The chaotic turns over a fight expected to stand as the most successful of the year have the boxing industry abuzz as the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Terence Crawford clash currently stands without a U.S. licensed promoter, no official venue and no broadcaster.
Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh instructed his publication Ring Magazine to announce Sunday that the bout will indeed move off a Friday night – September 12 – and shift to September 13.
By doing so, the initial plans to have UFC CEO Dana White promote his first major boxing pay-per-view card were shuttered as White’s UFC already has a pay-per-view scheduled that night for ESPN from Mexico.
Additionally, Alalshikh’s original plan to bring the bout to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas is off, with one connected individual telling BoxingScene that the bout will remain in the U.S. and not defect to Saudi Arabia, with New York and Texas in play.
Additional clarification is expected by week’s end, but this volatility is not the norm in the business of big-time boxing – especially for this kind of colossal bout pitting undisputed super-middleweight champion Alvarez, 63-2-2 (39 KOs), versus fellow four-division champion and two-time undisputed titlist Terence Crawford, 41-0 (31 KOs).
Although Alalshikh owns a one-eighth stake in boxing streamer DAZN, he had The Ring report that “the fight will be shown live on PPV and not on Netflix,” without further explanation.
Netflix was originally reported to be in play for the super-middleweight title bout after generating 1.8 million streams for the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson bout that was also staged on a Friday night in Texas.
“Who knows what they’re doing?” one veteran boxing insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it’s not their show told BoxingScene.
Another said the disruption is not surprising “considering all the egos involved.”
Yet, the bout’s compelling nature provides a wealth of opportunities to recalibrate and succeed.
On the broadcast side, one productive adjustment would be to distribute the bout again on the nation’s linear cable systems after making the May 2 card headlined by Ryan Garcia and May 3 Alvarez fight in Saudi Arabia DAZN exclusives.
Riches in missed buys were lost by doing so, according to industry experts, and Alvarez-Crawford could be streamed without subscription by PPV.COM. (Disclosure: I have contributed the live chats that complement the live broadcast feed on several PPV.COM cards).
Alalshikh told Ring, “We have confirmed the promoter for Canelo vs. Crawford will be Sela for Riyadh Season,” but the company is not a licensed boxing promoter in the U.S., according to a regulator, and will either need to have an application approved between now and fight night, or turn to another licensed promoter.
That promoter will not be Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, one individual close to the situation told BoxingScene Sunday.
Alalshikh won’t need to look far for an alternate promoter to White since White and his associate, Tom Loeffler of 360 Promotions, are going to be working together on the new Alalshikh-White fighting promotion in Las Vegas known as TKO.
Loeffler, who has promoted former heavyweight champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko and former long-reigning middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin, declined to discuss his potential Alvarez-Crawford involvement in a brief Sunday conversation with BoxingScene.
As for the bout’s new location, an individual involved in the talks said it’d be inaccurate to label Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena as the frontrunner to land the fight.
Alvarez is adverse to fighting in California due to prohibitive taxes, so another official said that venues in Texas and New York are under consideration.
“They’re still waiting,” said a representative of one fight camp, assuring, “everything [will work out].”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.