Álvarez and Crawford face off in breathless blockbuster destined to break records | Boxing

Published

15 hours ago

September 12, 2025

Las Vegas has staged its share of blockbuster fight nights but nothing on the scale of what is coming this weekend. On Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium, the $2bn (£1.47bn) home of the NFL’s Raiders, Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez will defend his undisputed super-middleweight crown against Terence Crawford in front of more than 70,000 spectators, by far the largest boxing crowd the city has ever seen.

Millions more will watch on Netflix, which is carrying the card at no extra cost to subscribers – a first for a fight of this magnitude and a reminder of how the business of boxing is being remade in real time. For decades, the sport depended on pay-per-view. Now it is betting that reach and spectacle can replace a buckling model. The timing is no accident: Mexican Independence Day weekend, when this neon-lit metropolis in the Mojave desert becomes a second home for Álvarez and his flag-draped supporters.

Quick Guide

Canelo Álvarez v Terence Crawford

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• Canelo v Crawford: all of your pre-fight questions, answered

What’s happening?

Terence Crawford, the undefeated American boxer who has won world titles in four divisions from 135lb to 154lb, is moving up two weight classes to challenge for the undisputed 168lb championship held by Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, the Mexican four-weight champion and the sport’s biggest star.

Where and when is the fight?

The scheduled 12-round bout will take place on Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, home of the NFL’s Raiders, which is expected to be configured for about 71,835 spectators. It will almost certainly shatter the previous Las Vegas attendance record for boxing: the 29,214 who turned up for the 1982 fight between Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney at a purpose-built outdoor arena in the Caesars Palace parking lot.

The main card begins at 9pm ET (2am BST on Sunday), with Álvarez and Crawford not expected to make their ringwalks until after 12am ET (5am BST).

What belts are on the line?

Álvarez’s undisputed crown at 168lb is at stake: the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles all on the line. Crawford keeps his WBA belt at 154lb whatever happens.

Where can I watch it?

For the first time in boxing history, a fight of this magnitude will be streamed live globally on Netflix at no additional cost to subscribers. The stream begins at 9pm ET, with undercard bouts leading into the main event.

Netflix will offer commentary feeds in English and Spanish. Unlike traditional pay-per-view, which often costs US fans around $90, this one is included in a standard subscription.

Who else is fighting?

The first six undercard bouts not carried by the Netflix stream will be available free on Tudum starting at 5.30pm ET (10.30pm BST). The entire order of play is as follows:

Preliminary card (Tudum, from 5.30pm ET/10.30pm BST)

• Serhii Bohachuk v Brandon Adams, 10 rounds, middleweights

• Ivan Dychko v Jermaine Franklin Jr, 10 rounds, heavyweights

• Reito Tsutsumi v Javier Martinez, six rounds, super featherweights

• Sultan Almohamed v Martin Caraballo, four rounds, super lightweights

• Steven Nelson v Raiko Santana, 10 rounds, light heavyweights

• Marco Verde v Sona Akale, six rounds, 162lb catchweight

Main card (Netflix, from 8pm ET/1am BST on Sunday)

• Callum Walsh v Fernando Vargas Jr, 10 rounds, junior middleweights

• Christian Mbilli v Lester Martinez, 12 rounds, super middleweights

• Mohammed Alakel v John Ornelas, 10 rounds, lightweights

• Canelo Álvarez v Terence Crawford, 12 rounds, for Alvarez’s undisputed super middleweight championship

Yet, for a main event of this quality and consequence, the mood around town during fight week has been oddly sedate. Thursday’s final press conference at the T-Mobile Arena was open to the public but drew little more than a thousand fans. It’s expected the crowds will arrive en masse on Friday and the live gate will be eye-watering in the end, but ticket sales have been on the sluggish side, prompting whispers of the Trump slump that has affected local tourism. The likelier theory is that while most of boxing’s more recent super-fights have required years of wrangling – Mayweather v Pacquiao, Álvarez v Golovkin, Crawford v Spence – this one materialized practically overnight. A year ago, Álvarez v Crawford was more a bar-room flight of fancy than plausible matchup given the weight gulf. Now, suddenly, here it is.

Álvarez, 35, is the emperor at 168lb: granite-chinned, a four-weight champion from 154 to 175, boxing’s most bankable name. Crawford, 37, is America’s best fighter since Floyd Mayweather Jr, a champion in four divisions spanning 135 to 154 who has spent more than a decade making elite opponents look ordinary. The switch-hitting Nebraskan is the quiet craftsman who unified 140, then 147 with a dismantling of Errol Spence Jr so complete that it felt like a mismatch. That he hails from a fistic outpost better known for the production of corn than elite prize-fighters only lends to the lore.

Canelo Álvarez is boxing’s most bankable name and one of Mexico’s most recognizable faces. Photograph: David Becker/Getty Images for Netflix

This weekend also doubles as the maiden promotion of Zuffa Boxing under TKO Holdings, the company formed by the merger of UFC’s parent group and WWE. It is the first boxing show promoted by Dana White, backed by an ample Turki al-Sheikh investment, and seen as the opening salvo in an attempt to build a rival system of rankings and titles under Saudi control. Behind the scenes, that project is already colliding with Washington politics. A new Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act has been introduced in Congress, legislation critics say could gut longstanding protections for fighters and hand promoters the power to control titles. That a potential hostile takeover can hide in plain sight the way it has during the equivalent of boxing’s Super Bowl week is a testament to the allure of the main event. When one journalist did raise valid questions on the subject during Thursday’s press conference, White deftly parried before going ad hominem.

The oddsmakers have leaned toward Álvarez. He has campaigned at 168lb or above for nearly seven years, his chin stress-tested by heavier men. Crawford has spent most of his career at 147 or below, with only a brief reconnaissance at 154. Size matters, and so does age. Yet the intrigue lies in Crawford’s record of problem-solving. Time and again, he has spent the early rounds downloading an opponent’s rhythm before flipping the geometry in the middle of the fight. Against Spence two summers ago, Crawford produced a masterclass: three knockdowns and a ninth-round stoppage. Notably, the odds against him have shortened materially since the fight was announced in June.

For Álvarez, victory is legacy maintenance. He has already hoovered up titles across four weight classes, headlined stadiums in two countries and confirmed himself as the sport’s biggest star and one of Mexico’s most recognizable faces. Beating Crawford would add another bullet to the résumé and reaffirm his supremacy at 168. For Crawford, it is legacy transformation. He is already the first man in the four-belt era to become undisputed champion in two divisions, a feat since matched by Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk. A third, against Álvarez, on Netflix’s global platform and before the largest fight crowd in Las Vegas history, would vault him from generational talent into the all-time realm of lionhearted weight-jumpers like Harry Greb, Henry Armstrong, Roberto Durán and Manny Pacquiao.

Everything about this fight is oversized and breathless: the venue, stakes and TV audience. What happens inside the ropes on Saturday night, though, will come down to the smallest of margins: timing, angles, choices made in the blur of three-minute rounds. It’s in that public accounting where boxing, for all its bloat, still finds its purity.

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Aaron Judge passes Joe DiMaggio with his 362nd career homer

Published

3 hours ago

September 13, 2025

Jimmy Golen

BOSTON (AP) — New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is done chasing Joltin’ Joe.

After his 362nd home run on Friday night moved him past Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio on the New York Yankees’ career list, Judge said he had no intention on going after another, even more famous DiMaggio record: his 56-game hitting streak.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m getting that one,” Judge said with a chuckle. “We can try, but I think that one’s untouchable.”

One game after Judge homered twice to tie DiMaggio with President Donald Trump at Yankee Stadium to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Yankees captain hit the second pitch he saw from Boston’s Lucas Giolito in the first inning over the Green Monster and onto Lansdowne Street.

The 468-foot shot gave New York a 1-0 lead over Boston as the longtime rivals battle for playoff position. The Yankees won 4-1, extending their lead over the Red Sox in the AL East to 1 1/2 games; both teams are in position for wild-card berths, trailing division leader Toronto, but only one would get the home-field advantage in the first round.

“It’s special, but just like all those guys in front of me on those lists, they weren’t playing for records. They were playing to win,” Judge said. “I’m just trying to follow in their footsteps. I’m here to win.”

Judge reached 362 homers in his 1,130th game. DiMaggio played 1,736 games and hit his last homer on Sept. 28, 1951, at the end of a 13-year career that was interrupted for three seasons because he served in World War II.

Judge broke a tie with Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra for fifth on New York’s career list Tuesday night and now has four homers in his last four games and 47 for the season.

He also walked twice on Friday night and raised his major league-best batting average to .323. The homer was the longest at Fenway Park this season, according to Sportradar, and the longest at the ballpark since his 470-footer last July.

“That was a big shot in the arm for us, to get it going,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the victory. “Aaron hitting one of those — you know, one of those Aaron blows — definitely got the boys going.”

Babe Ruth hit 659 of his 714 homers with the Yankees; Mickey Mantle (536) and Lou Gehrig (493) are the other Yankees ahead of Judge.

DiMaggio won nine World Series, and Ruth, Mantle and Gehrig all won seven apiece. Judge is chasing his first title.

“I’m trying to help put this team in the best position every single night,” Judge said. “That comes with homers, that comes with big moments like that. It’s pretty cool. But I think all those guys in front of me — and especially DiMaggio — all those guys they played to win in New York and and win for this team. So I’m going to keep trying to do that. And we can talk about the milestones at the end.”

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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Ukraine war briefing: Poland’s allies decry ‘flagrant violation’; Warsaw sends troops to border to monitor Belarus drills | Ukraine

Published

4 hours ago

September 13, 2025

Guardian staff reporter

Poland and about 40 of its allies on Friday denounced the intrusion of Russian drones into its airspace this week, calling on Moscow to avoid more “provocations”. Before an emergency meeting of the UN security council requested by Poland, deputy foreign minister Marcin Bosacki told reporters that Warsaw and its allies wanted to “draw the attention of the international community to yet another flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations committed by the Russian Federation”, which had brought “the entire region closer to conflict than at any time in recent years”. The comments were from a statement signed by about 40 countries, including the 26 other members of the European Union, Ukraine, the United States, Japan and Canada. “We take this opportunity to reiterate our call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its war of aggression against Ukraine, to renounce any further provocations, and to respect its obligations under the UN Charter,” he said. “Escalation cannot lead to peace.”

France, Germany and Denmark will contribute fighter jets and other military assets to an enhanced defence of Poland against future Russian drone incursions, Nato leaders announced at a press conference on Friday. The UK is also expected contribute to the Eastern Sentry mission, which will gradually be expanded from the Arctic in the north to the Black Sea and Mediterranean in the south to better tackle Russian drones and missiles.

The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. The military drills started on Friday, and include exercises close to the border with Poland and Lithuania and in the Baltic and Barents seas. Russia’s defence ministry posted a video showing heavy military equipment – including armoured vehicles, helicopters and navy ships – taking part in the drills. Poland said it would station about 40,000 troops near the Belarus border for the duration of the drills.

Prince Harry laid a wreath at a flower and flag memorial to Ukraine’s war dead in Kyiv’s Maidan Square during a surprise visit to support the country in its fight against Russia, saying he wanted to do “everything possible” to help the thousands of military personnel who have been seriously injured in the war against Russia. During the trip to Kyiv, Harry and a team from his Invictus Games Foundation gave details of new initiatives to support the rehabilitation of the wounded, with the eventual aim of providing help to all areas of the country.

Russia said peace talks with Ukraine were on “pause” as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. “Our negotiators have the opportunity to communicate through channels. But for now, it is probably more accurate to talk about a pause” in talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Speaking at a conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said the west should not trust Putin. “Putin’s goal is to occupy all of Ukraine. And no matter what he tells anyone, it is clear that he has set the war machine in motion to such an extent that he simply cannot stop it unless he is forced to fundamentally change his personal goals,” he said. The Ukrainian president also called on allies to encourage China to use its leverage with Russia to stop Moscow’s offensive.

Trump told Fox television his patience was being taxed by Russia’s refusal to end its invasion. “It’s sort of running out and running out fast, but it does take two to tango,” Trump told Fox television. “It’s amazing. When Putin wants to do it, Zelensky didn’t. When Zelensky wanted to do it, Putin didn’t. Now Zelensky wants to and Putin is a question mark. We’re going to have to come down very, very strong,” he added. The Ukrainian president has long been open to efforts to meet and agree a ceasefire.

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Musk’s XAI Just Laid Off Hundreds of Workers Tasked With Training Grok

Published

5 hours ago

September 13, 2025

Jake Swearingen

Elon Musk‘s xAI laid off at least 500 workers on its data annotation team on Friday night.

The company sent out emails notifying employees that it was planning to downsize its team of generalist AI tutors, according to multiple messages viewed by Business Insider.

“After a thorough review of our Human Data efforts, we’ve decided to accelerate the expansion and prioritization of our specialist AI tutors, while scaling back our focus on general AI tutor roles. This strategic pivot will take effect immediately,” the email read. “As part of this shift in focus, we no longer need most generalist AI tutor positions and your employment with xAI will conclude.”

Workers were told that they would be paid through either the end of their contract or November 30, but their access to company systems would be terminated the day of the layoff notice.

The data annotation team is xAI’s largest team. The workers play a key role in developing Grok by teaching the chatbot how to understand the world by contextualizing and categorizing raw data.

The main Slack room used by data annotators had more than 1,500 members on Friday afternoon; screenshots viewed by Business Insider Friday evening showed that number down to a little over 1,000, with that number continuing to decline over the course of reporting this story.

On Friday night, xAI posted on X that it was hiring for roles and plans to grow its team of specialist AI tutors by “10X.”

Specialist AI tutors at xAI are adding huge value. We will immediately surge our Specialist AI tutor team by 10x!

We are hiring across domains like STEM, finance, medicine, safety, and many more. Come join us to help build truth-seeking AGI!https://t.co/htpc2RijLG

— xAI (@xai) September 13, 2025

The layoff notices were sent out only a few days after several senior-level employees, including the team’s former head, recently had their Slack accounts deactivated, Business Insider reported earlier this week.

In the days that followed, workers were pulled into one-on-ones to review their responsibilities, projects, and achievements, nine workers told Business Insider. They were asked if there were any coworkers they wanted to highlight for their hard work, the workers said.

XAI told workers on Thursday night to prepare for a reorganization of the data annotation team.

In a team-wide announcement on Thursday night, the company asked some workers to drop everything and focus on a series of tests to determine their roles at the company going forward, asking staff to complete them by Friday morning West Coast time. The tests would be used to sort annotators and their supervisors based on their strengths and interests, according to a screenshot viewed by Business Insider.

The notice for tutors to prepare for testing was posted by Diego Pasini, who ten workers said recently became the team’s leader. Pasini asked workers to take at least one test by the following morning. The tests covered traditional domains like STEM, coding, finance, and medicine, as well as quirkier specialties like Grok’s “personality and model behavior” and “shitposters and doomscrollers.”

The company also listed tests for workers aiming to improve the chatbot’s safety, including by “red teaming” the bot, as well as tests dedicated to audio and video content.

Pasini joined xAI in January, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is “on leave” from his undergraduate studies at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, his LinkedIn shows.

Pasini and a representative for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The announcement said the tests were aimed at supervisors and generalist tutors. XAI divides its teams between STEM, coding, finance, legal, and media specialties, as well as a large pool of generalist tutors who are tasked with a wide range of assignments, from annotating video and audio to writing.

Two workers said the STEM and coding tests took place on CodeSignal, a skills assessment platform, while other tests were hosted on Google Forms.

More than 200 workers responded to Pasini’s message with a green check-mark emoji, and over 100 replied to the post with questions and comments, according to a screenshot viewed by Business Insider.

One worker expressed frustration with the short time span that was given for the tests, according to a screenshot viewed by Business Insider.

“Doing this after people have gone home for the day is pretty shady,” the worker wrote. The worker’s Slack account was deactivated shortly after, multiple workers said.

Do you work for xAI or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gkay@businessinsider.com or Signal at 248-894-6012. Use a personal email address, a nonwork device, and nonwork WiFi; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

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