Tropicana Atlantic City is where it was happening – every week – in the 1980s
By Boxing Insider staff
Atlantic City was home to one of the more unusual boxing series the sport has seen over the past 40+ years; unusual in the respect that it was conducted on a weekly basis. This was something that had been seen around the United States in the years before World War II, but not so much by the time Don Elbaum embarked on it at the Tropicana Atlantic City Hotel & Casino in 1981.
Elbaum was a very familiar personality in boxing, His career started back in the 1940s as an amateur boxer, and his odyssey had taken him around the world more than once.
And he had a significant effect on boxing history to an extent in that he helped a Cleveland numbers boss named Don King break into the industry in the 1970s.
Elbaum had promoted many shows already, using stars both young and old. In Johnstown, PA in 1965, he actually had ring legends Sugar Ray Robinson and Willie Pep, ages 44 and 43, respectively, on the same card. There was hardly a locale in the country in which he did not have some experience. He wasn’t shy about inserting himself as an emergency replacement on one of his own shows. The official records demonstrate that he boxed on several cards in Ohio and Pennsylvania while in his 30s. And we’re relatively certain there were more bouts than that.
Elbaum also tells the story of how he had to pose as the ring doctor on a show in West Virginia in which the doctor he recruited didn’t show up. Basically he had a tongue depressor and performed “examinations” on the fighters at the weigh-in.
Elbaum made arrangements with the Tropicana to do one show per week, presumably for as long as it was feasible. For the uninitiated, we should explain that for a promoter to keep up a schedule of one show per month is enough of a grind, but to do it every week, in a state in which there was regulation such as New Jersey, was going to be an extremely tall task.
When someone does this, not all the shows are going to be sensational. There are so many things that can conceivably go wrong, including fighters pulling out at the eleventh hour.
But Bob Lee, who at the time was running the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, was pleasantly surprised with the degree of quality Elbaum was able to maintain with the weekly cards, and often complimented him on that.
For Elbaum’s part, he said the whole experience felt a lot like the old St. Nicholas Arena, the famed location on W. 66th Street in Manhattan that hosted thousands and thousands of shows.
All told, Elbaum was able to put on 196 shows over less than five years at the Tropicana, and to give you a perspective on that, it is more than all of Atlantic City hosted for the period between 2004 and 2023.
We haven’t seen a promoter daring enough to attempt weekly shows in a venue of any note since then, and let’s add the other fun fact that Elbaum did all of this for the most part without having a television contract.
It would be near-impossible to go through all the shows and list all the fighters who came through the Tropicana during that period of time. But there was no question that it was the busiest fight locale in the country. We looked at one stretch in March 1982 when the Trop hosted seven boxing shows in a single month.
Some of the fighters who competed there in that ninth alone included Bennie Briscoe, Joe Manley, Maurice Blocker, John Verderosa, Johnny Bumphus and Simon Brown, along with names like James “Hard Rock” Green, Wilford Scypion and Rocky Lockridge, who came via an NBC show that was presented in conjunction with Main Events.
Elbaum’s long run in boxing was officially recognized with his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2019.
Meanwhile, the Tropicana is at the forefront of a revival in Atlantic City boxing. Just as Elbaum brought in some of the best fighters on the east coast, along with local and regional favorites and champions of the future, so is Larry Goldberg of Boxing Insider Promotions, an Atlantic City native who was just a pup when Elbaum was operating on the boardwalk, is excited to honor Don Elbaum with the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame for his life time of service on November 16.
The best may truly be yet to come