Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford brings boxing’s spotlight back to Las Vegas
Will Jackson 
Saul Alvarez and Terence Crawford go head-to-head for the undisputed super-middleweight world titles this weekend.
Alvarez will head into the highly anticipated bout as comfortable favourite with sports betting sites but it should be a fight that truly catches the imagination.
Free Bets boxing expert Lewis Watson has had a closer look at where the fight stacks up against events of the past.
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Terence Crawford meet on Saturday night in a bout heavy with history, a clash not just of stars but of undisputed kings.
Crawford, the master technician who ruled at super-lightweight and welterweight, has dared to climb into Canelo’s fortress at 168 pounds, meeting the Mexican icon who has twice unified the super-middleweight crown.
Unification fights carry their own weight, but this is rarer still. Two men who can each claim to have swept an entire division now converge in one ring.
Legacy hangs in the balance, and the intrigue lies not only in who wins, but in how these two undisputed champions navigate uncharted territory against one another — and importantly for the sport, the contest returns to the traditional home of boxing: Las Vegas.
Since Turki Alalshikh and the Saudis entered the boxing sphere on a more permanent and invested basis, the biggest and best contests have followed the money and headed east to Riyadh.
Both Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk and Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev super fight doubleheaders took place in Saudi Arabia, as well as ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s last, underwhelming, bout against William Scull.
There has been growing criticism surrounding the lack of atmosphere at these events, and over Mexican Independence Day weekend, Alvarez’s return to Vegas — inside the Allegiant Stadium — has been viewed as a welcome return to boxing’s past.
Since the 1960s, when Sonny Liston first defended his heavyweight crown at the Convention Center, the city has shaped itself into the sport’s spiritual home.
Muhammad Ali brought poetry and politics to the Vegas Strip, dazzling in triumphs and tasting bitter defeats that etched his legend deeper still. The Caesars Palace parking lot became an outdoor coliseum through the 70s and 80s, staging epics like Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns.
By the 90s, the MGM Grand Garden Arena rose as boxing’s cathedral. It housed the electric brilliance of Oscar De La Hoya, violence of Mike Tyson, and the pound-for-pound mastery of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather’s unbeaten run, intertwined with Vegas glitz, turned fight nights into events beyond the ring — celebrities courtside, millions on pay-per-view, and a city living and breathing the sport.
From Canelo Alvarez’s rise to Manny Pacquiao’s wars, from Lennox Lewis to Evander Holyfield, the roll call of names who’ve headlined in Vegas reads like boxing’s Hall of Fame.
Saturday’s fight — live worldwide on Netflix — is the boxing event of 2025, and there will be plenty of promotions around the event with boosted odds and enhanced offers expected. And it’s one that has split opinion across the boxing landscape.
“Canelo’s got a granite chin, he’s tough, he’s durable,” Crawford explained in the opening press conference to this superfight. “But we’ve seen him hurt a couple of times and given the right circumstances, anybody can get knocked out.
“I can’t focus on the judges. I just gotta focus on doing what I can do and controlling what I can control inside the ring. And that’s going out there and winning the fight decisively.”
Canelo believes that his natural size advantage will pay dividends.
“I’m super happy to be making history again,” the Mexican explained. “I’m ready to show once again that I am the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. As soon as he feels the power, it’s gonna be the same.”
On Saturday night, back in Las Vegas, we expect the argument to be settled - you’d be lying if you exclaimed with any confidence that you knew the outcome.
And for the first time in what feels like a long time, Vegas will hold the cards as the fight capital of the world.
