Professional boxing is undergoing a major revolution. For many years, numerous boxing organizations seemed to be in a state of suspended animation: the minimum possible number of major fights and absolute champions, but there were many scandals. Rival promoters and TV channels did not even intend to come to an agreement, so both boxers and sports fans suffered. But everything changed with huge, no, even huge amounts of money that came from Saudi Arabia. The face of the professional boxing revolution was a respectable man, Turki Al ash-Sheikh.
We didn’t start with boxing.
Al Ash-Sheikh, 43, is the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority. Turki has held this position for six years, but he has been working in sports for much longer: he headed football associations, organized the Islamic Solidarity Games, and is the honorary president of a couple of football clubs. By the way, Al Ash-Sheikh also writes poetry brilliantly, but now the official’s creative forces are directed towards professional boxing. And his actions are closely followed by everyone associated with classical martial arts.
Saudi Arabia has never shied away from professional sports – even Mohammed Ali was there once, which caused incredible enthusiasm. But about 10 years ago, the Saudis took up sport for real, as it became an important part of the state’s new political and economic strategy – investment in professional sports was supposed to improve Saudi Arabia’s image. Naturally, we started with football itself and invested in the purchase of the Newcastle club, Lionel Messi as a tourism ambassador and other football projects. Gradually, their hands reached into professional boxing.
We study the tactics of a new market player:
Saudis are taking a key step to take over boxing. Billions will lure remaining stars to the East
The first big boxing events were two Anthony Joshua rematches – against Andy Ruiz and Alexander Usik. But then it seemed like a one-off event, especially since the Saudis acted more like silent partners of eminent British promoters. But the super fight between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou was actually organized and carried out by the Turki Al ash-Sheikh team independently as part of the famous Riyadh Season. Of course, there were some annoying mistakes, but the goal was achieved – Saudi promoters were talked about all over the world.
Usik – Fury
Then Al-Sheikh did something incredible: he organized the first fight for the absolute heavyweight championship in 25 years, where Alexander Usyk and Tyson Fury faced each other. Then came the fights between Dmitry Bivol, Terence Crawford and Deontay Wilder, a fight between Bivol and Beterbiev is planned, and, most importantly, the Saudis want to completely reshape the world of boxing. Al-Sheikh’s team plans to create a unified world league, where the best boxers will regularly face each other. Turki is already friends with almost all major promoters and rewards them generously for their cooperation. Even former enemies Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn now smile sweetly at each other and organize joint tournaments.
Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn
Photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images
How were the Saudis able to change boxing so quickly? It’s simple: under the “dollar ram” all obstacles crumble, even those that seemed insurmountable. There has always been a lot of money in boxing, but big business sharks had about the same opportunities and rarely made concessions. Now there is a new force in boxing, which has an order of magnitude more money, and this is not a figure of speech. Fury and Usyk received, according to various estimates, from 50 to 90 million dollars each for their fight. How much the promoters and boxing organizations received is classified information, but no one was definitely offended.
dangerous calls
In a short time, the Saudis managed to change and, to be honest, decorate the world of boxing. Without rich Arab promoters, we would hardly have seen the Fury-Usyk fight and many other brilliant fights. Unfortunately, in any situation there are dangerous factors and the dominance of a new player on the professional boxing market is already beginning to confuse. For example, it is confusing due to the abrupt removal of some names from the cooperation lists. Al ash-Sheikh had already fallen out with several star athletes and announced that he did not want to work with them. In particular, the “black list” already includes such big names as Saul Alvarez, Gervonta Davis and Timofey Tszyu. How can a league of the best boxers be organized without such stars?
History of the conflict:
A dream tournament is being prepared in Saudi Arabia. But the superfight between Bivol and Beterbiev will be lost there
“It seems to me that this guy doesn’t understand anything about sports, which doesn’t stop him from imposing his strange conditions on top athletes. Besides, Turki is too emotional, if you don’t follow his orders, you’ll be thrown out. Canelo and Tszyu disagreed somewhere, and look, these guys are already thrown in the trash. They won’t be returned. Al ash-Sheikh is too emotional and at the same time unprofessional. What is his desire to bring David Benavidez and Terence Crawford together in the ring?” Boxing Scene quotes sports lawyer Kurt Emhoff as saying.
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Apart from Turki’s “bad mood”, there are other issues that confuse boxing fans. For example, there is a non-zero chance that the money tap will be abruptly shut off. Saudi Arabia periodically reduces investment in various sports, so why should boxing be an exception? Now classical martial arts are still in relative balance: even if a big promoter goes bankrupt, his boxers will find a place next to other bigwigs. If the Saudis crush the entire top of professional boxing and then abruptly shut down, boxing will not recover from such a blow for a long time.
Saudis don’t want democracy?
The threat of a sports dictatorship cannot be ruled out. It will hardly be very good if all professional boxing is tailored to the moods and desires of one person. We need some kind of large-scale structure that can function not only under the manual control of Al ash-Sheikh. But the Saudis are trying not to talk too much about creating a full-fledged world system. Only castles in the air, built with huge sums of money, do not last long.
Turks Al ash-Sheikh
Photo: Tom Dulat/Getty Images
“The anti-doping system, the fight between the best and the best, the reconciliation of British promoters – Al ash-Sheikh is trying to implement or has already implemented many good ideas. But I am confused by the ominous signs of dictatorship that we see. And we know how dictatorships end. This is a very worrying sign, considering the country where the money comes from. A lot of bad things have happened in Saudi Arabia, we must remember how this scam could end,” says renowned sports journalist Donald McRae.
It’s not all bad
To sum up. Right now, Saudi investment is a real blessing for boxing. Turki Al ash-Sheikh and his team have already done a lot for this great sport and plan to do even more. Is there any risk? Of course there is. You can’t do a lot of work without big mistakes, and any revolution carries a serious danger of destruction. Professional boxing has been in need of restructuring for a long time and it is happening right now. Let’s sit back and see where it takes us.
