Written by Dan Rafael at ESPN.com
Canelo Alvarez’s fight with junior middleweight titleholder Liam Smith will take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Golden Boy Promotions announced Monday.
Alvarez, the lineal middleweight world champion, is dropping to junior middleweight, a division where he once unified two titles, to challenge Smith on Sept. 17 (9 p.m. ET, HBO pay-per-view). The fight is during Mexican Independence Day weekend, a date important to Alvarez because it is typically a weekend with a big fight involving a Mexican star.
Alvarez-Smith will headline the third boxing card to be held at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. In 2010, Manny Pacquiao headlined there twice and won both fights by lopsided decision — a welterweight title defense against Joshua Clottey followed by his history-making victory against Antonio Margarito to win a world title in a record eighth weight division.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones have been talking about bringing an Alvarez fight to Arlington for several months, although most people want to see Alvarez face unified middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin.
But the 25-year-old Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs), Mexico’s most popular fighter, is a natural fit for AT&T Stadium because he has an enormous Hispanic fan base in Texas.
“Texas loves Canelo and Canelo loves Texas, so it was a no-brainer to have this fight at AT&T Stadium,” De La Hoya said. “Texas is like Canelo’s second home, and he has stated that he wants to fight in Texas once a year for his fans. My friend Jerry Jones extended the invitation to Canelo to fight at AT&T Stadium, so it was an easy decision for us.”
Jones, who is a boxing fan, has made no secret that he has wanted Alvarez to perform in his building. In February, De La Hoya toured the stadium with Jones, and they met for about three hours to discuss the prospect of bringing an Alvarez fight there. Jones was also a ringside guest of De La Hoya’s at Alvarez’s sixth-round knockout of Amir Khan on May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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