Terence Crawford completed his two-division step up by tipping in at same weight as Canelo Alvarez ahead of their bout in Las Vegas.

Undisputed super middleweight world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and American challenger Terence Crawford faced-off for one last time before their blockbuster bout at a raucous ceremonial weigh-in on Friday.

Both were 167.5 pounds (75.9kg), half a pound under the super middleweight limit, at the closed-door official weigh-in on Friday morning.

They then both tipped the scales at the same weight before about 10,000 fans at T-Mobile Arena hours later.

It was a career-high weight for Crawford, a four-division champion who is jumping up from super welterweight in the hope of becoming the first man to win undisputed titles in three weight classes.

Mexico’s Alvarez, 35, and Crawford, 37, squared off for a staredown of several seconds before they were separated by Dana White, the mastermind of UFC, who has teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season to promote the fight that will be streamed globally by Netflix.

The event capped months of intense promotion for the fight by both boxers and White, a personal friend of United States President Donald Trump, who aims to hold a mixed martial arts event at the White House in 2026.

“I’ve prepared for everything,” Alvarez assured the partisan crowd, there to back him on the weekend before Mexican Independence Day.

Alvarez is the only fighter to hold all four major belts in the super middleweight division.

He has fought at 168 or above for almost seven years and has won six fights in a row since stepping up to light heavyweight in May 2022, losing a unanimous decision to Russian Dmitry Bivol.

Although it’s been nearly four years since he scored a knockout, he’ll go into the ring a favorite over Crawford – who had never fought above 147 pounds until last year when he weighed 153.5 in a unanimous decision victory over Israil Madrimov.

“I feel very good, I can’t wait for tomorrow,” Crawford said to boos from the stands.

Crawford, 41-0 with 31 knockouts, has owned all four belts in the super lightweight and welterweight divisions.

“It’s going to be close,” Alberto Medina, who travelled with his family from Ensenada in Baja California, told the AFP news agency. “It will be decided by details because Crawford looks confident.”

But Mexican American Mateo Diaz, a boxing enthusiast from Boise, Idaho, believes Crawford can make history.

“I think Crawford will win because of his superior skills,” he said. “If in the early rounds it becomes clear he can withstand Canelo’s punches, he’ll make it to the end of the fight and win by decision.”

Knockout or decision, Crawford said Thursday his aim is a clear victory.

“My focus is to go out there and do what I do best and that’s win the fight decisively – and that’s what I’m looking forward to doing come Saturday.”

Nigerian chef and former Guinness World Record holder, Hilda Baci, has attempted to make the world’s largest pot of jollof rice, a popular West African dish.

Thousands of people gathered in Lagos to watch the food influencer’s latest world record bid, after once holding the 2023 title for the longest cooking marathon – an exhausting 93 hours and 11 minutes – nearly four days.

Her gigantic jollof rice recipe included 4,000kg (8,800 lb) of rice, 500 cartons of tomato paste and 600kg of onions – all poured into a custom-made pot of almost 23,000 litres.

The dish took several hours to cook and now must be validated by the Guinness World Record with photo and video evidence of the achievement.

Baci, 28, told BBC Pidgin that it took her one year to plan how she would tackle the mammoth challenge.

“We are the giant of Africa, and jollof is a food that everybody knows Africans for,” she said.

“It would make sense if we had the biggest pot of jollof rice, it would be nice for the country.”

Manufacturing the giant steel vessel to hold her dish took a culinary team of 300 people two months to make.

Working with a group of assistants wielding massive wooden spatulas, Baci’s crowning dish was later distributed for everyone to enjoy.

Jollof rice is a staple of Nigerian cuisine, featuring rice simmered in a tomato based sauce, often paired with meat or seafood.

Hilda Baci won a competition for her version of jollof rice in 2021, and then became a national sensation in 2023 when she claimed the cooking marathon record.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – When cricketers from India and Pakistan step onto the field for their Asia Cup 2025 match on Sunday, a lot more than two points will be on the line, according to cricket fans and experts.

The match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium will be played under the cloud of lingering hostility after their intense four-day conflict in May.

While an all-out war between the two cross-border nations was prevented after an internationally brokered ceasefire, a sense of bitterness remains.

“People in India have been very angry about the match ever since this fixture was confirmed,” Kudip Lal, an Indian cricket writer, told Al Jazeera.

“They feel that it’s not right to play this match while the overall relationship between both countries is so strained,” he explained.

“It’s the worst time for an India-Pakistan match.”

‘Why play cricket in the aftermath of war?’

Lal said that fans in India see the fixture as a money-making avenue for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), whom they blame for trying to cash in on the profit generated by these high-profile clashes.

Lal believes the BCCI, widely regarded as the most wealthy and powerful cricket board in the world, could have “easily skipped” the match.

“If the Indian government has stopped issuing visas to Pakistanis, if the diplomatic ties are suspended and Pakistanis visiting India have been sent back, then why have the cricketers been asked to play this match in the aftermath of a war?” Lal questioned.

He expressed fears of a backlash in case India lose the Group A fixture.

Whenever India and Pakistan play, emotions run high and a loss is not taken well by fans on either side of the border.

In the past decades, players’ homes have been torched, their family members have been threatened, and effigy-burning protests have been carried out on the streets.

The current political climate between India and Pakistan is worse than it has been in several decades.

Shared laughs and ‘bromance’ of the past

Despite the political deadlock between the nuclear-armed neighbours, the recent on-and-off-field exchanges between players have been fairly cheerful.

When India last played Pakistan in the Asia Cup in September 2023, the two key talking points were Virat Kohli’s utter dominance of Pakistani bowlers and the countless feel-good moments shared between both teams.

The match was played in the middle of the monsoon season in Sri Lanka, where fans cheered for both teams regardless of their allegiances and danced away their worries during the countless rain delays.

Pakistani fans were seen declaring their nation’s love for Kohli, and the festive atmosphere spilled over onto the pitch.

There were memorable player-to-player exchanges that were plucked right out of a social media manager’s dream.

Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi swapped his on-field aggression for off-field warmth as he handed India’s Jasprit Bumrah a gift hamper for his newborn son. Cue millions of retweets and shares on X and Instagram.

Social media was also flooded with reels highlighting the “bromance” between Kohli and Pakistan allrounder Shadab Khan.

This time, however, experts do not foresee similar public displays of goodwill and friendliness.

“The friendship and warmth seen in the past will not be on display because anything can be blown out of proportion by impassioned fans, and the smallest move can agitate the public,” Sami Ul Hasan, former head of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) media and communications department, said ahead of the match.

When Pakistan beat India by 10 wickets at the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan were warmly embraced by Kohli, and all three shared a hearty laugh while walking off the pitch.

“We can’t expect similar scenes to unfold on Sunday,” Hasan said.

“The interpretation and optics of an overtly friendly encounter could go very wrong, and things could blow up on either side of the border.”

Mixing cricket with politics

Hasan, who has worked with cricketers and cricket officials, said the players will attempt to bat away political questions by saying they are not meant to deal with political matters.

“Sports and politics can never be separated, but athletes aren’t politicians, so they can’t be expected to act like diplomats.”

Despite the heated atmosphere and tense build-up to the fixture, some fans believe the match can still be seen as just another India-Pakistan match.

“Politics shouldn’t be mixed with cricket, which has always helped ease the tensions, so why should it be used as an avenue to propagate politics?” Asad Khan, a Pakistani fan, said.

“When you bring political agendas into cricket, it ruins the game and causes unnecessary stress for the players.”

Khan urged fans to put aside the politically and religiously motivated chants at cricket stadiums and instead enjoy a now-rare India-Pakistan match.

Given the years-long halt in bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan, their fixtures are limited to multination tournaments.

Cricket fans are hopeful that both teams will not give in to the politically-charged atmosphere and help lighten the mood.

“The players should do their jobs as cricketers and the fans should treat it as just another game,” Ali, a Pakistan fan, said, told Al Jazeera in Dubai.

“Why must the cricketers worry about what happened on the border four months ago,” Ali

But cricket expert Lal believes otherwise.

“When the two teams enter the field on Sunday, they can’t be expected to be completely detached from the conflict. It will play on their minds.”

A hot and humid September evening in Dubai cannot be blamed solely for turning the “Ring of Fire” stadium into a cauldron.

Come Sunday, the latest chapter in a decades-long bitter rivalry will have the players and fans on the edge.