Founded in 1879, New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden has a history and authenticity that few venues can challenge. It has been at the center of sports and entertainment life in New York before the sports and entertainment industry was even really invented.
Ever since, it has been a landmark on the showbusiness map. New York is America’s cultural capital and Madison Square Garden is its stage. If you are an athlete or a musician and your career brings you here, you are adding your name to a list which contains some of the greatest entertainers in history.
Music has a long relationship with Madison Square Garden and so do basketball and hockey. But it is boxing in which the venue has achieved truly iconic status. Climbing between the ropes at Madison Square Garden is a dream held by every professional fighter.
This was the home of ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson, the place where he won six of his world titles. It was where Henry Armstrong won the world featherweight, lightweight and welterweight titles. He held them all at once, a feat never equalled before or since.
Joe Louis, ‘The Brown Bomber’ made eight defenses of the heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden, those fights being part of the incredible run which wrote him into the sport’s history books as probably the greatest heavyweight boxer ever.
This was also where Louis fought his final bout, losing to Rocky Marciano. Not long afterwards, Marciano went on to win the heavyweight title and make six successful defenses before retiring undefeated.
In 1970, Muhammad Ali was in the ring at Madison Square Garden for a fight with Joe Frazier. It was the first time two undefeated heavyweight champions squared off and there was also significant bad blood between the two. Media called it ‘The Fight of the Century’.
It turned into a war. Ali’s beautiful boxing took second place to a desire to put Frazier away. That suited the Philadelphia man, one of the hardest-hitting fighters the sport has ever known. They battered each other mercilessly until Frazier put Ali down in the final 15th round and won a unanimous decision.
Roberto Duran, Jake La Motta, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Roy Jones Jr, Miguel Cotto, Felix Trinidad, Bernard Hopkins - the list of greats who have fought at Madison Square Garden is endless. The venue has had four changes of location since its 1879 founding but the name stands eternal.
In 2007, Madison Square Garden finally retired the boxing ring it had used for 82 years. Measuring 18½' × 18½' (5.6 m × 5.6 m), it dated from the second incarnation of Madison Square Garden and thus had hosted every one of those great names listed above.
It was donated to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, where it remains on display, and was replaced by the larger 20' × 20' (6 m × 6 m) ring which the venue uses today.
Aside from boxing, Madison Square Garden also has strong links with music - Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin both set records here - and with basketball and hockey, being the home of the Knicks and the Rangers respectively.
Basketball fans remember the Michael Jordan era fondly. He is strongly linked to Madison Square Garden because of the rivalry between his team, the Chicago Bulls, and the New York Knicks. That rivalry brought out the best in Jordan and some of his career highlight moments took place in games against the Knicks.
The air in Madison Square Garden is heavy with history. It is a place which has seen legends rise and fall and on Saturday November 23, the elite kickboxers of the GLORY World Series get their chance to fight under those same arena lights which shone down on the heroes of yesteryear.
GLORY 12 NEW YORK airs live across America on SPIKE TV. The world’s four top lightweights (70kgs/154lbs) will compete in a one-night tournament for a grand prize of $150,000.
Giorgio Petrosyan, Robin Van Roosmalen, Andy Ristie and Davit Kiria will feel the presence of past greats watching over them when they enter the ring. They will more than prove themselves worthy of treading that same ground.
