By Carlos Boogs
Last week, Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya gave a very strong hint that he was leaning to Las Vegas as the location of choice for the HBO Pay-Per-View battle between Mexican superstars Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
On Friday, Canelo announced that his fight with Chavez Jr. was taking place at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena. The move comes as no surprise as BoxingScene.com reported earlier this month that Golden Boy had placed the venue on hold.
The two boxers are scheduled to fight on May 6th, as part of Cinco De Mayo weekend. A catch-weight of 164.5-pounds was agreed upon by both sides.
There was speculation that Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. would land in Texas, as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was making a strong play to secure the fight, but the MGM (who own T-Mobile) made an offer that Golden Boy and Canelo could not refuse.
"It's time for Las Vegas to have a fight of this magnitude on May 6, but we'll see," De La Hoya said to ESPN Deportes last week.
This will be Canelo's second consecutive Cinco De Mayo headliner at T-Mobile.
Canelo's fight against Amir Khan - which took place on May 7, 2016 - was the first boxing event ever staged at the new venue. In the fight, Khan started off well, but in round six Canelo landed a devastating right hand that knocked Khan out cold.
The fight generated a live gate of $7,417,350, according to figures released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. That total came from 13,072 tickets sold, far short of a sellout - but the upcoming contest with Chavez Jr. is a much bigger fight and industry experts believe it will do much better business than Canelo's last outing at T-Mobile with Khan. The venue holds 20,000.
The pay-per-view with Khan was the only boxing event of 2016 to reach the half million mark - and fighting Chavez Jr. should generate better numbers in that area as well.
