Dana White has checked off the first order of business in his venture into boxing: Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford are fighting Sept. 13 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for the undisputed super middleweight championship. The UFC CEO will promote the event, which will stream on Netflix.
That was the easy part.
His partner, Turki Alalshikh, announced on May 3 after Alvarez had beaten William Scull that Alvarez would face Crawford next and that White would promote it.
Alalshikh later put out a tweet saying the bout would be promoted by Sela, which raised a lot of eyebrows since it suggested White was out.
White told me Tuesday nothing had ever changed. His team had not stopped working behind the scenes preparing for the event.
Alalshikh has made an enormous personal investment in boxing, in addition to money he’s funneled into the sport from the Saudi Arabian government. He had to get this right. This is going to be a pivotal moment for the sport.
To pull off a fight of this magnitude, White was the only choice. Sela doesn’t have the infrastructure, institutional knowledge or savvy for it.
White is the best promoter in combat sports, and Alalshikh needed White onboard to maximize revenues and to build a massive audience.
From the moment White and Alalshikh announced their partnership, this was where Alvarez-Crawford was headed.
But the hard work begins now.
This isn’t a one-off.
It’s the start of a long-term relationship that both hope can turn the sport’s flagging fortunes around. Boxing is massive in certain parts of the world, like the United Kingdom, but it’s holding on by its fingernails in many other spots.
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UFC CEO Dana White will be the lead promoter of the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford boxing match.
That’s particularly true in the U.S.
If this is going to be the first step in boxing’s revitalization, White has to play a major public role.
White needs to be visible, engaged and all-in. He’s been a ghost recently at UFC events; he’s been skipping a lot of the smaller events entirely.
He failed to attend the post-fight press conference at UFC 315, a signature event for the company, and didn’t attend the pre-fight news conference for UFC 316.
There is no one like White when it comes to commanding public attention for these shows. He needs to be out front as he begins the effort to remake boxing.
He often refers to the reality series, “The Ultimate Fighter,” as the ‘Trojan Horse,’ that educated fans about MMA. The old marketing line used in the early years of the UFC, “Two men enter. One man leaves,” was awesome in its time. It wasn’t appropriate to sell a sport to a global audience.
Alvarez-Crawford will be the same type of entree for White into the boxing world. Much to the ire of boxing promoters and hard-core fans, White has never hesitated to rip the sport and discuss its problems.
This is his chance to show how he’ll do it differently as well as how those changes will benefit the sport long-term.
Promoting a fight isn’t just showing up at a news conference. It’s a multi-faceted job that White and his team have repeatedly shown they know how to do.
Working with sponsors to do in-store activations will keep the event in the forefront. Maybe an energy drink is a major sponsor; have cardboard cutouts of the fighters in the supermarket so when people walk up and down the drinks aisle, they’re reminded of the fight.
White and the fighters need to be publicly accessible, early and often.
The undercard has to be compelling. All of the fights need to be evenly matched and competitive.
The stakes of the main event need to be sold. This is an opportunity for White to convert a lot of his fans into boxing fans, as well as for him to bring the disaffected boxing fans back into the fold.
He needs to explain to them why they should care about Canelo and Crawford fighting each other, what it means to the history of the sport and how the match will be electric.
He doesn’t need to win over the diehards, but he has to try to affect their way of thinking. From the moment Alalshikh announced his partnership with TKO, there has been a constant drumbeat from the most devoted fans that White won’t be able to pull it off because he’s going to underpay the fighters.
Now, that’s an issue that should be dealt with separately, but it’s always been puzzling that fans are so concerned about someone else’s money.
In no way am I suggesting it’s OK to underpay the athletes. But that can’t be a focus because it sucks oxygen from the room.
Everything on this event needs to be about the excitement of boxing’s new era, about how great the fights are and the significance of the stakes. It needs to show fans what to expect: Quality up and down the lineup and matches other than the main event that will make the fans want to show up for the first bout.
In 2023, after Alvarez had defeated Jermell Charlo, I asked him about fighting Crawford. He didn’t seem to be into it at the time, but has since come around and recognizes that two of the greatest to ever do it competing for significant stakes can galvanize the sporting world.
Canelo and Crawford will bring the heat. This is a fight between a pair of future Hall of Famers where an argument could be for either to win.
They’ll handle their business.
The stakes are larger than just who wins, though. As he’s built the UFC into a global powerhouse, White has spent years tearing boxing apart, viciously attacking the sport.
He’s made many on-the-money criticisms, but he’s now in the driver’s seat. It’s on him to prove that his cutting words were right.
He’s got the right fight in an iconic venue on a global platform.
He has it teed up.
Now, White has to prove to boxing fans he knew what he was talking about. It’s on him to put his words into action. If he’s right, he may be the guy to shove boxing, kicking and screaming, to the next level.
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Terence Crawford will be trying for his third undisputed title when he fights Canelo Alvarez on Sept. 13.