Loading ...Saudi Arabian Cultural Festival Has Become a Platform for Boxing’s Revival
By: Jake Harris / Arab America Contributing Writer
In recent years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made efforts to use its sovereign wealth fund to invest in sports, and other forms of entertainment. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) has made notable investments in Golf with the creation of the LIV Golf Tour. The tour is the first notable counterpart to the hegemony of the PGA Tour. The PIF also purchased and transformed Newcastle United FC, a storied soccer club in Northern England. Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Boxing has been waiting for a revival, seen by some as declining simultaneously with the UFC’s rise. A sport surviving on the nostalgia of legendary figures like Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson. Notable critiques of modern boxing are the politics of greedy promoters. Fighters and their promoters are more reluctant to take challenging fights in fear of losing the precious undefeated record.
Turki Alalshikh is the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) in the Saudi government. In 2019, the GEA introduced Riyadh Season, an October-March, yearly festival of sports, music, and cultural events. Foreign travel statistics have indicated that there was a considerable increase in non-domestic flights during this period. This would suggest the goal of increasing tourism to Saudi Arabia is thus far, working as planned.
While Riyadh Season is a collection of entertainment events, the festival has become known as a platform to stage the biggest fights in boxing. In its opening season, Turki Alalshikh promoted a boxing match between arguably the most powerful MMA puncher in the world, Francis Ngannou, and boxing’s heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Critics initially dubbed the fight as a total mismatch. Tyson Fury had been boxing for years while Ngannou’s background was in a different sport entirely. Tyson Fury ended up winning the fight despite being shockingly knocked down.
Boxing fans have been waiting since 2000 for an undisputed heavyweight championship fight. To put it simply, a fight for every championship belt in the heavyweight division. In late 2023, Riyadh Season negotiated to stage a historic bout between undefeated champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As has been noted, it had taken 24 years for a fight of this magnitude to take place which is a testament to the problems that had been plaguing the sport. The fight was a huge commercial success netting over 1.5 million pay-per-view buys making the rematch a no-brainer financially.
Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Turki’s entrance into the sport of boxing is the fact that he’s a genuine fan of the sport. Turki is a boxing purist who not only has a personal incentive to further the interest of his country, but also an incentive to further the interests of the sport of boxing as a whole, leaving it in a better state than he found it. Turki is skeptical of the rise of celebrities and influencers who are novices in the ring putting on large pay-per-view fights. He wants to be a promoter who puts on shows with the absolute best the sport has to offer. He was critical of the fight between former Youtuber Jake Paul, and Mike Tyson, who despite his heroics in the sport, is 58 years of age. Mike Tyson also had publicly known health issues leading up to the fight.
Turki Alalshikh’s future plans for his involvement in boxing involve revolutionary changes to the landscape of the sport. Turki is involved in a massive plan in collaboration with Dana White, president of the UFC to create a new boxing league called “TKO Boxing”. The project aims at unifying the sport of boxing similar to how MMA has been unified under the UFC. A more unified promotion makes it easier to make big fights between the top names in the sport. The First TKO Boxing event will take place this fall in Las Vegas. Future Hall of Famers Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford will share the ring.
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