While everyone surrounding him stood still, Errol Spence Jr. bounced from one foot to the other. When he stopped, he banged his silver-colored gloves against each other and walked from the hallways of AT&T Stadium toward the ring on the 50-yard-line. He’d sometimes punch across his body as he took a step. Other times, Spence simply walked with a stoic look. Everyone around him looked serious, except the Lancaster High School’s marching band, which belted out an energetic version of Big Tuck’s Dallas anthem “Southside Da Realist.” Even Yella Beezy, the Oak Cliff rapper who performed “It’s On Me” as the boxer walked to the ring, looked as unanimated as anyone can look while rapping into a microphone to a crowd of over 47,500.

Spence’s opponent, Mikey Garcia, waited in the ring. Like Spence, Garcia’s ring entrance was grand. Red, green, and white lights shot like lasers across the stadium. Unlike Spence, Garcia smiled. He wore a black tejana that contrasted his mostly white ring attire. Once inside the ring, Garcia kissed those white gloves and extended them to the public.

All week, at the public events leading up to Saturday night’s fight, Garcia was the crowd favorite. At Tuesday night’s media workouts, the people chanted his name in two syllables. “MI-KEY! MI-KEY! MI-KEY!” At Friday’s weigh-in, they did the same and when the announcer introduced Spence, it even sounded like the hometown fighter got booed. Watching men fight often arouses a sense of tribalism that extends beyond a shared location. Everyone around boxing understands this. Some, attempting to appeal to boxing’s largest and most influential fanbase, have even claimed themselves honorary Mexicans. This, among other reasons, was why Garcia, the underdog, received such an ovation.

When Spence ducked and stepped between the second and third ropes to enter the ring, he flashed a slight smile. It looked enormous on the screen that hangs above on the field. He sang along to the music that blared across the stadium so loud that talking practically required you to yell in your neighbor’s ear.

Spence walked around the ring. Garcia bounced on his feet and punched at the air. Spence retreated to his blue corner, where a man removed the boxer’s hat. He then unzipped Spence’s shirt. Once you have boxing gloves on—duct taped around the wrists so that the knotted laces don’t come loose—you can do little for yourself besides fight. With his sleepy eyes, Spence looked across the ring as Garcia’s corner held their man’s world championship belts above their head, all four of them. Spence’s corner raised their single belt; the only one that mattered for this fight. It was the belt Garcia wanted.

Further proving that Dallas is becoming the new hub of the U.S. tennis world.

It took six years, but the mechanics union serving Southwest Airlines has agreed to terms on a new labor contract. Over the weekend, the two sides said they’ve reached a deal that will boost salaries by an immediate 20 percent, with 3 percent raises each year. The deal goes five years. There’s also a $160 million ratification bonus tucked in.

The agreement in principle will soon be fleshed out and put to a union vote. Assuming it’s ratified, it’ll end six years of negotiations that have ratcheted up in recent months.

Things had been particularly heated since early February, when CBS News ran a lengthy feature digging into the safety culture at Dallas-based Southwest. Members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association factored prominently, saying they’ve been repeatedly pressured to look away from possible safety issues and keep planes in the air.

Last week, in Christchurch, New Zealand, 50 Muslims were killed inside two mosques. The perpetrator knew what day it was. He opened fire during Jummah, a Friday prayer that attracts the most Muslims —especially children—to the mosque each week. I doubt any Muslim was shocked it happened. With the current grooming and allowance of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the news, it almost feels inevitable. I had no interest learning the shooter’s name or story but, rather, the names and stories of the Muslims who passed away. For any believing Muslim, we know they are guaranteed Paradise as martyrs.

A vigil was held downtown at Dealey Plaza for the victims on Saturday. I didn’t have the energy to attend. I needed to surround myself with people who understood a collective pain. Messages of “love” are not enough to heal wounds that are so fresh and deeply engraved. No imam attended, as Muslims were occupied with helping each other. Vigils were held at several mosques in Dallas.

On Saturday night, Roots DFW, a casual community space in Irving for Muslims, held a forum and prayer reflecting on the New Zealand tragedy. The discussion was led by Ustadh Abdel Rahman Murphy, an instructor at the Qalam Institute in Arlington and the director of the Roots Community Space. The forum allowed Muslims to mourn among one another for the victims of a hateful crime.

Dirk is Four Points Away From Passing Wilt Chamberlain on the All-Time Scorers List. He almost did it on Saturday night, with a 14-point outburst, including 10 in the fourth. He should do it tonight against New Orleans. If it’s anything like when he got to 30,000, it should be special. I’m still slightly hoarse from screaming “I SEE YOU BIG GERMAN!”

Errol Spence Jr. Earns Decisive Victory Over Mikey Garcia. In front of a hometown(ish) crowd of almost 50,000, Spence dominated his opponent on Saturday night, to retain his welterweight title. A lesson to anyone who wants to win boxing matches: come on the EarBurner podcast. That’s where champions are built. Everyone knows it.

FC Dallas Suffers First Loss. They didn’t really stand a chance since they only managed two shots on goal all game. Which is barely more than my total of zero, but I was a pretty long way from Columbus, Ohio.

Lakewood’s 1st and 10 Closes. No details as to why, but a lockout notice showed up on the door sometime around Friday. Besides for being a sports bar stalwart, it was where my son and I have played trivia on Tuesday nights for well over a year. The Kooks will hopefully see the Billy Llamas, 89 Man Marchers, and the others somewhere else soon.

Errol Spence Jr. travels with a group of 12. Or, at least, he did on Tuesday when he showed up at the Old Monk to record the latest episode of our EarBurner podcast. At 4 p.m., he more than doubled the number of people inside.

Spence is an undefeated boxer who earned the International Boxing Federation’s welterweight title in 2017. He’s from DeSoto, which makes this weekend all the more important. He’s got his first pay-per-view fight on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium, in front of more than 50,000 fans and at least a few million who will watch on TV. He’s fighting Oxnard, California’s Mikey Garcia, who is jumping a weight class to battle Spence for the title.

I wrote about what our hometown champ is facing earlier this week, which went along with a video that staff photographer Elizabeth Lavin produced. Please give it a read and a watch. And I’ll leave you now with show notes after the jump. Learn all about what his first knockout felt like, why he switched from football to boxing, and why he stayed in Dallas after he made it big. Go, Errol. Win it for Dallas. (Oh, and as always, you can subscribe to EarBurner through the Apple podcast app, Spotify, or your favorite pod catcher.)