Let's hope Cowboys Stadium is in boxing to stay

Let me start off by saying I hate the Dallas Cowboys. Who doesn't? Outside of Cowboys fans, I mean.

I'll also say that when the billion-dollar Cowboys Stadium was being launched, I found the building to be downright gaudy. It was everything about modern sports stadiums that I hated. Overblown, overdone, looking almost like a shopping mall instead of somewhere that sports are played.

I have since come around, and it didn't just happen last night. The stadium is undeniably impressive in every way, and serves as a testament to crazy old Jerry Jones' desire to be ahead of the curve -- hell, to create a new curve. Say what you will about Jones, but the man can promote, and the man knows how to keep the money flowing. Even the routinely deplorable NBA All-Star Game felt kind of significant when played in this structure.

Last night's card wasn't too great. The main event was a one-sided drag and the undercard stunk.

But the building? The building was phenomenal. 50,994 fans came to Arlington, Texas, to see the world-renowned Manny Pacquiao defend his throne against Joshua Clottey. What's amazing is that only a speck of those people came for Clottey. For the most part, Pacquiao and the building sold the show. And sell they did.

I won't say that everything went perfectly. With that big of a venue and fights like the ones seen last night, the crowd is never going to fully play into anything. Instead of the roars you hear in the more intimate Vegas casinos, where boxing has survived for the last few decades, most of the night's "action" was met with more of a murmur. Hey, you get 51,000 people together, and even if they don't give a crap you're going to hear something.

Can you imagine that building with a great fight, though?

Hats should be off to Jones and to Bob Arum, who got a less-than-incredible fight into this enormous stadium, and sold the hell out of it at the live gate. If everything went well financially, there's no reason to believe that Cowboys Stadium can't stay a player for the biggest boxing fights out there. If you can get over 50,000 people in for a Joshua Clottey fight, you just might have a viable venue.

Even if Cowboys Stadium never hosts another boxing event, we'll at least have had this one. Arum and Jones took a shot, and they scored.