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The card will also now take place on December 5th.
Errol Spence’s return to the boxing ring for the first time since his horrific car accident now has a new date and a new venue.
The unified WBC and IBF welterweight champion was set to take on Danny Garcia in the main event of a PBC on FOX PPV on November 21st. While the original plan was to hold the card in Los Angeles, the event will move to December 5th at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This follows a similar move from PBC when they sent Gervonta Davis vs. Leo Santa Cruz from Connecticut to the Alamodome in San Antonio. Tickets are on sale for Spence-Garcia on October 14th and will be seated in accordance to local health guidelines. Masks will also be a requirement.
You’re obviously not changing to big venues unless you intend to have fans in attendance, and that’s what PBC is doing. That Texas has the 2nd most deaths and 2nd most cases of COVID-19 has not deterred government officials from allowing fans to attend live sporting events, and sports organizations are taking advantage of that to get that gate revenue. The NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans are permitted to have fans at limited capacity, while Major League Baseball’s postseason will have a limited number of fans attending the World Series.
Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) last fought in September 2019 in a thrilling decision win over Shawn Porter to unify the WBC and IBF welterweight titles. He was supposed to face Danny Garcia in January before a single-car accident threatened his boxing career. Thankfully he avoided worst case scenario but was still charged with DWI and was sentenced to probation. Spence is widely considered one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world, but a superfight with WBO champ Terence Crawford has yet to materialize.
Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) is the former WBC champion, having won the belt against Robert Guerrero in 2016 before losing his title to Keith Thurman in 2017. The Philly native fought for the vacant WBC belt again in 2018 but dropped a close decision to Shawn Porter. He has since rebounded with wins over Brandon Rios and Ivan Redkach to set himself up for this clash with Spence.
Considering AT&T Stadium can often seat close to 100,000 for team sports events and other functions, even 25% capacity would make this potentially the highest-attended boxing card of 2020, and also provide a much-needed form of income to help the pay-per-view at least break even in terms of cost.
By the way, this is the second time a PBC PPV and a UFC PPV had clashing dates but will now be separated thanks to moving to Texas. Davis-Santa Cruz was set to be on October 24th before it was pushed back to October 31st, so UFC 254 has that day all to itself. Likewise for UFC 255 now that Spence-Garcia is December 5th.