If you’re a UFC fan who tuned into the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford super fight last night (Sat., Sept. 13, 2025), the event probably felt pretty familiar, and I’m not just talking about the dulcet tones of longtime UFC commentator Jon Anik.

Dana White and TKO’s first foray into boxing promotion didn’t feel like a major gamble. In fact, it almost felt like the Noche UFC broadcast simply continued on uninterrupted after Diego Lopes shocked Jean Silva with a spinning elbow. The Canelo vs. Crawford card — an absolutely massive event featuring two of the best boxers of this era situated in front of 70,000 some fans and watched by an ungodly number of people at home on Netflix — featured many of the same production stylings as a standard “Fight Night” broadcast.

As somebody who watches every UFC card, I don’t mind that production necessarily, but it didn’t feel suited for an event of this scale and calibre. Events like this are supposed to be memorable at worst and iconic at best. The next “Rumble in the Jungle” cannot emerge from formulaic production.

That’s a relatively minor issue compared to the event’s main plague: timing. How on Earth did it take 7.5 hours to host the first bouts when most of them were six rounds or fewer? It is a constant complaint of boxing fans from the casual to the hardcore that bouts are endlessly delayed. Though White and company nixed national anthems, the card was still delayed by Mark Wahlberg podcasting, 50% of Tool, and general sloth in keeping the event moving.

A big goal of this card and this platform was to appeal to casual fans on Netflix. What curious potential boxing fan is likely to wait around four hours for the fight they want to see? Better yet, what percentage of those possible fans is willing to stay up until well after midnight EST to finally get to the premium stuff? Hell, half of the crowd seemed tuned out for long portions of the boxing matches, visibly looking away from the ring and audibly chattering with one another.

This is not the way to grow the sport of boxing. Pacing is an area where boxing could take notes from the UFC playbook, but that didn’t happen last night.

Lastly, there’s no way Callum Walsh deserved to be the co-main event of a Canelo card, let alone this Canelo card. His bout versus Fernando Vargas Jr needed no spotlight and was perhaps the height of the audience discontent. It wasn’t an exciting fight, and neither man looked like the future of boxing in any way. Compared to Christian M’billi vs. Lester Martínez immediately beforehand, it was downright boring.

That’s Dana White’s boy?

What’s frustrating is that the elements of an amazing evening were there. Terence Crawford genuinely made history with an incredible performance that deserves all the attention of the sporting world. The judges somehow managed not to commit robbery in the main event, and there were some really fun matches even if no knockouts materialized.

Unfortunately, the timing and lackluster production didn’t help create an iconic event or convert new boxing fans. If combining the monotony of modern UFC events with the glacial pacing of big boxing cards is Dana White’s vision for boxing future, we’ll have to find somebody else to “save” boxing.