After years of big fights falling through or never even reaching the negotiating table due to the conflicting interests of promoters and television networks, the spectacle of boxing’s enigmatic new ringmaster has cast an irresistible spell over the sport.
Turki Alalshikh is the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA), a position to which he was appointed in December 2018 by King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
Over the past six months, this fairly bland-sounding administrative role has cast Alalshikh as the genie in a lamp for boxing fans, who have been granted way more than three wishes.
October’s ‘Battle of the Baddest’ showdown between WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and former UFC champion and boxing novice Francis Ngannou was the curtain-raiser for the Alalshikh-curated Riyadh Season — the multi-faceted sports and entertainment festival that forms part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.
On the face of it, this was a novelty fight. A gimmick. As such, the GEA made sure the long-awaited undisputed heavyweight title showdown between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk was announced before the October 28 fight night. All Fury had to do was avoid catastrophe against Ngannou.
He did, barely. But the ripples in the pond from the Ngannou left hook that dumped the undefeated Gyspy King on the seat of his trunks have changed the modern boxing landscape beyond all recognition.
WATCH: Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou, exclusively live on DAZN
What boxing fights are in Saudi Arabia?
A sheepish and seemingly ill-conditioned Fury eeked out a split-decision win against Ngannou, narrowly avoiding being the victim of probably the biggest upset in sports history.
But facial damage sustained, not to mention other wear and tear to body and ego, meant the December 23 date for Fury vs. Usyk was a no-go.
Normally in boxing that would mean, at best, frustration and delay; at worst, the fight not happening at all.
But Alalshikh had an events programme to deliver, so there had to be boxing in Riyadh on December 23. That’s when things got really interesting.
Securing a fight to match the magnitude of the first heavyweight undisputed contest for a quarter of a century was impossible. So why not get… everyone else to fight?
A hastily assembled “Day of Reckoning” card brought together a plethora of heavyweight talent, with Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder in the co-main events.
The plan was for both of the star attractions to win and set up a long-awaited grudge match on March 9. Once again, Alalshikh got a taste of heavyweight boxing’s intoxicating unpredictability as Joshua produced his most convincing display in years to batter Otto Wallin to defeat in five rounds, while inactivity caught up with Wilder, who was befuddled and beaten over the 12-round distance by a rejuvenated Joseph Parker.
Once again, the mantra of “the show must go on” held sway. And so we have ‘Knockout Chaos’ pitting Joshua against Ngannou on March 8. At the lauch press conference for that fight in London in January, Alalshikh addressed the throng from a balcony, announced that Arthur Beterbiev would face Dmitry Bivol in an undisputed light heavyweight showdown, revealed a bespoke undisputed heavyweight belt for the Fury vs. Usyk winner and instructed Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren to shake on a 5 vs. 5 card featuring prime talent from their Matchroom and Queensberry stables.
That’s right, the sworn enemies of British boxing in the 21st century are now collaborating under the instructions of “His Excellency”, with the Saudi fight nights simply being shown across their affiliated broadcast platforms.
Any impression that Saudi cash could suddenly obliterate all of boxing’s pesky immovable obstacles was only underlined after Fury suffered a cut in sparring to nix the February 17 date with Usyk. The mass wailing in response to that news had barely reached full volume before Alalshikh appeared alongside Fury on the MMA Hour, with Usyk also on the video call to nail down a rescheduled May 18 slot for ‘Ring of Fire’.
He also confirmed Beterbiev vs. Bivol would be on June 1, with the Matchroom vs. Queensberry matchups serving as the undercard. The weight classes and fights for that will be announced during Joshua vs. Ngannou fightweek.
Are you all keeping up?
MORE: Fury vs Usyk rescheduled for May 18 with $ 10m penalty
Has Saudi Arabia taken over boxing?
All of this presents a very strong case to say that all roads in this grizzled old game now lead to the gleaming desert city of Riyadh.
Vision 2030 is part of the Saudi state’s wide-sweeping plans to diversify economically and culturally to increase its prominence on the world stage. Paying heavyweight prizefighters inordinate amounts of money to trade blows is currently a flagship part of these grand designs.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of sportswashing and, in truth, is fairly relaxed under those accusations of attempting to curry international favour and take attention from human rights abuses by investing in premium sports properties.
“If sportswashing [is] going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we’ll continue doing sportswashing,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News last September. “I don’t care. I have 1% GDP growth from sports and I’m aiming for another 1.5%. Call it whatever you want – we’re going to get that other 1.5%.”
The country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) owns an 80% stake in Premier League football team Newcastle United. It has bankrolled the arrival of global stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar in the Saudi Pro League and also set up the LIV Golf tour.
The issue with expanding into sports with long-established rules, norms and governance structures is that Saudi disruption has met with plenty of resistance. Boxing has always been the Wild West of global sport and, as such, dissenting voices have been hard to hear because fights are getting made and people are getting paid.
But before we chisel up the Las Vegas strip piece by piece and lay it for the launch of Riyadh Season 2024/25, it’s worth taking a breath.
This time last year, no one in boxing knew who Turki Alalshikh was. Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury had taken place in front of the great at the good at Diriyah Arena. This event was run by Skills Challenge Entertainment, the vehicle of Prince Khalid bin Abdulaziz.
Skills Challenge and Prince Khalid were the driving force behind Saudi boxing until he was suddenly left out in the cold and Alalshikh took the reins.
When massive projects are overseen by autocratic governments, changes of direction can be swift and abrupt. Hearn stages Bivol vs. Zurdo Ramirez in Abu Dhabi in November 2022 as the first of several planned fight nights in the Emirate. Matchroom have not been back.
Just because Alalshikh is the flavour of the month right now doesn’t necessarily make him any less expendable than Prince Khalid. The path to undisputed has been mapped out and the winner of Fury vs. Usyk will face the victor of Joshua vs. Ngannou later in the year, probably at the start of the next Riyadh Season swing. Boxing completed. Then what?
Also, while it’s true that some fights in the lower weights — such as the potentially explosive WBC featherweight showdown between Rey Vargas and Nick Ball — are set to feature on the forthcoming Saudi cards, heavyweights have generally been the only show in town. Australian cruiserweight star Jai Opetaia is a man in favour with Alalshikh, while Bivol faces Beterbiev having been the lightest fighter on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card.
MORE: Will Anthony Joshua fight in the UK again?
Is big-time boxing still in Las Vegas and the UK?
The old adage says that you take the temperature of boxing from the heavyweight division. Saudi has the big men in rude health right now, but there’s a plethora of great fights to be made beyond them and those can truly sustain the sport.
In the 1980s, Sugar Ray Leonard was a trailblazer in the United States, showing that fighters in the lighter and middle weights could make big bucks to rival anyone. His unforgettable battles with Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler defined an era.
While the talent drain to the NFL and NBA has led to tough times for heavyweight boxing in America, the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr, Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya continued to fly the flag planted by Leonard as the 20th century became the 21st.
Today, there is another cluster of fine fighters around these weight categories. Devin Haney will follow up his career-best victory over Regis Prograis with a New York date against Ryan Garcia, who lost his own moneyspinner against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis last year in Las Vegas, where Terence Crawford underscored his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport by dismantling welterweight rival Errol Spence.
Alalshikh was roundly dismissive of Davis’ tongue-in-cheek demands for “two Ferraris” to fight in Saudi, but he and others in this generation of American talent, such as Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson, are doing just fine.
Then there’s the biggest moneyspinner in the sport. So long as Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez remains committed to doing business in Vegas on Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence weekend then claims of Saudi dominance are overstated.
That’s not to say boxing in the United States does not have problems. Showtime joining fellow cable giant HBO in ending a long association with the sport last year hit like a left hook to the liver. It remains to be seen whether an alliance with Amazon resuscitates Al Haymon’s ailing PBC stable, which produced such a stellar 2023 schedule.
In the UK, the picture is complicated by the two leading promoters having thrown their lot in with Saudi. But that didn’t stop 12,000 tickets for the rematch between Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall selling out on the first day of open sale.
“It’s a balancing act,” Hearn told The Sporting News at the Taylor-Catterall 2 launch. “Because your job is to provide opportunities for the fighters. When there are opportunities for fighters to make a lot of money you have to follow suit.
“You can’t really say to a fighter ‘Guys, I really think you need to turn down this opportunity because we need to keep big fights in Britain’. It’s not really a conversation you can have. But us as a business, with Britain being a major part of our global market, we want to make sure we bring big fights here.”
MORE: Jack Catterall: Josh Taylor is concussed and confused. I’m going to beat him from pillar to post
These pros and cons in the two traditional western heartlands could lead us to overlook a boom time in a combat-crazy nation that has never had it so good.
Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue is Crawford’s closest rival in the P4P stakes and a two-weight undisputed champion — a status he has crafted by thrilling fans in sold-out arenas in his homeland.
‘The Monster’s’ brother Takuma Inoue is also a world champion a division down at bantamweight, while titleholders Kenshiro Teraji and Junto Nakatani have huge fights in their immediate futures.
It’s as strong a demonstration as any of boxing being a global sport, as it has been for well over a century. Saudi Arabia has been an invigorating and controversial addition to that picture, but those proclaiming a takeover should be wary of being taken in by a case of His Excellency’s new clothes.
