By Miguel Rivera
Less than a month remains before Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez will return to the ring at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys. He will challenge undefeated Liam Smith for the WBO junior middleweight title on September 17th, with HBO Pay-Per-View carrying the event.
According to the reports provided to Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo vs. Smith is on pace to surpass the number of tickets that were sold at the venue by eight division champion Manny Pacquiao.
Pacquiao had two appearances at that venue. There were 42 thousand fans in the building for his fight against Joshua Clottey in March 2010, and that was the first boxing event held at AT&T Stadium. He returned in November of that year against Antonio Margarito, and the crowd was reported at around 41,500.
"We do not have the exact number, but according to the reports provided to us - we have already sold more than 20,000 for the fight between Canelo Alvarez and champion Liam Smith," said Eric Gomez, vice president of Golden Boy Promotions, to ESPN Deportes.
"We had a talk with them (AT&T Stadium) and they are very happy, because we were told that we are very advanced with respect of where we are in the sale of tickets [in comparison] to the two fights that were done there with Manny Pacquiao."
For Canelo, this will be his third grand entrance into Texas territory, after having summoned 40,000 fans at the Alamodome in San Antonio against Austin Trout in April 2013, while against James Kirkland, in May 2015, he had 31,000 fans at Minute Maid Park in Houston, home of the Astros.
Golden Boy Promotions hopes that with the recent announcement of the rest of the card, there will be an increase the sales figures.
