By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – The site of the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight could be determined by how much size matters to Oscar De La Hoya.
Alvarez’s promoter said Sunday morning during a press conference at T-Mobile Arena that he is open to bringing the highly anticipated middleweight title fight “anywhere around the world.” De La Hoya revealed that he received calls from unspecified people from Dubai and the United Kingdom during the time between when Alvarez-Golovkin was announced in the ring and the press conference began.
“Like I said, this fight is September 16th,” De La Hoya said. “I’ve already had several calls from around the world, wanting to stage this fight. I literally have a missed call from Dubai. I have a missed call from the UK, where Anthony Joshua and Klitschko just sold out [with] 90,000 people. So there’s interest all over the world. There’s interest from everywhere and those negotiations, those talks will start in the weeks to come – very soon because this fight is September 16th.”
De La Hoya has mentioned the capacity crowd of 90,000 that Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko brought to London’s Wembley Stadium on April 29 many times over the past week. That’s among the things that’ll make De La Hoya seriously consider the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, as the site for Alvarez-Golovkin.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has long expressed interest in bringing the Alvarez-Golovkin fight to his stadium, which could accommodate more than 100,000 fans for boxing. That’s part of the reason he hosted Alvarez’s ninth-round knockout of England’s Liam Smith on September 17 at AT&T Stadium.
The Cowboys are away the weekend of Alvarez-Golovkin. They’re scheduled to play at Denver on September 17, the day after Alvarez-Golovkin is set to take place.
T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) dominated Mexican rival Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-3-1, 32 KOs, 1 NC) in their 12-round fight Saturday night, also figures to be one of the primary competitors to land Alvarez-Golovkin.
Two of Alvarez’s past three fights – the Chavez victory and his sixth-round knockout of Amir Khan last May 7 – have taken place at T-Mobile Arena, which opened in 2016.
Holding their HBO Pay-Per-View main event at T-Mobile Arena would enable organizers of it to charge top dollar for tickets. But because AT&T Stadium could hold in excess of 100,000 fans for boxing, it could help Alvarez-Golovkin generate a lot of revenue from ticket sales and set the American indoor record for a boxing crowd.
The American indoor record for boxing is the crowd of roughly 63,350 that attended the Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks heavyweight championship rematch at The Superdome in New Orleans in September 1978. AT&T Stadium has a retractable roof, which would be close for boxing.
T-Mobile Arena can hold slightly more than 20,000 for boxing. The announced crowd for the Alvarez-Chavez Jr. card Saturday night was 20,510.
T-Mobile Arena is co-owned by MGM Resorts International, a deep-pocketed company that could match any site fee Jones offers to land Alvarez-Golovkin.
Madison Square Garden, where Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) has fought three times since July 2014, has a “Scorpions” concert booked for September 16.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.