On this nook of the Universo Pugilistico is my bulging, bulbous, aching sack and the gooey, salty fact contained inside. So…sit again, shut your eyes, pull again your hair, and prepare for this week’s cash shot of knowledge. This week we’ve feedback/questions relating to boxing individuals promoting themselves out to the Saudis.
Idiot me As soon as, Disgrace on You. Idiot me Twice, Disgrace on me?
First, hope you and the household are doing properly. Preserve combating the nice battle for boxing.
Second, a smart man as soon as stated, when a person tells you who he’s, you higher consider him. Turki has LITERALLY instructed and proven Eddie, Warren, Arum, and Oscar what he’s going to do. YET, they elected to proceed to work with Turki. They need to be working for his or her lives, however their not. Why?
– BIG Rob
Hey Large Rob.
Thanks.
The brief reply is that these persons are grifters and that’s all they know.
They’re so hyper-focused on chasing the fast buck that they may see nothing else. They’re like mosquitoes drawn to bug zappers. They gotta chase that gentle, even when it means getting fried right into a crisp.
Grifters additionally consider that they’re untouchable, that they’re gonna get this subsequent rating after which fear about every part else later. I’m positive all of those guys have the identical ideas about working with Turki, who has, actually, arrange a corporation to interchange them and stated he plans on crushing them. They’re going to make the cash they nonetheless can with him whereas working via current contracts after which hope to be one of many few boxing individuals allowed to remain within the Saudis’ good graces.
I believe they may discover out quickly sufficient that Turki and the Saudis are usually not actually into honest play and that they’ll must put in some critical work to maintain their companies alive via this.
However they might have given up an excessive amount of floor already.
Again to the Paywalls
PBC is perhaps in an excellent place, as a result of they at the moment have a broadcasting take care of a good American firm in Amazon. Whatever the lack of occasions final calendar yr, they nonetheless placed on probably the most profitable playing cards stateside. Up to now in 2025 their playing cards have been probably the most profitable stateside as properly. Which suggests they’re nonetheless tapped in with the American client and their model continues to be recognizable.
The humorous factor about this Turki/UFC/WWE deal is that everybody thought that every one the promoters who have been working with Riyadh Season have been onto one thing particular. Conversely, nobody is speaking about how they acquired performed and suckered into permitting their fighters to battle on a banner that was in talks to dump them proper into the Atlantic. What number of fighters does GBP, High Rank and Matchroom nonetheless have underneath contract? What number of fighters are nonetheless loyal to these firms? What number of fighters are prepared to battle underneath these banners whereas on DAZN? These are the most important questions that the media fail to ask. As you talked about, everybody thought this was the tip of PBC. Nonetheless, I even heard boxing pundits questioning why PBC hadn’t acquired on board with Riyadh Season. Are you able to think about what is going on on contained in the places of work of promoters who labored handedly with Riyadh Season? I am positive they’re scrambling to attempt to construct again up their US operations.
The most important clowns of this all are Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford. It would not matter how a lot cash they’re getting from Turki. They are going to look silly with Dana White holding up their palms over the subsequent two years. I would like to know whether or not or not Canelo and Crawford have been conscious of the UFC/WWE partnership. In the event that they did know, it solely makes them look extra silly.
From a perspective of branding and advertising I see an epic failure on behalf of this new boxing enterprise. When it is all stated and performed. We’ll return to the paywalls! I really do not see Dana White and Nick Khan resonating with the boxing group. I could not take the Riyadh Season playing cards severely, now throw UFC and WWE within the combine and it even appears worse!
– Na‘-il Rahman
Hey Na‘-il.
As I discussed above, all of those guys are grifters and don’t know deviate from their cons. A bizarre quirk within the character of a grifter, although, is that additionally they are typically suckers. Their unchecked greed typically results in them falling sufferer to different grifters. That was undoubtedly the case with, properly, nearly everybody in boxing who let themselves be groomed by Turki Alalshikh and the Saudis.
I perceive the fighters falling underneath the spell. They must deal with getting as a lot cash as they’ll in as brief a time frame as potential.
However the promoters, sanctioning our bodies, and media? They’re imagined to be invested within the lengthy sport, however they turned out to be the best to hook.
All of the alphabets and the media needed to lose was their credibility, which was at .001 anyway. The promoters, nevertheless, might lose every part.
As you have been saying– with whom will the fighters’ loyalties lie when the Saudis make their ultimate transfer and start absolutely working exhibits underneath their very own banner? The promoters have let Turki make direct offers with their fighters and construct a rapport. They’ve even let Turki, who has no boxing background, matchmake for his or her fighters.
There’s little question about it, they may lose a lot of their expertise. And good luck attempting to take the Saudis to court docket.
Particularly humorous/tragic/mind-boggling is Oscar De La Hoya who, as soon as once more, may have an excellent chunk of his expertise pulled away from him as a result of he’s too dumb (or impaired) to know what’s taking place along with his personal enterprise. Should you keep in mind, simply over a decade in the past, Oscar got here to find that a lot of the expertise he had been selling by way of Golden Boy, was not really sure to a promotional contract. That vital error of negligence led to virtually all of his roster– together with names corresponding to Errol Spence, Deontay Wilder, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Adrien Broner, and Shawn Porter, amongst many others– strolling out the door to the fledgling Premier Boxing Champions for what amounted to a pennies-on-the-dollar settlement.
As for Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford? I don’t assume they care about what they seem like. They needed the cash they usually acquired it. However, at a time after they might’ve been true leaders within the sport and made a stand for the well-being of future generations of fighters, they selected to not.
So, if this all goes the place I consider it may very well be headed– a Saudi-based/Dana White-led boxing monopoly with lowered UFC-style fighter pay rates– Canelo and Crawford needs to be remembered because the sell-outs they’re.
I believe chances are you’ll be proper, although. Turki appears to have fumbled the ball on the three-yard line. There’s a disconnect with the way in which he’s dealing with US audiences and he could very properly die on that hill relating to his boxing ambitions. And, no, slapping Dana White’s face on the product– a man who has spent everything of his UFC life belittling and demeaning the game of boxing– gained’t be a constructive.
And, oh yeah, the paywalls can be there.
It’s amusing how Turki is getting glazed by media (that he owns) and by gullible followers for decreasing the value of pay-per-views, when exhibits of the same high quality was once free (or a part of a minimal ESPN+ payment) earlier than Turki began gobbling up the game.
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