This week’s Méxican Independence Day weekend World Middleweight Championship event between undefeated World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion and Son of the Legend, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (46-0-1, 32 KOs), and Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KOs), sold its last remaining tickets on Tuesday at 1:58 p.m. PT. Chávez Jr. vs. Martínez will become the highest-attended boxing event in the history of the Thomas & Mack Center with 19,186 seats, eclipsing the Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield heavyweight championship rematch, which previously held the record with 19,151. The two fighters also made their grand arrivals in Las Vegas, and right here, you can view a large collection of photos as the fighters met the throngs of fans and supporters at the Wynn.
Sergio Martinez looks to have been doing his best Blues Brother impersonation with trainer Pablo Sarmiento. Meanwhile, Chavez Jr. looked kind of scrawny — he must be struggling with the weight right now, and it looks to be affecting him a bit. We’ll see if that has any carry over affect.
“Viva Chávez and Martínez,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum. “The last two tickets were purchased just before 2 p.m. PT and our sellout has produced a paid gate of over $3 million. How appropriate that on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Julio César Chávez vs. Hector Camacho, the Thomas & Mack’s fourth highest-attended event [17,972], which took place on September 12, 1992, that Julio César Chávez, Jr. surpass his father’s record in an epic fight of his own. Father and son will be forever linked as two of the highest-attended paid boxing events in the building’s history. Naturally, the live pay-per-view telecast will be available to all cable and satellite TV systems in the Las Vegas area.”
“This is a celebration about everything that is great about boxing,” said promoter Lou DiBella. “This is obviously a fight that everyone wanted to see and thanks to Sergio and Julio everyone will have the opportunity to see — live on pay-per-view. I strongly recommend that boxing fans in the Las Vegas area buy their tickets to the closed circuit screenings at Wynn Las Vegas now before they sell out too.”
