Dana White Delivers Telling Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford Event Verdict

UFC CEO Dana White got honest about Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford.
IMAGO / Bildbyran

There were so many compelling storylines heading into the September 13 superfight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford, which Crawford ultimately won via unanimous decision.

While the fight itself was sure to deliver, given that these are two of this generation's greatest pound-for-pound fighters, both of whom would be putting their legacies on the line, a lot of the talk in the lead-up was whether Crawford had bitten off more than he could chew, given that he was jumping up two weight classes to challenge Canelo.

But the storylines weren't limited to what was going to take place in the ring that night. Given that this was a Zuffa Boxing event (which is the byproduct of Turki Alalshikh's business partnership with TKO), the fact that UFC CEO Dana White was making his highly anticipated boxing promotional debut added a lot of fascination to this spectacle.

Dana White
IMAGO / Inpho Photography

White was front and center for much of the pre-fight promotion and was usually the one standing in between Canelo and Crawford whenever they would face off. While there was also a huge UFC event on the same night as Canelo and Crawford's Allegiant Stadium showdown in Las Vegas, Nevada, White's attention was clearly focused on this boxing bout.

Dana White Sends Clear Message on Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford

Therefore, fans were interested in what White would have to say about this event once it was over. And he finally provided his opinion, which was conveyed in an October 5 X post from Ring Magazine.

"The event couldn't have gone any better than it did," White said of Canelo vs. Crawford. "It was as close to flawless as it could be."

While it's known that Zuffa Boxing is going to start creating its own fight cards in 2026 (which is a byproduct of their recent deal with Paramount), they're going to focus on building up-and-coming fighters rather than doing constant cards with major names within the sport.

However, there's still an expectation that White and Alalshikh will collaborate on superfights in the future. And White's comments serve as further proof of that.

In the meantime, boxing fans will have to wait and see whether Canelo and Crawford decide to rematch each other or if they go in different directions. If a rematch does happen, one would imagine that White will have his fingerprints all over it.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.