By Todd Archer, Dallas News
Jerry Jones is in the fight business.
Cowboys Stadium will host its first boxing match on March 13 when Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey get together for a welterweight championship bout after Jones came to an agreement with Top Rank chairman Bob Arum.
A formal announcement of the event will be held next week to provide ticket and pay-per-view details. Cowboys Stadium will be configured to hold 40,000.
"I have wanted to bring a major boxing event to North Texas for many years, so why not bring in the biggest and the best?" Jones said in a press release. "Manny Pacquiao is boxing's No. 1 pound for pound attraction and the world champion. Manny defending his title against Joshua Clottey is not just a great fight, it's a great event, and one we can showcase to the fullest in Cowboys Stadium. We're going to promote this like it was the Super Bowl."
Jones had not hid his desire in bringing a top-flight bout to his $1.2 billion stadium and made a $25 million bid to host a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight that never came to fruition.
Ultimately talks regarding that fight broke down over drug testing after Golden Boy Productions pulled out of a December meeting with Jones to tour the stadium.
Pacquiao, the welterweight champ, has a career-record of 50-3-2 with 38 knockouts. Clottey is 35-3 with 20 KOs. Arum and Top Rank president Todd duBoef were guests of Jones at Saturday's wild-card win by the Cowboys.
Having already hosted several international soccer matches, college football games, the AT&T Cotton Bowl in addition to 11 Cowboys' games, the stadium is turning into the destination spot Jones envisioned in the planning stages.
The NBA will hold its All-Star Game at the Stadium next month, Super Bowl XLV will take place there in Feb. 2011 and the NCAA Final Four will come to town in 2014. The Cowboys would also like to host World Cup games should the world's biggest event return to the United States.
Source: cowboysblog.dallasnews.com
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