By JAN HUBBARD, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
ARLINGTON -- The boxing glamour that radiates from Manny Pacquiao filled the huge landmark in Arlington on Saturday night, but again, the star of the show was none other than... Cowboys Stadium.
Boxing historian Bert Sugar said when he saw the stadium, he told the man responsible for building it that it was beyond something special.
"When I saw this," Sugar said, "I said to Jerry Jones, 'Just think what God could have done with this stadium if he'd had money.'"
Pacquiao brought star power to Arlington. He has been rated by many as pound-for-pound the best boxer in the world. He is a charismatic champion who is so popular that on Saturday night, each time he was shown on Jones' 160-foot-by-72-foot high definition screen during the undercard, cheers erupted throughout the stadium.
He was even cheered louder than former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman.
But as much credibility as Pacquiao added to Cowboys Stadium by participating in the first night of boxing, the stadium also added to Pacquiao's stature.
"No doubt about it," said veteran ring announcer Michael Buffer, "because there is nothing else like it in the world."
Despite the enormity of the stadium, it didn't seem too big. It was hardly intimate, but a giant curtain was hung to hide seats in the upper deck, so the stadium -- which had a 45,000 seating capacity -- was filled with 50,944 fight fans, new and old.
And boxing experts said the atmosphere was so electric that it can't help but add to the stature of boxing.
"I was at the Alamodome in 1993 when Julio Cesar Chavez fought Pernell Whitaker and there were 65,000 people," said Lester Bedford, a former fight promoter who is an event promoter and worked on this fight with the Cowboys and Top Rank Inc. "But this is a richer scene. Boxing didn't need this at that time, but boxing does need it now.
"Anybody who comes here and watches this will leave here a boxing fan for life. This changes everything."
Buffer agreed.
"This is probably the most compelling venue for sports in the world," he said. "One driving reason is 25,000 square feet of hi-def video so you don't have a bad seat in the house.
"Going back 50 years, there were fights in Yankee Stadium and 50,000 people would go to see Sugar Ray Robinson or Joe Louis. And the reason everybody came is they wanted to be part of an event. They wanted to be part of that electricity.
"There was no way 50,000 people could see the fight from where they were sitting, but they wanted to say, 'I was there the night Joe Louis beat so-and-so.' But you can come here and have a standing room only seat in the end zone and you don't miss anything. And you get to be part of history."
Bedford said history was made inside and outside the stadium. The tailgaters were out in force six hours before the main event began and street vendors were also conducting an active business.
"There were people outside selling knockoff Pacquiao T-shirts," Bedford said. "You know you've made it when their selling knockoff T-shirts. Pacquaio had his security people checking it out. But everything about it was amazing. I've been to over 500 fights in my life and this is the first one where there has been tailgating. I'd love it if that started a trend.
jhubbard@star-telegram.com
Source: star-telegram.com
No comments:
Post a Comment