Mexican Independence Day weekend is traditionally one of the biggest weekends in boxing. This year is no different with Mexican superstar fighter Canelo Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) putting his undisputed super middleweight championship on the line against former two-division undisputed champion Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Saturday (Netflix, 9 p.m. ET). It’s a rare occasion where two of ESPN’s top 10 pound-for-pound fighters will clash.
The event has been billed as “Once In a Lifetime” by the organizers and finds Crawford moving up two weight classes to challenge Canelo to become the first men’s boxer to be an undisputed champion in three weight classes in the “four-belt era.” (Claressa Shields became an undisputed champion in three women’s boxing divisions when she defeated Danielle Perkins for the heavyweight title in July.) For Canelo, this might be the stiffest challenge he has faced since losing to Dmitry Bivol when he attempted to move up to challenge for the light heavyweight title in 2022.
This is a legacy-defining fight for both fighters, as Canelo and Crawford look to etch their names into the Mount Rushmore of boxing.
So if you’ve been wondering about the fight everyone is talking about or need a refresher on how it all came together or just want to be able to join the conversation at your watch party this weekend, we’ve got you covered. The answers to all your questions surrounding one of the most significant boxing matches of the year are below.
Why is Canelo fighting Crawford?
The short answer is that he ran out of options. And because the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and boxing’s most influential power broker, Turki Alalshikh, wanted the fight.
Since losing a unanimous decision to Bivol in an attempt to win a world title at light heavyweight in 2022, Canelo has opted for the path of least resistance, much to the chagrin of many fight fans. In his past six fights, he has beaten a 40-year-old (Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin who was fighting out of his weight class and on the edge of retirement), a severely undersized fighter (Jermell Charlo), three undeserving opponents (John Ryder, Jaime Munguia and Edgar Berlanga) and a virtually unknown fighter (William Scull). Every one of those fights ended in unanimous decisions for Canelo. He did everything in his power to avoid David Benavidez, who moved up to light heavyweight once he realized Canelo wouldn’t fight him.
Meanwhile, Crawford has been lurking since his one-sided thumping of Errol Spence Jr. in 2023 to become undisputed welterweight champion. Crawford told ESPN he initially didn’t have Canelo on his radar because of their size difference, but his insatiable appetite for overcoming adversity led him to pursue the fight last year. Canelo initially dismissed a fight with Crawford, suggesting he had nothing to gain by taking on the much smaller two-division undisputed champion.
But, as they say, money talks.
“If I beat him, nobody’s going to say, ‘Oh, he beat Crawford because [Canelo’s] a good fighter,” Canelo said following his win over Berlanga in September 2024. “He’s [a] pound-for-pound great, too, but he’s smaller. You’re going to start seeing ‘but he’s small and this.’ But if the money’s right, why not in this moment in my career.”
After the Berlanga fight, Canelo began negotiating with social media influencer turned professional boxer Jake Paul. A deal was imminent until Alalshikh swooped in at the 11th hour with a four-fight offer from Riyadh Season worth an estimated $400 million that Canelo couldn’t refuse. Step 1 of the deal was to become the undisputed super middleweight champion again by beating Scull, then the stage was set for the Saturday showdown.
Wait, isn’t Crawford a 154-pound champion?
Yes, but he won’t be once the fight starts with Canelo. Crawford won the WBA title when he defeated Ismail Madrimov in August 2024, his first and only fight at 154 pounds. Few expected him to defend the belt because the fight served as an opportunity for Crawford, who started his career at 135 pounds, to stay busy as he prepared for the move to 168 pounds.
The WBA recently announced that Crawford will be introduced as the junior middleweight champion for his fight with Canelo. However, he will relinquish the title once the bell rings, no matter the outcome.
Abass Baraou is the current interim WBA junior middleweight champion and will be upgraded to full champion once the bell rings for Canelo-Crawford, according to the WBA.
Has Canelo ever gone up in weight to challenge another champion?
Aside from the fight with Bivol at light heavyweight, Canelo stopped Sergey Kovalev in Round 11 in 2019 to win the WBO light heavyweight belt and add a world title in a fourth division. However, Kovalev was clearly in the twilight of his career heading into that fight, having been stopped by Andre Ward in 2017 and knocked out by Eleider Alvarez in 2018.
How is Crawford moving up in weight different from Canelo?
Crawford has never competed at 160 pounds, much less 168 pounds. Crawford is also challenging the undisputed champion, rather than taking a tuneup fight against another 168-pound fighter to acclimate to the weight class. The degree of difficulty for Crawford is much steeper than what Canelo attempted when moving up in weight.
Why would Crawford take this chance? What’s at stake?
After demolishing Spence, Crawford was fresh out of big-name fighters to face. He could have stayed at 147 pounds and defended his titles against Jaron “Boots” Ennis, but he would have been the hunted, not the hunter. He also could have pursued becoming undisputed at 154 pounds after defeating Madrimov, but the quality of opposition wasn’t there after former undisputed champion Charlo’s value was diminished by a one-sided decision loss to Canelo in 2023.
Between Canelo’s pound-for-pound status and name recognition, Crawford stood to gain significantly more from fighting Canelo.
There is a significant risk with the reward, though. Should he fall short, Crawford will see his undefeated record go up in smoke along with his status as a top-three pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Is this really the biggest fight of this century?
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Terence Crawford vows to stay sharp vs. Canelo Alvarez
Terence Crawford gives his strategy for his upcoming fight against Canelo Alvarez.
No. That honor goes to Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao‘s record-breaking fight in 2015. It probably won’t be the second biggest, either. Mayweather’s crossover boxing match with MMA superstar Conor McGregor in 2017 generated 4.3 million pay-per-view buys and raked in $600 million in total revenue. However, Canelo vs. Crawford may be a better fight than either of those matchups. Pacquiao wasn’t quite the destructive force he once was heading into his fight with Mayweather and got picked apart by “Money” in an underwhelming decision loss. The novelty of Mayweather-McGregor was more significant than the actual competition. Mayweather let the Irishman punch himself out for nine rounds before scoring a 10th-round stoppage.
Canelo-Crawford is expected to approach a sellout with a capacity crowd of 65,000 fans in Allegiant Stadium, which would crush the previous record for Las Vegas boxing attendance when 29,214 fans attended the 1982 fight between Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney at Caesars Palace’s specially-constructed outdoor arena.
The viewership for Canelo-Crawford could be larger, considering it airs globally on Netflix, but it won’t have a bigger appeal than either of the events that Mayweather headlined.
Has Canelo or Crawford ever fought inside a stadium?
This will be the third NFL stadium fight for Canelo, while Crawford will be competing in an NFL stadium for the first time at the Las Vegas Raiders‘ home field. Canelo fought Liam Smith in 2016 and Billy Joe Saunders in 2021 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. He also defeated Ryder at Estadio Akron in Jalisco, Mexico, in 2023, a soccer stadium home to the Club Deportivo Guadalajara.
How can we expect the fight to play out?
Neither Canelo nor Crawford have high punch outputs, so the fight has the potential to be a chess match as both fighters pick their spots and stay out of danger. Canelo will almost certainly attempt to use his size to bully the smaller Crawford, while “Bud” will use his underrated footwork, precise counterpunching and speed to pick off the champion’s advances.
This shouldn’t resemble anything remotely close to Canelo’s fights with Scull or even Charlo. Scull refused to engage, and Charlo appeared to check out and survive to collect his check. Crawford is a fighter first and will go out on his shield if he has to. Canelo has been known to cruise to a decision when the opponent doesn’t pose a threat to him (re: Berlanga, Munguia, Scull, Charlo), but it’s unlikely Crawford will go into survival mode at any point in the fight.
Is Canelo a favorite to win?
ESPN BET has the undisputed super middleweight champion as a -175 favorite over Crawford. Canelo hasn’t been a betting underdog since his second fight with Golovkin in 2018.
Will the winner of this fight be considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world?
Not quite. It only works for Crawford, who will become an undisputed champion in an unprecedented third weight class should he beat Canelo. Accomplishing the feat will almost certainly catapult Crawford to the top spot currently held by undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. Should Crawford beat Canelo, it will be almost blasphemous to keep him out of the top spot.
Beating a smaller fighter in Crawford likely won’t push Canelo to the top spot, though. Currently at No. 8 in ESPN’s pound-for-pound rankings, Canelo will certainly move up if he wins, but it likely won’t be enough to push past Usyk, undisputed junior featherweight champ Naoya Inoue (No. 2) or even unified light heavyweight champion Bivol (No. 4).
Are there any other fights I should pay attention to on the undercard?
Undefeated super middleweight and interim WBC champion Christian Mbilli (29-0, 24 KOs) will face fellow unbeaten 168-pound fighter Lester Martinez (19-0, 16 KOs) in what is expected to be an action-packed fight in which the winner could find himself in line to challenge the main-event winner.
Mbilli is currently ESPN’s No. 2-ranked super middleweight and is coming off a one-sided destruction of Maciej Sulecki in June. The Cameroonian-French boxer has been one to watch for the past year after scoring four KO wins in his past five fights.
Although the co-main event between junior middleweights Callum Walsh (14-0, 11 KOs) and Fernando Vargas Jr. (17-0, 15 KOs) doesn’t have a world title on the line, it should be an entertaining scrap between two fighters looking to make a statement. Walsh is mentored by UFC CEO Dana White and has been a fixture on UFC Fight Pass throughout his career. He is also one of the key fighters competing for TKO Group’s Zuffa Boxing. He’ll face the son of former boxing star Fernando Vargas. Fernando Jr. isn’t as highly touted as his younger sibling Emiliano Vargas but will be defending the family name.
