Turki Alalshikh realizes Netflix is the perfect platform on which to showcase some of the best young, hungry fighters in boxing.
The head of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority thus announced a list of potential participants on the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford undercard Tuesday night through his X account. Junto Nakatani, The Ring’s bantamweight champ, lightweight contender Abdullah Mason and super middleweight contender Christian Mbilli were among the undefeated fighters he mentioned.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, will move up two weight classes to challenge Mexico’s
Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) for his Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles September 13 at a venue to be determined in Las Vegas.
Alalshikh announced earlier Tuesday that Netflix, which boasts more than 300 million subscribers globally, will stream the Alvarez-Crawford card worldwide.
“The world will be watching Riyadh Season’s Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight of the century on Netflix,” Alalshikh wrote on X. “And for that, I want to load the undercard with young, hungry fighters who deserve the chance to perform under the bright lights. These are some of the names I hope to see fighting in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, led by The Ring [118-pound] champion Junto [Nakatani]. If you are interested, you and your teams know how to find me.”
Alalshikh’s list, in order of how he wrote it, includes:
Junto Nakatani (bantamweight; 31-0, 24 KOs)
Christian Mbilli (super middleweight; 28-0, 23 KOs)
Mohammed Alakel (lightweight; 4-0)
Reito Tsutsumi (featherweight; 1-0)
Justin Viloria (junior lightweight; 9-0, 7 KOs)
Emiliano Alvarado (junior featherweight; 7-0, 5 KOs)
Jamar Talley (2-0, 2 KOs)
Abdullah Mason (lightweight; 19-0, 17 KOs)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mbilli has a fight scheduled
for June 27. He is set to oppose Poland’s Maciej Sulecki (33-3, 13 KOs) in a 12-round WBO super middleweight elimination match at Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada.
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.