Saudi Money Has Reshaped The Boxing Landscape: But For Better Or Worse?

An insider’s view on Saudi Arabia and Turki Alalshikh’s boxing takeover.

Turki Alalshikh looks on during the Middleweight fight between Josh Kelly and Ishmael Davis, on the Riyadh Season - Wembley Edition on September 21, 2024 in London, England. He finally bows to Usyk, says he is the best boxer so far / Getty Images.

There was something gladiatorial inside the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. Turki Alalshikh — the chair of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, which is bankrolling the Riyadh Season events — stood ringside with his hands on his hips, bellowing inaudible instructions at fighters from first bell to last. 

In between shaking hands with dignitaries, waving for a top-up of refreshments and adjusting his keffiyeh, Turki would stalk the ring unbothered by any view he would restrict behind him and pull the strings of the puppet show he had created.

It was Turki's "vision" for Saudi Arabia that saw boxing's "Fight Card of the Century" piece together so seamlessly, and his personal investment in the evening's entertainment saw no limit. 

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For a majority of fights and fighters, it felt as though belts, records or even wins didn't matter. More so the opinion of the man that is referred to as "His Excellency" who sat two meters from the action, waiting to give the "Pollice verso" thumbs up or thumbs down as to whether he had been entertained.

If it's thumbs up, you'll be invited back with a healthy pay-packet awaiting. Thumbs down? And you could be frozen out of the immediate future of big boxing events.

This has been the story for the past couple of years now.

Since the construction of the Kingdom Arena was finished in October 2023, it (as well as it's sister site simply named "Arena") has hosted eight boxing events featuring names including Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk, Francis Ngannou, Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Yet the surrounding area of the venue that sits outside Riyadh's big attraction, Boulevard World, still feels unfinished.

Locating the entrance was akin to solving an Olympic steeplechase – hurdling construction work, sprinting across main roads and asking double-digits worth of fresh-faced staff directions before finally solving their convoluted riddles. Like a U.F.O landing in the desert, the colourful boxed arena penetrates the atmosphere arrogantly.

This big investment in the 'sweet science' of boxing isn't exactly a new thing. Boxing history is littered with mobs, gangsters and unsavory characters using the plight of fighting men and women to make a quick buck. It is often wrongly romanticized. But the feeling on the ground in Saudi Arabia is that this is one chapter that may not last as long as those before it...

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Fight week in Riyadh started like any other. The media circus scrambled for sound bites, managers wrestled their fighters away from exhaustion and hotel lobbies turned into photo opportunities and rumor mills. 

Mauricio Sulaiman — president of the World Boxing Council — proudly peacocked around with a new shiny belt that would be awarded to the winner of the undisputed light-heavyweight headliner between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol, welcoming the attention as he scrambles for headlines ahead of the IBF, WBO and WBA. 

Mauricio Sulaiman – president of the WBC - with a commemorative belt for the Beterbiev-Bivol winner / Lewis Watson

Trainers shadow-boxed at coffee counters, phones were glued to ears and the lesser-spotted boxers attempted to adjust their body clocks to the desert. Everything happens late in Riyadh, with nightly activity kicking off at 9 p.m.

This included an eventful final press conference on Thursday night, where news trickled through the grapevine that Daniel Dubois was ill and on the verge of pulling out of his IBF heavyweight title defence against challenger Joseph Parker. The three hours that followed had to be seen to be believed — if anyone had the phone number of any heavyweight with a pair of gloves, then they would be called and propositioned to fly to the Middle East.

Scottish-based Congolese heavyweight Martin Bakole was the lucky recipient of the Riyadh lottery, taking a fight with Parker on 48 hours notice, covering 3,800 miles on three domestic flights. Rumours were he bagged £3 million ($3.86 million) for his ~4 minutes of work on that Saturday night, so withhold your sympathy. 

Friday's weigh-in was less dramatic. Late-replacement to Shakur Stevenson, Josh Padley, was fitting solar panels on Tuesday before flying to Riyadh to step in for Floyd Schofield. He was spiky and confrontational to the American, grabbing his big moment with both hands. Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang struggled with his English, and told opponent Agit Kabayel that he was going to "bang him", which caused hysterics to the 280-pounder's confusion. 

Sandwiched in between under-allocated seats for members of Team Bivol and Team Beterbiev, I kept a low profile as both teams sized each other up. Nothing spilled over, but there was an undeniable tension in the chilled Riyadh air. Both men made weight successfully and were soon rehydrated thanks to electrolytes and loving chants of "BI-VOL, BI-VOL" and "AR-TUR, "AR-TUR".

As things wrapped up around 11 p.m and fighters were rushed back to hotels in a combination of golf carts and private cars as to avoid catching a cold. There was a rush for selfies with former champions including Roberto Duran, Lennox Lewis and Bernard Hopkins, all who we can assume had been paid handsomely to "work the room" over the week of events.

But outside this bubble of activity, Riyadh went about its week as normal. I asked every Uber driver across the week what they thought of the boxing and not a single one knew what I was talking about. Mention Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema to them, however, and conversation flowed until drop-off. 

Saudi Arabia isn't a country rich in boxing history, but that is something that is being challenged inside the new Mike Tyson Boxing Academy which sits proudly in between padel courts and a restaurant at Boulevard City. Esteemed British boxing trainer Joe Gallagher works from inside the gym hoping to promote the sport to a younger generation, spearheaded by Mohammed Alakel (3-0) and Ziyad Almaayouf (7-0) who both won on the preliminary undercard on Saturday night.

There is a lot of work to do. Football is a sport deeply embedded in the culture of Saudi Arabia, meaning their successful bid for the World Cup in 2034 will no doubt be a landmark event for the country. But boxing is likely to stay as a footnote until then, despite the investment that, currently, knows no limits from Turki Alalshikh.

There is a huge Ronnie O'Sullivan snooker academy around the corner from the gym boasting state of the art tables. All were empty except one being used by Liverpudlian boxer Liam Smith and a member of his team.

This sentiment continued into fight night. After eventually locating the entrance the lobby to the arena showed no signs of expense spared. Your typical food carts and coffee stalls were surrounded by boxing memorabilia, razzmatazz lighting and giant boxing gloves that acted as the perfect photo memento. The Saudi-bought Ring Magazine had its own stall. The Saudi-bought video game Undisputed had its own stall. Even Visit Saudi had its own stall - despite already visiting Saudi to be able to see it.

There was a distinct lack of locals in the patchy crowd, and plenty of empty seats that the TV cameras would have avoided like the plague. I spoke with Germans dressed in Saudi clothing, Icelandics, Dominicans and Spanish, but a majority of fans were from the United Kingdom or there in support of Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev. Whether that's from Russia, Canada, Kyrgyzstan or any of the other countries that these pound-for-pound stars represent. 

Beterbiev and Bivol face-off for a final time / Lewis Watson

I was interviewed by a Riyadh Season reporter. Three of her four questions were about Riyadh, Riyadh Season events and hospitality, alongside a token prediction for the main event.

The smattering of Saudi contingent made their voices most known when Turki Alalshikh was introduced to the crowd before the main event. He is considered an idol in these parts and was cheered to the rafters. "He has brought so much to the Kingdom in such a quick time," a local sat near me said. "He's putting on all these sports and music events and he isn't excluding anyone."

That's an opinion that has been challenged by plenty and a sentiment that will be under scrutiny the closer we edge towards the World Cup in 2034. Saudi Arabia criminalizes same-sex sexual activity between men and between women. The gender expression of trans people is also criminalized. Sentences include a maximum penalty of death and there is evidence of the law being enforced in recent years.

Back to a sporting context, voices in the women's side of boxing have also raised their concerns that these big cards out in Saudi Arabia may start to ignore women's contests.

“We’ve seen such a positive growth of women’s boxing over the past couple of years, it would be a shame for that bubble to burst,” the Norfolk-born featherweight Raven Chapman told KO on SI in the buildup to Saturday night's event.

“It [women’s boxing] has certainly slowed down over the last six months. Whether that is due to more control over the fight schedule from the Saudis, it is hard to comment.”

In October, the 31-year-old Briton became one of only four women to contest a professional boxing bout in Saudi Arabia, challenging Australia’s Skye Nicolson for the WBC featherweight world title.

“It’s a bit disappointing that there haven't been other women on these Saudi cards. Especially on what is supposed to be the ‘biggest card of all time’. There are plenty of big fights across the women’s divisions that could have been made – think of names like Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano and big fights like Mikaela Mayer v Sandy Ryan."

Since 2018, women have been able to drive in Saudi Arabia and, since 2019, women older than 21 no longer need their guardian’s approval to access healthcare, education and state services, take up a job or make their own medical decisions about pregnancy and birth.

Amnesty International, however, continues to scrutinise the legitimacy of the progress on women’s rights. Salma al-Shehab, 36, a Leeds University PhD student and mother of two, was arrested in 2021 and detained for four years on terrorism-related charges for posting tweets in support of women’s rights. She was released this month. I felt safe in Riyadh throughout my stay, but I am a straight white male. 

Aside from the odd chant, "oooh" and "ahhh" from the crowd, it was a tame atmosphere inside the arena. Music from faded British artists including Chumbawamba, Craig David and Status Quo in between rounds attempted to spike the noise, and a rendition of "Sweet Caroline" before the main event was mumbled along to by those in attendance rather embarrassingly and sheepishly, like school children singing hymns inside an assembly hall.

Throw this fight card into the bear pit of a London, New York or Las Vegas fight night and you wouldn't be able to hear yourself think, let alone speak to someone four rows away.

The action unfolded even better than expected. All nine fights on the card offered something different and were unforgettable in different ways. It approached 3 a.m local time before all the action concluded, and the rush for local taxis and Ubers commenced as they used their own interpretation of the Saudi Highway Code to throw fight fans into their vehicles without barely stopping.

The evening's entertainment clashed with Saudi Founding Day, so there was yet more confusion by drivers as I tried again to explain that I had just been to a boxing event — one being argued as the greatest of all time. 

Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol lock horns for fight night inside the Kingdom Arena / Lewis Watson

There is no doubt that the Saudi takeover has given fight fans the fights and cards that might not otherwise have been possible, but at what future cost? At some point Turki Alalshikh is going to want to see a return on his investment, and while he may see money rolling in from other ventures, boxing may well get left behind. 

If a 6,000-seater venue struggled to sell out for what was considered the pinnacle of the sport, where does that leave the future landscape? And once the bubble has burst, where does that leave a sport where fight purses have been inflated beyond recognisable measure?

You can't blame fighters, promoters or managers for grabbing these opportunities with both hands and striking while the dollar is hot, but when an all-British grudge match between Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi (one that sells out any arena in the UK) is starting at 5 p.m UK time in front of under 2,000 fans then priorities need to be questioned. 

Provisions need to be put in place in preparation for when Turki delivers boxing the dreaded gladiatorial thumbs down. Hopefully, not to its death.

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