The year’s biggest fight has positioned itself to gain the biggest possible audience with Tuesday’s formal announcement that Canelo Alvarez will defend his undisputed super-middleweight belt against fellow four-division champion Terence Crawford September 13 from Las Vegas on Netflix.
As first reported Monday by BoxingScene, the bout will be available for no additional charge beyond the subscription fee for Netflix customers, who now number more than 300 million.
Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh formally announced the union with Netflix Tuesday, giving the immense showdown massive viewership potential after November’s Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight generated 108 million streams.
Although Alvarez-Crawford isn’t expected to fare as well, the bout matching two stalwarts of the sport's pound-for-pound rankings over the past decade will give boxing a respite from the plague of piracy that has watered down an abundance of pay-per-view fights while additionally bringing the highest-profile bout to the masses – as was done in the sport’s golden era.
Alalshikh and promoter Dana White – the UFC CEO now starting a new TKO boxing promotion – stopped short of finalizing the official venue as they continue negotiating to bring the bout to the Las Vegas Raiders’ home, Allegiant Stadium.
As of now, UNLV has a home football game on September 13 inside Allegiant versus Idaho State, and officials have told BoxingScene discussions are in progress to shift that game out of Allegiant. One industry official monitoring the talks said it might make most sense to strike a financial settlement with UNLV and move the game to Idaho State due to the lack of alternate facilities in Las Vegas.
Alalshikh hinted in Tuesday’s statement that he wants the bout to be a stadium spectacle instead of sending Alvarez back to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the venue the Mexican superstar opened to boxing in 2016.
“On September 13, Canelo and Crawford, two legends of boxing, will finally compete against each other in the fight of the century. Alongside Dana White … we will deliver something truly incredible in Las Vegas for fans around the world to enjoy through Netflix,” Alalshikh said.
The bout marks White’s first foray into boxing after building the UFC into an empire with former owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta and now Endeavor Group Holdings’ TKO.
“Turki wants to make the biggest fights that the fans want to see in boxing and this is right up my alley,” White said in the statement. “Are you kidding me that the first boxing fight I’m going to get to promote is Canelo vs. Crawford? It’s literally a once-in-a-lifetime fight. Live on September 13, streaming globally on Netflix, two of the greatest boxers in the sport will meet in a historic fight from Las Vegas.”
As his 35th birthday nears next month, Alvarez 62-2-2 (39 KOs) and the 37-year-old Crawford 41-0 (31 KOs) are each coming off bouts that revealed their mortality.
While Alvarez plodded through a record-low punch-count victory over Cuba’s William Scull May 3 in Saudi Arabia, Crawford needed to win the final two rounds in August to claim the WBA junior-middleweight belt from Israil Madrimov.
Now, Crawford moves up two more weight classes.
“I’m super happy to be making history again and this time on a Riyadh Season card that will be broadcast on Netflix. On September 13, I’m ready to show once again that I am the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world,” Alvarez said in the prepared statement.
Crawford answered, “My perfect record speaks for itself. I am the best fighter in the world and no matter the opponent or weight class, I have always come out on top. On September 13, my hand will be raised once again as the world watches greatness.”