emerged as a terrific venue in this century, with its old-style class providing an ideal backdrop for the classic drama of the sweet science. Its greatest boxing moment might very well have been the first meeting between Delvin Rodriguez and Pawel Wolak in 2011, a 10-round draw that many viewed as the Fight of the Year.    

Located in the Lehigh Valley in Eastern Pennsylvania, Bethlehem is a city that boomed, and declined, with the domestic steel industry. Like so many casinos that have emerged in this century, the Sands in Bethlehem is a stab at urban renewal. In 2006, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation was granted a license to build on a brownfield site of an old Bethlehem Steel plant. 

Boxing has been a major, growing attraction since the Sands opened in 2009. The venue has hosted ESPN Friday Night Fights cards and multiple NBC Sports cards, along with smaller shows streamed by Go Fights. 

Without question, the biggest fight to date hosted at the Sands was the delayed matchup between heavyweight contenders Tomasz Adamek and Vyacheslav Glazkov last March, when Glazkov beat the more experienced fighter and pushed himself up the rankings. With a large contingent of fans travelling from Adamek's nearby adopted hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey, the fight had a definite big-fight feel. 

Located just north of Providence, in Lincoln, Rhode Island, Twin River Event Center was built early this century on the site of a longtime greyhound race track. It's become a major hub for the New England boxing scene. 

Twin River began hosting boxing cards in 2007 and has seen its share of national cards. Former Contender star Peter Manfredo Jr. is something of a house fighter there. 

But a large part of Twin River's charm is the way it fills out its card with smaller shows, featuring the best up-and-comers from the New England area.

Building a fighter's reputation first at the local level can be critical for selling him as a national attraction later on. But at the lower level, prizefighting can be a road warrior's vocation by necessity. Venues that consistently make a point to build cards around local up-and-comers fill a valuable role in the sport. 

When I was in graduate school in Syracuse in the mid-1990s, I used to lose money I couldn't afford playing blackjack at Turning Stone Casino when it was little more than a big barn in a cow field. Since those days, it has morphed into a four-season resort destination with a PGA Tour golf course and luxury hotel.

Since I still live less than two hours from Verona, Turning Stone is my own local boxing venue. I rarely miss a card held there.

Located one exit east of the Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, it was a natural that Turning Stone should present boxing once it expanded to a full-sized resort. Laila Ali fought there on her way up in 2001. 

In the past few years, Turning Stone has hosted HBO, Showtime, ESPN and NBC Sports. The final two rounds of last season's Boxcino Tournament on Friday Night Fights were held there, with lightweight winner Petr Petrov and middleweight champion Willie Monroe Jr. putting their names in the conversation of their respective divisions as a result.

Turning Stone was also the location for Gennady Golovkin's United States debut in September 2012, when he stopped Grzegorz Proksa in five rounds on HBO's Boxing After Dark.

The Mohegan Sun Casino was in the first generation of Northeast casinos to open in the 1990s. It's one of the largest casino's in the world, and the entire resort seems like a bit of Vegas glamour transported to bucolic New England.

The Mohegan nation has made boxing promotion a big part of its business venture from the start. Its first professional card was held nearly 20 years ago and it's worked with all the top networks and promoters in the sport.

An important piece of 21st century boxing history was made at the Mohegan Sun, as Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti faced off there for the first of their three epic clashes in May 2002.

The Foxwoods Resort Casino started life as a bingo hall run by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe in the 1980s. Since then, it has grown into the largest resort casino in North America.

Along with the nearby Mohegan Sun, it has transformed the Southeastern Connecticut coastal area into a major gaming destination.

When it comes to boxing, the Pequot have a long, rich history. Their first card was promoted by Top Rank in 1992, headlined by Tommy Morrison. Every major boxing network in the United States has broadcast from Foxwoods.

Massachusetts native Micky Ward fought at Foxwoods frequently.