Columnist Ron Kantowski: Palace jewels

Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | 10:29 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

It didn't have a snazzy name, lasted only 13 years in its most permanent incarnation and was basically disassembled with a wrench.

It was known simply as the outdoor arena at Caesars Palace -- which like the Dave Clark Five, was exactly what it was. But the lack of capital letters didn't preclude it from becoming one of the most celebrated arenas in sports.

Basically, all it was was four sets of giant bleachers with a boxing ring in the middle. Or a tennis court. Or a hockey rink. Or a garage for Formula One racecars.

No, it wasn't plush sky boxes that made the place famous. It was the heroes who did battle within its gates under a starlit desert sky.

Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras played there. So did Martina Navratilova and Jimmy Connors. And believe it or not, so did Wayne Gretzky on a sultry 95-degree evening, when the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers shared a temporary sheet of ice, cooled by 300 pounds of refrigeration, with about 3,000 grasshoppers, which were cooled by the temporary sheet of ice.

I guess the little buggers, like the sporting icons mentioned above, couldn't help but be attracted by the bright lights of Caesars.

In 1984, Mario Andretti clinched the national driving championship, pulling into victory lane near what is now Wolfgang Puck's. In 1993, the unlikely duo of Pele and Robin Williams, both inimitable but for different reasons, presided over the draw for the biggest sporting event in the world, soccer's World Cup, near what is now Planet Hollywood.

But if you really wanted to see the stars come out, you had to be there on Fight Night, when the outdoor arena generated so much electricity that the hair on back of your neck wouldn't lay down until Tuesday.

Benitez-Leonard (1979). Holmes-Ali (1980). Leonard-Hearns (1981). Holmes-Cooney (1982). Pryor-Argeullo (1983). Hagler-Duran (1983). Hearns-Duran (1984). Hagler-Hearns (1985). Hagler-Leonard (1987). Leonard-Lalonde (1988).

Wait a minute. What's Donny Lalonde's name doing on the list?

Leonard-Hearns II (1989). Holyfield-Holmes (1992). Holyfield-Moorer (1994). Bowe-Holyfield III (1995). De La Hoya-Chavez (1996).

The outdoor arena eventually was dismantled to make room for a swimming pool and a garden, which somehow didn't seem right.

Caesars continued to dabble in the fight biz, but with babes on barca lounges sunning themselves where guys like Leonard and Duran once tanned each other's behinds, it was forced to hold its marquee matchups at the Thomas & Mack Center. Which likewise didn't seem right. It was like the Yankees playing the Red Sox at Shea while Yankee Stadium was being refurbished.

Well, boxing's equivalent of Yankee Stadium is back. Saturday's Showtime tripleheader, topped by a heavyweight bout featuring Wladimir Klitschko, will mark the debut of the new outdoor Amphitheatre at Caesars Palace.

During a Thursday news conference, Klitschko sat on the same dais as Thomas Hearns. That didn't seem quite right, either, considering the amount of blood, sweat and tears the legendary Hit Man spilled during all those classic fights on Caesars' back porch.

But at least the fighters on the card showed a healthy respect for boxing history. Virtually every one (even, I think, No. 1 IBF junior middleweight contender Kassim Ouma, whose English sort of sounded like the old Jack-in-the-Box drive-in clown on helium) paid homage to Caesars' past.

"I've fought in Las Vegas two other times but that's nothing," said grizzled veteran Syd Vanderpool, who will face 2000 U.S. Olympian Jeff Lacy for the vacant IBF super middleweight belt. "It's nothing until you've fought at Caesars Palace."

The Amphitheatre, situated just inside the resort property on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, is a lot spiffier than the old arena, what with the Roman columns, tile roofs and marble facades of Caesars' other recent additions providing a fabulous backdrop.

The arena consists of two permanent grandstands and two portable ones, which will be adjusted depending on the event.

And rest assured, said Caesars president Mark Juliano, there will be plenty of events.

"There really isn't anything as exciting as a championship fight," said Juliano, who also was with Caesars during the old outdoor arena's heyday. "And to have them here on property is something that's always been synonymous with Caesars. We're going to do more of them, but we're not going to limit it just to fights.

"We're working on a tennis event now, we're working on some hockey things, we're working on some recreational ice skating (the Olympic kind). So the Amphitheatre will be multipurpose and there will be a lot of fun stuff there."

In other words, it'll be just like the old days -- if you can call those thunderous haymakers that Hearns and Marvin Hagler kept landing upside each other's head "fun stuff."

Having fought in its various arenas 13 times, Hearns was once a bigger fixture at Caesars than Cleopatra's Barge. Forget the Queen of the Nile lookalikes and those Centurions with the bulging biceps. For boxing fans, the symbolic figure linking Caesars to its glorious past will always be a lanky pugilist in yellow satin trunks with red trim.

"It's great be back here at this special place that I call home," an appreciative Hearns said at the news conference.

To those of us who witnessed his epic battles at the old outdoor arena, seeing Hearns up on the dais with his son, Ronald, a fledgling middleweight who will fight a 4-rounder on Saturday's undercard, was a stunning reminder that time does not stand still.

I'm not sure his old nemesis Hagler fathered a son while he was still fighting or making movies in Italy. But if he did, and he shows interest in following in his old man's footsteps like the Hit Man's kid, I know the perfect place for them to get acquainted in a couple of years.