{"id":139395,"date":"2025-09-12T20:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/139395\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T20:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:24:10","slug":"alvarez-and-crawford-face-off-in-breathless-blockbuster-destined-to-break-records-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/139395\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c1lvarez and Crawford face off in breathless blockbuster destined to break records | Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas has staged its share of blockbuster fight nights but nothing on the scale of what is coming this weekend. On Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium, the $2bn (\u00a31.47bn) home of the NFL\u2019s Raiders, Sa\u00fal \u201cCanelo\u201d \u00c1lvarez<\/a> will defend his undisputed super-middleweight crown against Terence Crawford<\/a> in front of more than 70,000 spectators, by far the largest boxing crowd the city has ever seen.<\/p>\n

Millions more will watch on Netflix, which is carrying the card at no extra cost to subscribers \u2013 a first for a fight of this magnitude and a reminder of how the business of boxing is being remade in real time. For decades, the sport depended on pay-per-view. Now it is betting that reach and spectacle can replace a buckling model. The timing is no accident: Mexican Independence Day weekend, when this neon-lit metropolis in the Mojave desert becomes a second home for \u00c1lvarez and his flag-draped supporters.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideCanelo \u00c1lvarez v Terence CrawfordShow<\/p>\n

\u2022 Canelo v Crawford: all of your pre-fight questions, answered<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s happening?<\/p>\n

Terence Crawford, the undefeated American boxer who has won world titles in four divisions from 135lb to 154lb, is moving up two weight classes to challenge for the undisputed 168lb championship held by Sa\u00fal \u2018Canelo\u2019 \u00c1lvarez, the Mexican four-weight champion and the sport’s biggest star.<\/p>\n

Where and when is the fight?<\/p>\n

The scheduled 12-round bout will take place on Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, home of the NFL\u2019s Raiders, which is expected to be configured for about 71,835 spectators. It will almost certainly shatter the previous Las Vegas attendance record for boxing: the 29,214 who turned up for the 1982 fight between Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney at a purpose-built outdoor arena in the Caesars Palace parking lot.<\/p>\n

The main card begins at 9pm ET (2am BST on Sunday), with \u00c1lvarez and Crawford not expected to make their ringwalks until after 12am ET (5am BST).<\/p>\n

What belts are on the line?<\/p>\n

\u00c1lvarez’s undisputed crown at 168lb is at stake: the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles all on the line. Crawford keeps his WBA belt at 154lb whatever happens.<\/p>\n

Where can I watch it?<\/p>\n

For the first time in boxing history, a fight of this magnitude will be streamed live globally on Netflix at no additional cost to subscribers. The stream begins at 9pm ET, with undercard bouts leading into the main event.<\/p>\n

Netflix will offer commentary feeds in English and Spanish. Unlike traditional pay-per-view, which often costs US fans around $90, this one is included in a standard subscription.<\/p>\n

Who else is fighting?<\/p>\n

The first six undercard bouts not carried by the Netflix stream will be available free on Tudum starting at 5.30pm ET (10.30pm BST). The entire order of play is as follows:<\/p>\n

Preliminary card (Tudum, from 5.30pm ET\/10.30pm BST)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Serhii Bohachuk v Brandon Adams, 10 rounds, middleweights<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ivan Dychko v Jermaine Franklin Jr, 10 rounds, heavyweights<\/p>\n

\u2022 Reito Tsutsumi v Javier Martinez, six rounds, super featherweights<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sultan Almohamed v Martin Caraballo, four rounds, super lightweights<\/p>\n

\u2022 Steven Nelson v Raiko Santana, 10 rounds, light heavyweights<\/p>\n

\u2022 Marco Verde v Sona Akale, six rounds, 162lb catchweight<\/p>\n

Main card (Netflix, from 8pm ET\/1am BST on Sunday)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Callum Walsh v Fernando Vargas Jr, 10 rounds, junior middleweights<\/p>\n

\u2022 Christian Mbilli v Lester Martinez, 12 rounds, super middleweights<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mohammed Alakel v John Ornelas, 10 rounds, lightweights<\/p>\n

\u2022 Canelo \u00c1lvarez v Terence Crawford, 12 rounds, for Alvarez’s undisputed super middleweight championship<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Yet, for a main event of this quality and consequence, the mood around town during fight week has been oddly sedate. Thursday\u2019s final press conference at the T-Mobile Arena was open to the public but drew little more than a thousand fans. It\u2019s expected the crowds will arrive en masse on Friday and the live gate will be eye-watering in the end, but ticket sales have been on the sluggish side, prompting whispers of the Trump slump<\/a> that has affected local tourism. The likelier theory is that while most of boxing\u2019s more recent super-fights have required years of wrangling \u2013 Mayweather v Pacquiao, \u00c1lvarez v Golovkin, Crawford v Spence \u2013 this one materialized practically overnight. A year ago, \u00c1lvarez v Crawford was more a bar-room flight of fancy than plausible matchup given the weight gulf. Now, suddenly, here it is.<\/p>\n

\u00c1lvarez, 35, is the emperor at 168lb: granite-chinned, a four-weight champion from 154 to 175, boxing\u2019s most bankable name. Crawford, 37, is America\u2019s best fighter since Floyd Mayweather Jr, a champion in four divisions spanning 135 to 154 who has spent more than a decade making elite opponents look ordinary. The switch-hitting Nebraskan is the quiet craftsman who unified 140, then 147 with a dismantling of Errol Spence Jr<\/a> so complete that it felt like a mismatch. That he hails from a fistic outpost better known for the production of corn than elite prize-fighters only lends to the lore.<\/p>\n

Canelo \u00c1lvarez is boxing\u2019s most bankable name and one of Mexico\u2019s most recognizable faces. Photograph: David Becker\/Getty Images for Netflix<\/p>\n

This weekend also doubles as the maiden promotion of Zuffa Boxing under TKO Holdings, the company formed by the merger of UFC\u2019s parent group and WWE. It is the first boxing show promoted by Dana White, backed by an ample Turki al-Sheikh<\/a> investment, and seen as the opening salvo in an attempt to build a rival system of rankings and titles<\/a> under Saudi control. Behind the scenes, that project is already colliding with Washington politics. A new Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act has been introduced in Congress, legislation critics say could gut longstanding protections for fighters and hand promoters the power to control titles. That a potential hostile takeover can hide in plain sight the way it has during the equivalent of boxing\u2019s Super Bowl week is a testament to the allure of the main event. When one journalist did raise valid questions<\/a> on the subject during Thursday\u2019s press conference, White deftly parried before going ad hominem.<\/p>\n

The oddsmakers have leaned toward \u00c1lvarez. He has campaigned at 168lb or above for nearly seven years, his chin stress-tested by heavier men. Crawford has spent most of his career at 147 or below, with only a brief reconnaissance at 154. Size matters, and so does age. Yet the intrigue lies in Crawford\u2019s record of problem-solving. Time and again, he has spent the early rounds downloading an opponent\u2019s rhythm before flipping the geometry in the middle of the fight. Against Spence two summers ago, Crawford produced a masterclass: three knockdowns and a ninth-round stoppage. Notably, the odds against him have shortened materially since the fight was announced in June.<\/p>\n

For \u00c1lvarez, victory is legacy maintenance. He has already hoovered up titles across four weight classes, headlined stadiums in two countries and confirmed himself as the sport\u2019s biggest star and one of Mexico\u2019s most recognizable faces. Beating Crawford would add another bullet to the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and reaffirm his supremacy at 168. For Crawford, it is legacy transformation. He is already the first man in the four-belt era to become undisputed champion in two divisions, a feat since matched by Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk. A third, against \u00c1lvarez, on Netflix\u2019s global platform and before the largest fight crowd in Las Vegas history, would vault him from generational talent into the all-time realm of lionhearted weight-jumpers like Harry Greb, Henry Armstrong, Roberto Dur\u00e1n and Manny Pacquiao.<\/p>\n

Everything about this fight is oversized and breathless: the venue, stakes and TV audience. What happens inside the ropes on Saturday night, though, will come down to the smallest of margins: timing, angles, choices made in the blur of three-minute rounds. It\u2019s in that public accounting where boxing, for all its bloat, still finds its purity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Las Vegas has staged its share of blockbuster fight nights but nothing on the scale of what is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-139395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}