Canelo Alvarez?s junior middleweight title bout with Liam Smith on Sept. 17 on HBO PPV finally has a home.
A source confirmed that Alvarez-Smith will take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys play in Washington a day after the fight. The other candidate had been the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The Texas venue also hosted Manny Pacquiao twice ? in fights against Joshua Clottey in March of 2010 and Antonio Margarito in November of that year. The billion-dollar stadium, dubbed ?Jerry World? seats up to 88,000
An announcement on the venue is expected early next week. The last time Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 knockouts) fought in Texas he pummeled brawler James Kirkland in three rounds in May of 2015 at Minute Maid Park in Houston. An announced crowd of 31,588 turned up for that bout with many of them chanting ?Mexico! Mexico!? for Alvarez.
A lot has changed since then. Alvarez?s reputation has suffered from his decision to put off a super fight with middleweight knockout artist Gennady Golovkin until next fall, and it will be interesting to see how the fight does at the box office and on PPV, another source of controversy for fans. AT&T Stadium has also been mentioned as a possible landing spot for Canelo and Golovkin if they meet.
