Category World News

Even in a city known for staging some of boxing’s greatest fights, the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford match stands nearly alone.

It will be the first fight at 5-year-old Allegiant Stadium, the Saturday night showdown underscoring the magnitude of an event that will have implications for both boxers trying to further strengthen their Hall of Fame-worthy careers.

Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 knockouts), as is typically the case when the Mexican great fights in his boxing home of Las Vegas, will have the vast majority of the crowd behind him as he defends his unified super middleweight championship. The 35-year-old is a -175 favourite at BetMGM Sportsbook.

“This fight for me is big,” Alvarez said. “It’s one of the biggest fights of my career for sure.”

Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) is moving up two weight classes, and the 37-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, already has captured two unified division titles. No male fighter has accomplished that feat in three classes.

“This is a massive fight,” Crawford said. “It’s talked about all over the world right now.”

Alvarez and Crawford talk of the town in Las Vegas

The city known as the “Fight Capital of the World” is used to hosting big-time matches, but there was no stadium like Allegiant to house some of the great bouts of the past.

Resorts such as Caesars Palace’s outdoor arena, The Mirage and Las Vegas Hilton hosted some of the more notable fights in 1980s and 1990s, before giving way to MGM Grand Garden Arena and then T-Mobile Arena.

Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010, has booked many of those matches, but he’s not involved with this one. UFC CEO and President Dana White and Riyadh Season are promoting this card.

“I think it’s right up there with the great fights in Las Vegas history,” Trampler said. “You’ve got two champions fighting. There’s a lot of storylines – Crawford moving up in weight, Canelo hoping to cement his legacy. But beyond all that, on paper it’s a tremendous matchup. It’s two contrasting styles, two contrasting fan bases. It’s got all the ingredients.”

Kevin Iole, who covered combat sports for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Yahoo! Sports, noted many other major fights in this city included star power in both corners.

Muhammad Ali fought Larry Holmes in 1980, Marvelous Marvin Hagler took on Thomas Hearns in 1985, Sugar Ray Leonard met Roberto Duran in 1989, and Mike Tyson faced Evander Holyfield in 1996 and 1997. More recently, Floyd Mayweather Jr faced Manny Pacquiao in 2015.

“Crawford doesn’t reach the level of stardom,” Iole said. “He will if he wins, but going into this fight, he’s not as big as a Sugar Ray Leonard was. Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard, even an Oscar De La Hoya, those guys were just bigger names. So when they had their biggest fights here, those guys were bigger because of their names.”

Alvarez is unquestionably the bigger draw, a point Crawford has conceded.

But even Alvarez finds himself fighting in a different era and in a different atmosphere than many previous champions.

“Yes, Canelo is the biggest star in boxing today, but boxing isn’t the same sport that it was in the 1980s,” Iole said. “So I think that mitigates it a little bit, but I would say without question, that this is one of the biggest fights in Las Vegas history.”

Will Alvarez-Crawford be a fight for the ages?

The ultimate test is what happens in the ring. It could be a night that will be forgotten quickly or it could go down in history.

“There’s a reason there’s going to be 50,000 or 60,000 people there,” Trampler said. “That’s because everyone wants to see it. It’s going to be quite the event, the biggest one of the year in Las Vegas for sure.”

Alvarez has been asked many times in recent years whether he would fight WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez.

He was asked again at Thursday’s news conference.

“I never say no to anything,” Alvarez said. “We’ll see later, but I’m 100% focused on this fight.”

Those with a Netflix subscription can watch this fight rather than shell out $90 or $100 on pay-per-view, which could be more of the norm going forward.

This is White’s first foray into boxing, and he doesn’t plan to make it his last. The UFC reached a seven-year deal with Paramount last month, going away from the PPV model and making its numbered cards available to those who subscribe to Paramount+.

Callum Walsh (14-0, 11 KOs) of Ireland meets Fernando Vargas Jr. (17-0, 15 KOs) of Las Vegas in the co-main event. Vargas Senior was an IBF, IBA and WBC super welterweight champion.

NATO is deploying additional fighter jets and a naval vessel to eastern Europe under a new program called Eastern Sentry. The military bloc shot down Russian drones over Polish territory earlier this week in a large-scale violation of the military bloc’s airspace.

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly backed a resolution reviving a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, less than 24 hours after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would never be a Palestinian state.

The “New York Declaration”, which outlines “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards a two-state solution, was adopted on Friday by 142 votes in favour, 10 against – including Israel and key ally the United States – and 12 abstentions.

Presented by France and Saudi Arabia, the seven-page document calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution”.

It also orders Palestinian group Hamas, which runs the government in Gaza, to “free all hostages”, stipulating that it must “end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority … in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State”.

Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed Saudi-French efforts to create an “actionable plan” towards a two-state solution. The ministry also called for “activating all mechanisms to end the Israeli colonial occupation” and “achieve the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people”.

Attempt to ‘take negotiation process forward’

The UN’s ringing endorsement of the two-state solution came amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza, one day after Netanyahu signed off on a settlement expansion plan in the occupied West Bank that would make any future Palestinian state virtually impossible.

Reporting from New York, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey said that the vote showed “an incredible amount of pushback from the international community”.

“This shows mounting concern over a lack of progress on … talks, and an attempt by the international community to take the negotiation process forward,” she said.

The vote precedes an upcoming UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on September 22 in New York, in which French President Emmanuel Macron and several other leaders have promised to formally recognise the Palestinian state.

While 146 members of the UN already back a Palestinian state, another 10 or so, including France, Norway, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom are expected to join their ranks later this month.

“Crucially, European nations who have been more reluctant to do so under the pressure of the United States and Israel, [are] showing the concerns that the situation on the ground there is becoming all the more dire, no progress is being made,” said Al Jazeera’s Saloomey.

Israel derailing peace efforts

Israel rejected the declaration after the landmark vote, slamming it as “disgraceful”.

The vote has “proven how much the General Assembly is a political circus detached from reality”, said Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein in a post on X, criticising the resolution for not calling Hamas a “terrorist organisation”.

The vote took place in a week in which Israel has been on particularly bellicose form, dialling up regional tensions with a number of deadly strikes across the Middle East, targeting Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Tunisia and Qatar in parallel with its attacks on Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

On Thursday, UN Security Council members condemned Israel for its strike on lead mediator Qatar, which killed five members of Hamas in Doha, who were discussing a new deal proposed by US President Donald Trump.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who had flown in for the UNSC emergency session, had blasted Israel’s leaders as “arrogant”, adding that the timing of the attacks during mediation efforts showed that the country intended to derail them.

As the UN voted on Friday to advance the two-state solution, people in the Gaza Strip continued to endure heavy artillery fire and bombing from Israeli forces, with Friday’s death toll hitting 59 just after the results were announced.

The Israeli army said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City this week as part of its takeover plan, targeting more than 500 sites. It said it would “continue to intensify the pace of strikes in a focused manner … with the aim of hitting Hamas’ infrastructure”.

Israel has attacked a school in the Al Shati refugee camp that was a makeshift shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City.

Israeli air and artillery fire continue to bombard Gaza, killing at least 59 people on Friday, including 14 members of the same family.

Among those, 42 people were killed in Gaza City and the north of the besieged territory, according to medical sources.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said it was another “sleepless night” in the area.

“Israeli forces are using remotely operated explosive devices in neighbourhoods, coupled with heavy air and artillery attacks covering much of the eastern part of Gaza City,” he reported.

“The Israeli military is also using the intimidating tactic of illuminating the skies above Gaza City. For the second night in a row, they used flare bombs, creating fear among displaced people already forced to seek shelter anywhere they can find it.”

The 14 members of the same family – the Sultan family – who were killed, also died in Gaza City in a single Israeli attack on their home in the at-Twam area.

Palestinian group Hamas condemned Friday’s air raids and the strike on the Sultans, accusing Israel of waging a campaign of “terror and organised war crimes” through the destruction of residential towers and targeting of civilians, saying such actions are in violation of international law.

It also decried continued global “inaction and complicity”, saying it is only emboldening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to intensify genocide and forced displacement against Palestinians.

In Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood, Israeli drone fire killed a child and wounded others, a source at the nearby al-Ahli Hospital told Al Jazeera.

Elsewhere, Israeli attacks destroyed a school located in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza.

“Many people had taken refuge in it, but have now been forced back into the streets one more time,” Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud added.

Meanwhile, in western Gaza City, an Israeli attack targeted a cluster of residences, including a residential tower across the street from a UNRWA medical facility, Mahmoud reported.

“As far as we know, the tower is still standing, though it sustained a great deal of damage. But the cluster of homes was completely destroyed.”

In a statement on X on Friday, the Israeli military said it struck 500 targets in Gaza City this week, as it advances an assault to forcibly displace about one million residents and seize control of the area.

Israel’s security cabinet in August approved a plan by Netanyahu for the military occupation of Gaza City, which has displaced tens of thousands of people.

However, Gaza’s Government Media Office on Friday said more than 1.3 million Palestinians, including 350,000 children, remain in Gaza City and the north, despite Israel’s relentless bombardment and forced evacuation threats.

‘This is not life’

As Israel pushes to displace residents of Gaza City to the south of the enclave, Palestinians have been saying that nowhere is safe in the territory.

Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into makeshift tents in the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, designated by Israel as a so-called “humanitarian zone”, which lacks water access and sanitation, among other amenities.

“This is not life,” Shade al-Wawi, a displaced Palestinian, told Al Jazeera from al-Mawasi. “We cannot do it any more.”

“We are smelling dust, and with it, smelling grief and death,” he said.

In less than a month, more than 70,000 people have made the arduous journey from northern to southern Gaza following Israel’s move to forcibly evacuate Palestinians from “combat zones”, according to UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram.

“This is already an incredibly crowded area, with hundreds of thousands of people here, with not enough services or supplies to meet their needs – let alone the influx of people coming from the north,” he said of al-Mawasi.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from al-Mawasi, said Palestinians there were facing a “desperate reality”.

“Families are told to come here, but are turning back because there are no spaces left for them to ensure a dignified life, which has been stripped away by Israel’s repeated evacuation orders and mass bombing,” he reported.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 64,000 people, according to local health authorities, caused a hunger crisis and wider humanitarian disaster, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble.

Israel releases Gaza prisoners

Separately on Friday, 13 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza were released by Israel after months of detention under what medical and local sources described as harsh and degrading conditions, Anadolu news agency reported.

The detainees were freed at the Kissufim crossing east of central Gaza and immediately transferred by International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) vehicles to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah due to their deteriorating health.

Medical personnel said the men arrived in frail condition, suffering from malnutrition and physical injuries consistent with abuse during captivity.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, a nongovernmental group, has said thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been swept up in mass arrests since Israel’s offensive began on October 7, 2023, many subjected to forced disappearances and prolonged incommunicado detention.

Qatari PM to meet Trump

As conditions deteriorate on the ground, the UN General Assembly on Friday voted overwhelmingly to endorse a declaration on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

Separately, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is in New York meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly President Donald Trump, days after US ally Israel attacked and killed Hamas members in Doha.

The attack on Tuesday was widely condemned in the Middle East and by the UN Security Council as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge, and derail efforts to broker a truce in Gaza.