Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones never passes on opportunities to show off his world-class facilities, and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. apparently loves fighting in front of his hometown crowd.
So expect more fights in the Dallas area for the 28-year-old boxer.
Spence on Saturday night thrilled the crowd at the Ford Center, the Cowboys' multi-purpose stadium facility that's connected to the team's headquarters in Frisco, Texas, with a first-round knockout of Carlos Ocampo. Spence improved to 24-0 for his career with the victory, but for him, the moment was bigger than just another rung on the professional boxing ladder.
"We'll definitely be back (to fight in the Dallas area) after I unify some titles," Spence said, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "We'll make this an annual thing where I fight here. This moment is a dream. I wanted to play for the Dallas Cowboys and now I'm fighting in front of the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones. Thank you to the whole Dallas Cowboys organization."
Carlos Ocampo was close to winning that first round vs. Errol Spence. And then this happened. pic.twitter.com/kW5TdKuzpP
— Josh Katzowitz (@joshkatzowitz) June 17, 2018
Added Spence in an interview Tuesday with Sporting News regarding when the moment hit him: "Getting ready to walk out. Looking at the crowd, and the music started. Everybody started screaming, yelling. I was coming out. That was the moment. I was like, 'Man.' Especially when I got to the ring and looked around.
"I don't usually look out into the crowd, but I looked around, seeing everybody who came out to the fight, it was a great moment."
Spence told SN he had some reservations about fighting at the Ford Center; he was worried about whether the venue would sell out. That ended up not being a problem.
According to the Star-Telegram, Jones purchased all the seats to the fight and needed 9,000 attendees to break even. The fact that more than 12,000 people showed up, including current Cowboys players like Dak Prescott and DeMarcus Lawrence, means Jones was a happy host and Spence was a happy fighter.
Last year, Sporting News profiled the extravagant palace that is The Star, the multimillion-dollar world headquarters of the Cowboys. The Ford Center, which houses the team's football operations facilities, is a beast in itself even though it's only a portion of The Star.
The 510,000 square foot indoor athletic facility is shared by the Cowboys, the City of Frisco and Frisco ISD’s eight high schools. In addition to Cowboys practices, high school football games and now boxing matches, the facility hosts soccer games, marching band competitions, track meets and commencement exercises. Its 12,000-seat capacity can expand for certain events. The four locker rooms in the Ford Center are more lavish than most visiting locker rooms in NFL stadiums.
MORE: Cowboys have themselves a masterpiece in The Star
The Star-Telegram noted that, as Spence grows in popularity, his fights eventually could graduate from the Ford Center in Frisco to AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Spence's next fight is not yet scheduled, but he reportedly wants to fight at least one more time this year.