It’s the kind of drama that electrifies the boxing world: a presser gone wild, a superstar showdown, and tempers flaring just weeks before one of the most anticipated bouts of the year. As the countdown continues toward September 13, when Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford will square off at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the press tour has offered more fireworks than anyone bargained for. What started as promotional buzz in Riyadh turned into a combustible spectacle in New York, where a face-off between the two legends nearly spiraled out of control.
Things truly got heated. During the face-off, Crawford marched straight into Canelo’s face, sparking a reaction that fans and pundits won’t soon forget. The Mexican champion didn’t hesitate—he shoved Crawford back with force, triggering a full-on scuffle that required the intervention of none other than UFC president Dana White. It was chaos with cameras rolling—security teams, shouting camps, and adrenaline pumping through the roof.
But after the drama at the Javits Center in New York, Canelo Alvarez offered a surprisingly calm yet intriguing response afterward. In a video clip shared by Netflix from backstage, the undisputed super-middleweight king declared, “I am turning it on right now.” When asked whether the clash made him want to push harder for the September 13 showdown, Canelo responded with a sly smile: “I don’t know, but it made me feel more excited.”
Canelo Àlvarez reacts to that heated faceoff with Terence Crawford. #CaneloCrawford pic.twitter.com/qsheP2A6U5
— Netflix (@netflix) June 22, 2025
Delivered with the measured cool of a veteran who’s seen it all, Canelo’s words reveal a deeper current: he’s not flustered. If anything, the emotional intensity from Crawford only seems to be feeding his fire. Rather than boast about retaliation or strategy, the Mexican icon leaned into honesty, acknowledging that the adrenaline of the confrontation made him feel more alive, more focused, more ready.
This moment, while brief, is telling. Coming from the man who recently reclaimed his undisputed title by outpointing William Scull in May, it shows that he’s embracing the psychological warfare as much as the physical one.
Crawford, on the other hand, has made it abundantly clear he’s coming with venom. At the Riyadh presser, the two-division undisputed champion didn’t mince words when he said: “The dislike and the hatred will be there… come fight night.” Adding spice to the bout is a brand new, specially made $188,000 custom Ring Magazine belt on the line and a hefty knockout bonus announced by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, turning this showdown into something even more combustible.
Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford forces Ryan Garcia to reconsider the new landscape
For decades, pay-per-view was boxing’s golden goose—an exclusive gateway to the biggest fights, with blockbuster matchups like Mayweather–Pacquiao and the Fury–Wilder trilogy pulling in staggering revenues and defining an era. But 2025 has brought something the sport hasn’t seen before: Netflix.
Earlier this month, Netflix announced it will stream the highly anticipated super-fight between Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford on September 13, bypassing the traditional PPV model entirely. No $80 price tag, no cable subscription gymnastics—just a seamless addition to an existing Netflix account. For a fight of this magnitude to be offered without pay-per-view fees is a radical shift, one that signals more than just a change in platform. It might be, as some insiders suspect, the beginning of the end for PPV in its classic form.
Few felt this shift more than Ryan Garcia. The 26-year-old boxer took to X to share his thoughts, writing: “With Canelo vs Crawford being on Netflix, it might mean that my fight with Gervonta might be the last PPV fight to hit 1 million. Kinda sad PPV might be actually be done.” Coming from a fighter whose 2023 clash with Gervonta Davis amassed over 1.2 million buys, Garcia’s words aren’t just nostalgic—they’re loaded with insight. That fight had been hailed as a revival of boxing’s mainstream moment. Now, Garcia wonders if it also marked the peak of an era.
Yet he didn’t sound bitter. In fact, Garcia ended his post with unexpected optimism: “Shoutout Netflix though putting boxing on a huge platform like then is awesome.” It’s a nod to the future—one where access replaces exclusivity, and global scale replaces gated events. As Canelo and Crawford prepare to make history inside the ring, they may also be making history outside of it—ushering in a new age where streaming defines what it means to “watch the fight.”
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