Another Pacquiao fight in Texas?

MANILA, Philippines - If Cowboys Stadium owner Jerry Jones had his way, the $1.2 billion facility would host two or three big fights a year with Manny Pacquiao playing the Pied Piper’s role in bringing fans to Arlington, Texas, to fill up what ring announcer Michael Buffer calls “the eighth wonder of the world.”

Pacquiao headlined the stadium’s first boxing show last month and a crowd of 50,944 fans registered a sell-out, stamping his mark as the fight game’s biggest attraction today. It was Pacquiao’s third appearance in Texas but first in Arlington.

“For those who think boxing needs a marquee heavyweight to survive, Pacquiao is the counterpunch,” wrote Gil LeBreton of the Star-Telegram. “Pacquiao is boxing’s brightest star, its most bountiful meal ticket – for all those who question boxing, he is the answer.”

Jones’ building can accommodate 110,000 for football but for Pacquiao’s fight against Joshua Clottey, a giant black curtain concealed about 50,000 seats in the upper section. An initial run of 45,000 tickets went into the market with a price range of $50 to $700. A week before the fight, Jones reported sales of 41,000. But on show night, all seats were taken and over 5,000 standing-room-only tickets were released to cope with demand. Each SRO ticket reportedly sold for $33 and special center ringside seats went for $2,730 apiece.

Jones made it easy for over 50,000 fans to witness two fighters slug it out in a 20-foot-by-20-foot ring. He built the world’s largest high-definition screen, measuring 160 feet wide and 72 feet high, and hung it over the 50-yard line of the football field where the ring was perched on the star logo. Jones said Pacquiao headlining the stadium’s inaugural boxing event was an honor. “You don’t want to deal with anything but the top,” he added. “This says everything to have Manny and this competition.”

Jones was in contention to host the aborted megafight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. and if it ever happens, he’ll submit a bid for sure. “Next up for Pacquiao will likely be Mayweather if the two camps can ever get together on a deal,” said writer Tobias Xavier Lopez in the Star-Telegram. “A possible location might be Cowboys Stadium which was a candidate early this year before the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations fell apart.”

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said Las Vegas remains the primary option to host big fights but didn’t rule out a facility like Cowboys Stadium outbidding traditional venues like the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay.

“I love Las Vegas, I live in Las Vegas,” said Arum. “But the tickets are limited by the size of the arena and they generally go to the high-rolling casino customers. At the Cowboys Stadium, the sales pitch is about the public. You cannot be a major sport if all your big events are in one city where people have to come from all over to attend the event. The Super Bowl wouldn’t be as big, in my opinion, if it had to be held in the same city every year.”

Jones said there will always be a place for boxing in his arena.

“I don’t know if we can have anybody in here with the stature of Manny but we’re going to have more great fights,” Jones told boxing guru Hermie Rivera in an interview. “This stadium spent a billion, two hundred million and you can’t put anything but the best in here. It has to be really the best competitors, the best entertainment there is. If you don’t, then there is something contradictory about that. And so, it lifts not only our fans being able to be here but it lifts the stature of Cowboys Stadium to have Manny Pacquiao be the first fighter here.”

Jones thanked Filipino fans for sharing their favorite son.

“This arguably is one of the most visible venues that have ever been built,” said the 67-year-old Jones who made his fortune in oil and gas exploration. More people probably have an awareness of this stadium. It was enhanced by the fact that Manny, a great Filipino, fought in it. So, thank you very much for sharing him with us and initiating him as the first big-time fighter to be featured in this stadium. Let’s have Manny here again sometime and all of you get over here and let’s watch a great fight.”

Jones said Pacquiao is an inspiration to everyone.

“He’s set an example for all of us,” Jones continued. “That he’s taken his gifts and he’s maximized his gifts. And he didn’t get here as the greatest fighter. He worked to become that. That’s what I look for when I’m choosing football players for the Dallas Cowboys. I look for players who have talent and played at one level in their early years in college but ask what and where is it within them that appears to be something special. Manny represents that. Everybody understands that in the Philippines. I understand it. You can take that ingredient and take it out of the ring. You can put it in Congress or any place you want to and it’s going to knock ‘em dead. It’s good stuff no matter what you do.”

Jones admitted he became a Pacquiao fan after watching his fight against Miguel Cotto last year. “I had a keen interest because I was zeroing in on Manny and Mayweather,” he said. “So I was keenly interested in how that took off and when he finished off Cotto, I was really pumped.”

Jones said when he conceived of Cowboys Stadium, boxing was already in the equation.

“I had dreamed when we were designing that we could do boxing in this building,” he said. “The Dallas Cowboys play American football here. In the middle of that star was designed a boxing ring and the idea of an event and two men fighting in the ring had everything to do with the hi-def board, the lowering of the board, the size of the board. Manny was 72 feet high and perfectly synched and vividly portrayed right above it and every fan saw him in a way that’s better than if you saw him sitting at ringside.”