Touchdowns And Title Fights: Saudi Arabia Eyes A Super Sports Weekend With Boxing

Boxing doesn’t have a Super Bowl, but it might soon. Former NFL Great Tom Brady will come out of retirement to play in a flag football event in Saudi Arabia alongside some current players.

There is a strong possibility that the weekend will become a massive sports festival in Saudi Arabia. The Fanatics Flag Football Classic is planned for Riyadh's Kingdom Arena on March 21. Tom Brady has confirmed the event will also include Rob Gronkowski.

The massive indoor venue has hosted numerous high-profile fights. Most notably, the WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring undisputed heavyweight championship between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk on May 18, 2024. That fight was the first undisputed heavyweight title fight in 24 years.

Its one of the most exciting events planned for the 2025-2026 Riyadh season, and will include plenty for sports fans from the Six Kings Slam tennis tournament to the first ever WWE Royal Rumble outside of North America next year (WrestleMania will follow in 2027).

Most subsequent boxing matches have been held next door in the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It would be easy to have football in one venue one night and boxing in the other venue the next.

The idea of including boxing alongside other Riyadh Season events was demonstrated earlier this year during the Esports World Cup, which took place in August, with a major Riyadh Season card also taking place alongside it, featuring Moses Ituama. It was great to have both events going on the same weekend ( I am confident I won the Street Fighter 2 tournament).

There are likely to be some American football fans who head to Riyadh for the flag football classic, and it would be smart to lure them to stay and watch boxing. Even if it was a more negligible "Box Raw" type event that we had twice this summer, once in Brooklyn and once in Riyadh.

Boxraw, a clothing company, organized those events. The concept is solid, and it would be great to see it again at Riyadh Season. The Boxraw matches are sparring sessions with promoters in attendance who have agreed to sign one fighter who passes the eye test.

The WWE event offers a potential similar pairing between boxing and wrestling. However, given that Netflix used Tom Brady to promote the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terrence Crawford event — pairing the two makes more sense.

If Riyadh truly aims to crown itself as the global capital of sports entertainment, pairing the Fanatics Flag Football Classic with a major boxing card would be the perfect move. The Kingdom Arena and ANB Arena offer the ideal twin stages for such a spectacle — football legends one night, rising boxing stars the next.

This kind of synergy could transform Riyadh Season into an unmissable annual tradition, drawing fans from across multiple sports and continents. With Tom Brady and Gronk leading the way, and perhaps a "BoxRaw"-style showcase giving new fighters a stage, the Kingdom could host not just a Super Bowl of flag football — but the Super Weekend of world sport.

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