Canelo Alvarez isn’t here for your boxing slander.
This weekend, Alvarez puts his undisputed super middleweight title on the line against Terence Crawford in their highly anticipated superfight in Las Vegas. On Thursday, the two men, plus several other figures associated with the bout — including UFC CEO Dana White — took part in the pre-fight press conference. White is setting up for a major push into boxing starting in 2026, with this serving as one of the first events he’s promoting, and during the press conference, boxing commentator and analyst Max Kellerman took the opportunity to heap praise on the UFC CEO, suggesting he is about to “save” the sport.
“Dana White is the greatest combat sports promoter in my lifetime,” Kellerman said. “He built an institution. Boxing’s not as popular as it used to be anymore, right? UFC is really popular. That’s because of Dana White. He built something like the NBA. Stop [booing], because he’s about to do it again, for boxing now. You want an NBA or an NFL in boxing? Here it comes, because he knows how to build an institution.”
It was an interesting statement to be made, particularly at an event being promoted as one of the biggest fights in boxing history, and Alvarez clearly didn’t appreciate Kellerman’s attitude toward the sport he’s spent his life pursuing.
“Hey Max, boxing is always bigger,” Alvarez said. “Bigger and bigger. Don’t say boxing is not big enough. Boxing is big. You know how big is boxing. Maybe it’s going to be bigger, but look, boxing is always big, and big, and bigger, and bigger. Talk about that too. Boxing is boxing. Respect for other sports. Great job and everything, but boxing is boxing.”
For his part, Terence Crawford seemed to agree with Alvarez, chiming in with a couple of “no lies” while Alvarez spoke, while White stood behind the whole scene smiling.
White has come under fire recently for his statements about moving into boxing and TKO’s support of the Ali American Boxing Revival Act, which seeks to roll back aspects of the Ali Act to make boxing promotion operate more like MMA.
Canelo vs. Crawford goes down this Saturday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and will be broadcast live on Netflix.
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