Saul Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford: A New Kind of Superfight

If you were to only pay attention to the media purchased by Saudi wing man Turki Alalshikh and Saudi monarchy monies (i.e. Ring Magazine, Yahoo Uncrowned, DAZN, and various nuggets of sycophancy scattered across the online Universo Pugilistico), the upcoming September 13 bout between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Terence Crawford is a huge, monumental deal. Per their crowing, it’s “The Fight of the Century.”

If you take a step back beyond the paid-for chatter, though, you see this fight for what it really is.

And, no, it’s not just a money grab, although it definitely will provide a monumental haul for both main-eventers.

The first real step of the takeover

Consider this fight, the debut TKO-promoted boxing card under the watch of the UFC’s Dana White, the first aggressive step towards the Saudi Arabian/TKO full takeover of the sport. Canelo-Crawford represents the moment grooming and calculated public relations step aside for boots on the ground. Its high-profile placement on Netflix is meant to be the foreign flag announcing the forceful invasion.

Ironically enough, on Monday of Canelo-Crawford fight week, the CSAC held a hearing to vote on the TKO Group/Saudi-fueled initiative to amend the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. The ‘reform” is a thinly-veiled push to fully empower the planned TKO/Saudi boxing league and, ultimately, facilitate a UFC-style stab at fighter-marginalizing monopoly. The commission’s vote was pushed back to December after a unanimous barrage of public criticism for the proposed amendment tidal-waved the open comments portion of the hearing. Realistically, though, with so much money behind the push and not enough counter-punch from fans and media , it’ll likely get passed after the critical dust settles.

But let’s get back to the fight and to what it really means, above and beyond the immediate ring implications.

History will be made…

Canelo-Crawford, as the Saudi-purchased media insists, WILL make history.

For the first time in boxing history, a “superfight” is being worked almost entirely around the will of the fans and entirely without regard to whether it’s actually commercially viable.

Nobody was asking for this fight. As a matter of fact, most were laughing off the idea of this bout between the current undisputed super middleweight champ and the former undisputed welterweight champ when the idea first popped up in public boxing discourse. Even Alvarez, himself, brushed aside the idea with a laugh. It was considered nonsense fantasy talk and a distraction from the infinitely more boxing-healthy Canelo and Crawford fights the fans DID want to see– against David Benavidez and Jaron Ennis, respectively.

But this manufactured “superfight” was wedged into the picture by the power of Turki’s Saudi-infused pocketbook and the need to do something with Crawford, Turki’s pet project and prized American possession. An undisclosed (but surely obscene) amount of money was eventually dumped at Alvarez’s feet to be a prime attraction in the growing Saudi zoo of international sporting assets, but also with an eye on getting Crawford a showcase spectacle.

Saul Alvarez, Terence Crawford as useful tools

The fight, itself, means nothing more than a payday for both fighters. It leads nowhere beyond a possible cooked-up draw to necessitate a big-ticket rematch. A Canelo win keeps him right where he is, staring down an uninspiring roll call of 168 lb. contenders. A Crawford win will not be the beginning of a super middleweight title reign, but, rather, a return to a lower weight and maybe, with a career-high bag in hand, the end of the soon-to-be 38-year-old’s run as a full-time fighter.

All of this makes one wonder where, exactly, the fans fit into the Canelo-Crawford equation.

Short answer? Beyond making for a pleasant, full-capacity background at Allegiant Stadium, the fans DON’T factor into this event at all. Even the Netflix viewership numbers can and will be fudged, regardless of how many people actually watch, as they were when Turki’s Ring Magazine had the gizzard-kicking audacity to imply that 400,000 people were exposed to their walled-off, VIPs-only 300-spectators-in-attendance Times Square card in May.

The fans don’t matter because, again, this fight isn’t about boxing fans or the overall health of boxing. It’s about planting a big, bold flag on an enemy territory. It’s about winning the hearts and minds (and attention) of an essential American market that has, so far, been easy to stall, but hard to win over. It’s also about establishing strength and autonomy for the TKO boxing brand, something which explains the reported snub given to the existing sanctioning bodies and the aggressive promotion of the Ring Magazine belt as the ONLY belt.

That’s all that matters come September 13. Turki Alalshikh gets his way. The Saudis get their way. TKO Group gets its way. Saul Alvarez and Terence Crawford get their money to be useful tools. Netflix gets to take another step into the world of live event streaming.

And, as for the fans? Whether the actual fight is good or not, they’ve been told to cherish what they see and to embrace the new boxing world order foisted on them. After all, a conquered people never get any say-so in how they’re ruled.