Game changer? TURKI ALALSHIKH is reportedly planning to start a professional boxing tournament
By: Sean Crose
Boxing as we once knew it may be coming back… at least in a very real sense. Indeed, the best possible is the best faced on a regular basis. When was the last time boxing fans saw something like this happen? Back to the 90s? The 80s? It has indeed been a while. However, Saudi Arabian sportsman Turki Alalshikh has spent a lot of effort as well as a lot of money to organize big fights over the past few years – most recently the undisputed victory of Oleksandr Usyk against Tyson Fury last month. “The health of this sport is currently at an all-time high,” said former player Chris Algieri. Source water audio file. “We are healthy from top to bottom.”
Now, Alakaskikh is said to be planning to move on from just fighting big fights to establishing his own boxing tournament, one that could change the entire boxing business, one in that – gasp – fans will actually be able to tell who the best fighter is. Not only is Alakaskikh a keen businessman, he is also a fan of the sport. The reality is that the guy has unprecedented amounts of money to play with and it’s worth wondering if the dream can really come true.
It’s not that the plan doesn’t carry clear and serious questions. “Who ranks?” Algieri asked rhetorically. “I don’t know what the best way to rank is, but I think it’s really important for this to be really successful.” Analyst Paulie Malignaggi added that “you still need an outer layer of the sport.” In other words, the focus cannot be solely on the big names. “I don’t want to see the same eight people fighting,” he said. However, Malignaggi points out that a tournament could work very well for the boxing business.
“If you guide it correctly,” he says, “the potential is extraordinary.” Indeed it is. Boxing has been weighed down for too long by political, network and promotional issues, inactive fighters and a general feeling of apathy. A well-organized and profitable tournament suitable for fighters will motivate those fighters to fight with greater frequency. It can also resolve the problem of disputes within the organization.
Perhaps most importantly, the tournament – if it becomes a reality – needs to satisfy fans while also being fair to the fighters. No one pleases fans the way mixed martial arts organization UFC does. If a boxing federation makes fans its primary focus in such a way, the future could be promising for the sweet science…provided, of course, that fighters are treated fairly.
