That 47,525 fans attended undefeated IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.?s mugging of over-matched but highly-decorated and previously undefeated lightweight champion Mikey Garcia on Saturday night at the Cowboys cavernous AT&T Stadium is a tribute to the undefeated Spence?s standing on the Dallas sports landscape, long a boxing wasteland.
It also extends the impressive drawing power of boxing at AT&T Stadium. Back in September of 2016, Mexican super welterweight Canelo Alvarez attracted an announced audience of 51,240 for his humbling of the previously undefeated Englishman Liam Smith. Manny Pacquiao, as a welterweight and super welterweight, opened AT&T?s boxing business back in 2010 playing to back-to-back crowds announced at 50,994 and 41,734 for bouts with opponents hoping only to survive.
(Note: When the final paid crowd totals were released all three fights dropped in attendance by about 10 percent. The same might be expected for Spence-Garcia.)
So now what will Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Spence?s management team try to cook up for an encore performance at the $1.2 billion shrine in Arlington? Surely, the Texas attendance record for a boxing match, 58,891 for Julio Cesar Chavez-Pernell Whitaker in San Antonio’s Alamodome in 1993, is within reach.
Keep in mind that Spence is the only championship attraction in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Jones’ Cowboys haven?t won a title since Super Bowl XXX way back in January, 1996. MLB’s Texas Rangers, who play next door to the Cowboys stadium, are in the midst of a tear down in hopes of a successful rebuild. The Mavericks, champions in 2011, hope to be a NBA lottery team again this season. The NHL?s Stars last won a Stanley Cup in 1999 and reached the finals the next year, have been mostly wandering ever since. Jordan Spieth, who burst on to the PGA landscape about the same time as Spence was emerging in the ring, played his best golf in 2015 and is mired in a two-year slump.
That leaves Spence for whom there is always the possibility of meeting Pacquaio, who may be overripe at age 40. But he remains a draw and is conveniently available now that he has signed with Spence?s management group. He was ringside on Saturday. He also owns an alphabet sliver, WBA, of the 147-pound welterweight title.
And while, it may be some time before Fox totals and releases the number of pay-per-view buys for Spence-Garcia, Pacquaio?s most recent bout, a pay-per-view whopping of Adrien Bronner for the WBA welterweight title, earned approximately 400,000 buys.
?Yes, why not?? Pacquiao said when asked if he might fight Spence. ?We’ll give the fans a good fight.?
Countered Spence, his adrenalin flowing: ?He?s on his way out. I?ll definitely give him that retirement check he?s been needing.?
Never rule out the possibility of Floyd Mayweather, conqueror of Pacquiao, who is 42 and retired. Enticing Mayweather, who last fought away from Las Vegas in 2005, back to the ring may prove problematic but that might be Spence’s biggest available payday as well as a bonanza for Mayweather.
And then there could be a fight against Terence Crawford, the WBO welterweight champion who is 31 and 34-0. He is perhaps the most-skilled possible opponent for Spence. But an issue may be that he is promoted by Bob Arum, a rival to Spence?s management team at Premiere Boxing Champions.
For Spence’s legacy among the boxing crowd, he may need Crawford, who would provide a lesser payday, the most.
