Turki Alalshikh is conveniently an enthusiastic and willing player currently in boxing.
Month's ago, legendary boxing trainer, commentator and pundit, Teddy Atlas was audacious enough to describe Turki Alalshikh as " The Face Of Boxing ".
Sounds controversial but ultimately drums home Alalshikh's immense impact on the sport.
His takeover of boxing is now in full swing, with fans left looking towards the Saudi kingpin in hopes of delivering their favourite fantasy fights rather than shovelling that pressure onto the shoulders of the promoters as usual. Now, the newfound catalyst of the sport has filled in the gap to guarantee at least one Riyadh season card per month until the end of the year.
Later this month, Al-Alshikh will bring the Saudi circus to Old Blighty as Anthony Joshua seeks to become boxing’s fifth three-time heavyweight world champion when he challenges for Daniel Dubois’ recently-claimed IBF heavyweight crown. ‘AJ’ will additionally be hoping to tee up an undisputed showdown with Tyson Fury, who rematches Oleksandr Usyk in December, although he could still take on ‘The Gypsy King’ if either or both of them were to lose their respective clashes.
Meanwhile, October plays host to what is deemed as one of the most salivating possible match-up’s outside of the heavyweight division, as Artur Beterbiev goes to-toe-toe with Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed light-heavyweight title in a stylistic showdown for the ages.
That left November as the lone month without a Riyadh Season show pencilled in but it was recently reported that Al-Alshikh had put together a card that would see Chris Billam-Smith (20-1) challenge Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (46-1) in a unification bout for the WBO and WBA cruiserweight titles.
On social media, Al-Alshikh confirmed the legitimacy of those reports by announcing that he and Golden Boy Promoter Oscar De La Hoya will bill the event as ‘Latino’s Night’ and that the fight night will be free to watch around the world, delivering on his promise to reduce the cost of being a boxing fan.
“I just hung up the phone with my friend Oscar De La Hoya. We had a long talk, therefore I decided that the card of Latino’s Night in Riyadh Season with our partner Golden Boy will be free on TV networks and platforms all around the world. Any TV network or platform and cable TV interested in this event kindly connect with us in Riyadh Season and Sela, especially in Mexico and South America. We care about boxing fans, for that, this card is free.”
As ‘Zurdo’ represents the Latino in the main event, each fight on the undercard will also see the inclusion of at least one Latino contender. Mexico’s William Zepeda (31-0) will face Australia’s former unified lightweight world champion George Kambosos Jr. (21-3), supposedly in preparation for a meeting with WBC champion Shakur Stevenson in February.
Meanwhile, once unified super-lightweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-1) will hope to edge closer to a return to the super-lightweight throne as he collides with undefeated Arnold Barboza Jr. (30-0), in a showdown between two men of Latino heritage.
Finally, Oscar Duarte Jurado (27-2-1) and Lester Martinez (18-0) will represent Mexico and Guatemala in fights against Kenneth Sims Jr. (21-2-1) and Bektemir Melikuziev (14-1) in what can only be described as 50/50 affairs.
Sounds like a properly packaged card, let’s meet in October.
By Samuel Opoku Amoah
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