[Possibly] interesting [personal] side point ... I recently had a conversation with someone from Saudi [who's plugged into inter-governmental diplomacy and has attended some of the boxing events there]. We didn't discuss beyond generalizations, but my thoughts on this topic are; that the Saudi remit on sports soft-power, boxing in particular, is to over time generate events with historic resonance. Events which would capture world-wide mainstream media coverage. While financially breaking even or coming near to it short term is obviously good for them, the eventual pay-off they're looking for is longer term. For boxing [putting important broader ethical positions to one side for now], this is a good thing IMO. In heavyweight [the division with the most traction for this agenda] Fury style antics or Wilder style cherry-picking that stall the momentum of the sport just undermines their interests. While hardcore boxing enthusiasts may tolerate this stuff without switching off, the vast vast vast wider demographic outside of this cohort ... will just switch off. I think their accommodation of BS is going to be pretty limited. I think the Saudi's have the financial capacity to wear these relatively early forays into boxing as 'loss leaders' for now. But of course they'd like the event-to-event financial trajectory to be heading in the right direction as time passes.
Interesting. It's basically like being in on the ground floor of a startup. Whatever their motivation is, I like the involvement here and will support the events they put on. As long as they continue to put on fights that I want to see.
Honestly I think after the Saudis leave boxing I don't know when that will be whether that's 5 years or 10 years or whatever the sport will be in shambles. Because us fans will be used to such great events who the heck will want to pay for a event that only has one good fight. It will be impossible
