Four days before Saul Álvarez and Billy Joe Saunders were scheduled to meet in a high-stakes boxing match at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, organizers were giddy over the ticket sales projections for their super-middleweight title fight on Saturday night. Eddie Hearn, the promoter and the head of Matchroom Boxing, said the matchup — between Álvarez, a 30-year-old from Mexico nicknamed Canelo who holds the W.B.C. titles at 168 pounds, and Saunders, the undefeated W.B.O. That figure, Hearn said, would be a record for an indoor boxing match in the United States, surpassing the 63,350 spectators at the Superdome in New Orleans for a Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks fight in 1978. draft and the Kentucky Derby, as well as the expansion of capacities at baseball and basketball games.

Source: New York Times May 08, 2021 03:56 UTC