By Steve Kim

Golden Boy Promotions founder, Oscar De La Hoya, announced on Monday morning on ESPN's 'SportsCenter' that the highly anticipated showdown between middleweight ruler Gennady Golovkin and Mexican star Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez would take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on September 16th.

It was believed that Las Vegas or AT&T Stadium - the home of the Dallas Cowboys - in Arlington, Texas were the frontrunners to land this event. In the past, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had staged boxing cards in his billion-dollar stadium that featured Manny Pacquiao (who fought there twice) and Alvarez, who faced Liam Smith in that facility back in September.

But it turns out that at the end this was a one-horse race.

Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy, told BoxingScene.com - "Jerry's great, but Jerry did not make a bid for the fight. We knew early on that Vegas was going to be the place that most likely made sense for this fight. So we reached out to Jerry and said, 'Look, we know you're very interested in this fight but we're leaning towards Vegas,' and he thanked us for that. So he never made a bid."

Some believe that Golden Boy preferred Las Vegas to ensure that the much talked about match-up between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor did not take place that same day in 'Sin City'.

"Obviously with Floyd it's always a concern, it's always a concern," admitted Gomez. "But you know what? This is a special fight (Alvarez-Golovkin) and I think that it overshadowed all that stuff and we're really just concentrating on our fight."

The third weekend of September has been a traditional pay-per-view date centered around Mexican Independence Day. For years Mayweather fought on this weekend and last year 'Canelo' faced Smith in front of over 50,000 fans at AT&T Stadium on this particular Saturday.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com