By: Sean Crose
“Major announcement!” Danny Garcia posted on Twitter Thursday morning. “Garcia Vs Spence Welterweight Title Unification on FOX Sports PBC PPV on Saturday, Dec 5th. AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Fans will be in attendance! Tickets on sale Wed., Oct. 14 at 10 am CT. “
AT&T Stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys, is an enormous venue that can fill in lots of fans. There’s a reason the likes of Spence, Manny Pacquiao, and Canelo Alvarez have chosen to fight there previously. In the era of Covid, however, there’s little doubt that the decision to host a live bout before fans will raise some eyebrows. The match was originally set to go down on November 21st. Now, however, fans will be allowed to see the fight live and in person.
At 26-0, Spence is one of the most highly regarded fighters in the sport of boxing. He currently holds the WBC and IBF welterweight titles. This will be his second time headlining a pay per view event, as his victory last year over Mikey Garcia was aired live on PPV. It will also be Spence’s first fight since besting Shawn Porter in an exciting battle in September of 2019.
What’s more, this will be Spence’s first fight since surviving a horrendous car crash last year in the greater Dallas area that the fighter calls home. Although he remarkably survived the ordeal without serious damage to his health, there will be questions as to how well the Texan will now fight in the ring.
As for the 36-2 Garcia, the Philly fighter is now one of the game’s long standing big names. Although he’s lost to Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman respectively, it has to be noted that those were very close losses. Also worth noting is the fact the man’s earned impressive wins over the likes of Amir Khan, Lucas Matthysse, Paulie Malignaggi and Robert Guerrero. At thirty two years of age, Garcia can see this as the crowning achievement of his career (so far) provided he bests Spence in the ring.
Although Garcia is most certainly a worthy opponent for the high flying Spence, many fans would like to see Spence face off against WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford, who fights under promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank banner. For his own Part, Crawford looks to be facing former champion Kell Brook in November. It would be unwise for anyone to write off Garcia, however, as the man has proven himself a top practitioner of the game over and over again.
