Two months after officially announcing its formation, TKO’s boxing promotion has its first main event.
Following Canelo Alvarez’s victory by way of unanimous decision over William Scull in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday, Saudi Arabia General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Alalshikh officially announced TKO’s highly anticipated boxing debut. The event will take place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sept. 12, with Alvarez defending his The Ring super middleweight title against Terence Crawford in the main event.
Following the announcement on Saturday, Alvarez and Crawford went face to face in the ring to tease their upcoming super fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN3oM7cWtDo
While Sports Illustrated‘s Chris Mannix referred Canelo facing Crawford in TKO’s first-ever boxing event as the sport’s “worst-kept secret” as far back as March, Saturday’s announcement was a monumental one nonetheless. With so much of boxing having seemingly been in disarray for decades now, TKO is looking to bring stability to the industry with a promotion that rivals its offerings in MMA (UFC) and professional wrestling (WWE).
Saudi Arabia is funding the project, with TKO producing, promoting and operating the league. In addition to Turki Alalshikh, UFC president Dana White and WWE president Nick Khan have each taken on forward-facing roles promoting the operation since its inception in March.
Based on their comments, there will unsurprisingly be a major emphasis on star power.
“It’s been proven with the UFC that people like to see a good fight,” Khan said during an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast last month. “They just have to know, as with the UFC, who the fighters are. It’s same with WWE. If you get invested in the fighters in UFC, which they’ve done a phenomenal job of doing, UFC has, if you get invested in the wrestlers in WWE, the more likely you tune in, the more likely you show up. It’s the same thing in boxing.”
Following a UFC event in March, White revealed that TKO was already shopping the media rights for its new boxing promotion. And while a distributor has yet to be attached to the Alvarez vs. Crawford fight, the expectation inside the industry is that it will ultimately land on Netflix.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.