Fans Angry After Canelo-Crawford Kick-Off Presser Announced For Saudi

Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford’s first press conference will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as boxing fans were unhappy. 

The two boxers square off in an Undisputed Super Middleweight Title bout on September 12. The fight will occur in Las Vegas, which is expected to be the biggest fight of the year. Canelo will face a two-weight undisputed champion, moving up two weight classes, who is looking to make history. Crawford knows a win makes him one of the best fighters of all time, surpassing Mayweather’s win over Canelo since Alvarez was not in his prime at that moment.

While Canelo may be slowing down, he is a four-weight world champion, a two-time undisputed champion at 168. The fight will be the first promoted by TKO Group Holdings Inc. The company decided to move into boxing, as they will have their super events backed by the Saudis. TKO President and CEO Mark Shapiro recently announced that the company has plans for further superfights and up to 12 cards a year.

TKO’s Plans

“I would just tell you that we’re expecting with the boxing organization that we’re putting on an average of call it 12 fights a year, 12 cards a year for each of the next five years. Still putting that plan together and obviously working hand in hand with our friends from Saudi. The Saudis are funding what would be these superfight cards. We’ll work with them on media rights deals and take a commission.

“We’ll work with them obviously on global partnerships. We’ll work with them on ticketing. We’ll handle the production. We’ll look to potentially promote all of them with Dana White and Nick Khan driving much of that but then separately, we’ll have our boxing organization, our [promotion] with them where we’re going out and doing as I mentioned 12 cards a year on average and getting a separate media rights fee, selling global partnerships to those cards and of course promoting and producing those cards on whatever media platform we choose to tie with. That’s the state of boxing,” Shapiro said 

However, the fact that the Saudis are financing some of the cards suggests that Riyadh will host some of the build-up. The Canelo-Crawford fight will feature an American and a Mexican on Mexican Independence Weekend. That fight has more support in the US due to the fanbase, leading many to question why the opening presser is not happening in the US.