State OKs Barrios’ Oct. 31 title defense at Alamodome
The state’s governing body for combative sports Friday agreed to resume accepting applications for live events, paving the way for the Alamodome to host a major boxing card Oct. 31 featuring San Antonio world champion Mario Barrios.
Barrios (25-0, 16 KOs) is scheduled to fight Ryan Karl (18-2, 12 KOs) of Houston in a 12-round bout for Barrios’ WBA super lightweight title he won a year ago.
“It’s great to be able to represent San Antonio and fight in front of my hometown fans,” Barrios, 25, said. “I’ll be defending my title, which makes it even more special.”
During Friday’s meeting, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation gave the green light to live combative sports events that will include spectators, capping the number at 50 percent of the listed occupancy of the arena.
That could mean up to 32,000 fans for the Halloween night event. The Alamodome has a listed seating capacity of 64,000.
The ability to include spectators during the coronavirus pandemic was a major reason the promoter, Premier Boxing Champions, and Showtime picked a Texas venue to host the event.
In addition to the Barrios vs. Karl world title fight, Gervonta Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) and Mexican star Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) meet in the 12-round main event with two world titles at stake.
Both fights will be televised on Showtime PayPer-View (8 p.m.).
Another bout features former world super lightweight champion Regis Prograis (24-1, 20 KOs) taking on unbeaten contender Juan Heraldez (160-1, 10 KOs) in a 10-round bout.
Tickets for the card — starting at $50 — go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday at ticketmaster.com.
Special precautions will be taken, for spectators as well as the participants, in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
All fans will be screened upon entry and will be required to wear a face mask, as well as follow social distancing guidelines, organizers said in a release.
Tickets will be distributed in seat blocks known as “pods” to maintain distance from groups not from the same party.
Texas has not hosted a pro combative sports event since mid-March when all live matches were shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Since then, the TDLR staff and medical advisory board have worked on adopting a strict set of COVID-19 protocols. These include COVID-19 testing for all athletes, seconds and event support staff.
TDLR spokeswoman Tela Mange said promoters must present plans for cleaning and disinfecting the event venue, athlete delegation housing, daily COVID-19 screening and providing protective equipment for participants.
The TDLR said it will continue to monitor things such as positive test rates and hospitalization rates in the area in deciding whether to allow an event to proceed.
“If there’s a local spike in cases, it’s possible we could cancel an event we’ve already approved,” Mange said.