Dana White becomes hero to fight fans with major Canelo-Crawford news as UFC promoter moves into boxing
After all, his experience is primarily in mixed-martial arts and a fledgling slap-fighting circuit, so there was some natural skepticism about his capacity to win over the boxing audience.
But on Tuesday, along with Saudi Boxing Federation president and Riyadh Season promoter Turki Al-Sheikh, White did just that by revealing Canelo-Crawford bout will be on Netflix and not pay per view. And according to another boxing promoter, that decision could make the highly anticipated September 13 bout historically popular.
'#CaneloCrawford, streaming on @netflix, NO PPV, is a huge opportunity and showcase for #boxing,' veteran promoter and former HBO executive Lou DiBella wrote on X. 'It's also going to create proper momentum for the new Saudi/TKO promotion. Well done by Dana and all; re-securing Netflix was key. This will be one of the most watched fights EVER.'
TKO is the conglomerate created by Endeavor as part of the highly publicized merger between the WWE and UFC parent company Zuffa. In March, the newly formed company announced a partnership with Al-Sheikh to launch a new boxing league next year which is being modelled after the UFC.
Like DiBella, fans were understandably excited about the absence of any PPV fees: 'Crawford vs Canelo on Netflix at no additional cost?' one wrote, adding, 'Sign me up!'
Not everyone was thrilled with the news about Netflix, particularly given the streaming giant's lackluster performance for the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul farce in November.
Fans on both sides of the Atlantic faced poor image quality, prolonged buffering and spotty audio throughout the undercard. Meanwhile, hundreds online complained of error messages, while '#unwatchable' began trending on X.
'This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,' Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone wrote to employees afterwards, as reported by Bloomberg.
Despite the problems, Netflix saw the event as a success after claiming as many as 65 million households were viewing at one point.
White does have some experience promoting boxing events, including the wildly profitable and utterly disappointing 2017 snoozefest between Floyd Mayweather and converted UFC fighter Conor McGregor.
He's also promoted fight cards involving Ireland's Callum Walsh, which were streamed on UFC Fight Pass.
A year ago, White predicted his involvement in boxing would only grow in 2025, and on Tuesday, he laid out the vision he shares with Al-Sheikh.
'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 quote he posted on X. '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 (sic) fight. Live on Saturday, September 13, streaming globally on Netflix, two of the GREATEST boxers in the sport will meet in a historic fight from Las Vegas.'
A venue has not been named, but the city does have options ranging from the Raiders' Allegiant Stadium to the Golden Knights' T-Mobile Arena.
It will be a huge task for Crawford given Canelo has never lost a fight at super middleweight.
Crawford, who has a 41-0 record with 31 knockouts, will come up from 154 pounds to 168 pounds for the September showdown, having fought only once over 147 pounds in his entire career.
What's more, he would be out of action for 13 months by the time he steps in the ring with Canelo.
It will be a huge task for the American given Canelo has never lost a fight at super middleweight.
The 34-year-old Alvarez is a four-weight world champion and entered his last fight against William Scull with the WBA, WBC and WBO titles at 168 pounds.
He was previously stripped of the IBF belt last July when he declined to make a mandatory defense against Scull.
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