Promoter Dana White says he was happy with how the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford event went on September 13 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. This was the inaugural event promoted by Zuffa Boxing, with Dana serving as the chief promoter.
Netflix and the Commission Approve
“It went great. It couldn’t have gone better than it did; it was very successful. People that were there live felt like the live event was great,” said promoter Dana White during the post-fight press conference at UFC 320, talking about the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford event on September 13.
The event did go smoothly. What fans had a problem with was the quality of fights on the undercard. There was one excellent fight between Lester Martinez and Christian Mbilli, which upstaged even the main event. The rest of the card consisted of prospects that didn’t impress. Callum Walsh was technically a contender in the junior middleweight rankings, but didn’t resemble one in his performance against Fernando Vargas Jr.
“The commission told us it’s the best boxing event they’ve done in probably two decades, as far as the team and how smooth everything ran. Obviously, Netflix was very happy. It was as close to flawless as it could be. We’ll continue to do that over the next couple of years with boxing,” said White.
Blueprint for Zuffa’s Boxing League
The undercard for the Canelo-Crawford event is similar to how the Zuffa Boxing league will look. It’s reportedly a developmental league for fighters to prove themselves and compete for the Zuffa belt.
The ones that stand out can progress to Riyadh Season events and earn bigger purses to compete for The Ring belts. They won’t be fighting for the traditional IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO titles; instead, they will be fighting for The Ring titles.
Where there could be a problem is the fighters that come out of Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing league, lacking the talent to compete with true world-class fighters still competing outside of the league. Dana’s fighters will be overmatched in the Riyadh Season events.
White’s Zuffa Boxing league showcases the type of fights that were once featured on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. One difference is the fans have to pay a monthly subscription to watch the boxing event in White’s Zuffa Boxing league, which will be shown once a month. It’s not free.
