Canelo Alvarez battles Liam Smith on September 17 at Cowboys Stadium in Texas and the Mexican boxing public are expected to be out in force, along with a mass of UK fans from across the Atlantic.
De La Hoya is sure a capacity crowd of 100,000 will fill the arena as Canelo bids to win back a version of the world championship after giving up the middleweight belt to prolong anticipation of a Gennady Golovkin clash.
“This fight is for pride and honor – both fighters are fighting for their countries and putting the fight together with the best promoters to be an A-class event,” said De La Hoya.
“We are extremely proud to be televising on HBO, our partners in the U.S. I also want to thank Frank and Box Nation for making Canelo vs. Smith the event of the year.
“Canelo is the biggest star in the sport today, he is a huge PPV attraction and a fighter who sells out arenas filled with 40,000 people. He is fighting a world champion who is dangerous.
“Liam is not going all the way to the U.S. to fold. He is an undefeated world champ, and knows how important this fight is.
“We will have various activities staged for Mexican independence weekend in the U.S. It will be big, taking place the whole weekend and will have millions of fans tuning in to witness a historical event with Team Canelo and Team Smith.
“The event is at AT&T Stadium, a state-of-the-art arena, home the iconic NFL team the Dallas Cowboys owned by Jerry Jones. This stadium holds about 100,000 people, and we expect a ton of Liam Smith fans. There will many of Canelo fans coming out in Texas, and we expect a sell-out.
“This will be a fun weekend, and we are serious that the real winners will be the fans. These are two fighters with tremendous records and great pride putting it all on the line to fight for the Junior Middleweight World Title,” he added.
Smith, 28, jumped at the chance to test himself against one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world next month but begins as a massive underdog to inflict a second loss on Canelo’s record.
The Mexican superstar was handed his maiden defeat by Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
