At least one of UFC CEO Dana White’s dreams is about to become reality.
Canelo Álvarez will face Terence Crawford in a Super Middleweight championship match in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, with the fight airing on Netflix globally. White is promoting the event, alongside Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Alalshikh and Saudi events company Sela.
Back in March, those entities announced their intentions to build an entirely new boxing league “much like the UFC,” White said. “You have the brand, and there’s all these ancillary things that are built off the brand—video games, gyms, merchandise, the list goes on and on.” The first fight under that official banner is expected in 2026.
Alalshikh previously brokered a Riyadh Season deal for four standalone Álvarez fights, including a victory over William Scull in Riyadh this May that earned Álvarez undisputed super middleweight world champion status once again. That event streamed as a DAZN pay-per-view.
But White wanted to see boxing spectacles made more accessible. “My big dream in my life was I would put on a fight one day, where it would be on the same channel all over the world, and everybody could watch it at the same time,” he said.
Netflix will do exactly that, at least for its global audience of more than 300 million subscribers. Last year, the platform shattered streaming records with the match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. This summer, it’s airing an all-women card from Madison Square Garden headlined by a Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano rematch.
Álvarez-Crawford faces an uphill climb to top Tyson and Paul’s estimated average audience of 108 million—September’s stars have a third as many combined Instagram followers, for one.
Netflix has remained focused on event-based sporting moments, particularly ones with worldwide appeal, as it expands its live rights collection.
UFC parent TKO Group Holdings is in the midst of negotiating a new set of media deals for the MMA offering, with Netflix reportedly in the mix for at least some of the inventory. TKO is also yet to name a media partner for its upcoming boxing league efforts. TKO subsidiary WWE already has a weekly show on the streaming platform.
In White’s X post announcing September’s event, he linked to a new Zuffa Boxing page. Zuffa was the parent company of UFC before it was sold to Endeavor. White has hinted at his interest in boxing promotions going back to his decision to wear a “Zuffa Boxing” shirt in 2017.
The New York Times previously reported that a TKO-supported boxing league could earn the company close to $30 million in annual management fees.
Leading into fight night, the promoters announced a three-stop press tour, including visits to Riyadh on June 20, New York City on June 22 and Las Vegas on June 27. Venue and ticket details for the bout have not yet been announced.
Álvarez often schedules events close to Sept. 16, which is Mexican Independence Day. Last year, his Sept. 14 defeat of Edgar Berlanga went up against UFC 306 at Las Vegas’ Sphere.
