Aug 16 | Itauma v Whyte, Cacace v Ford, Ball v Goodman

I see maybe 0.01% of fighters actually “securing their futures” in Saudi — and that’s with every major promoter bending over to make sure they get their cut too.

But unless Turki builds a UFC-style monopoly under The Ring umbrella, that elite 0.01% will keep eating at the expense of the 99.99% — who’ll be left with scraps, no visibility, and nowhere to break through.

There’s a massive gap between Saudi riches and what’s left over for the sport. And once the spectacle fades, so will the fighters you never saw.

Didn’t they try the same thing with football? A cash-soaked elite league that threatened to kill the bedrock of the sport. Fans pushed back — and it got shut down.

Boxing isn’t getting that same resistance. And it should. But it won’t — because the promoters write the script like F agin, and the fighters play Oliver Twist: grateful to be fed, but always hoping for more.

 

I'm still not even sure what Riyadh Season actually is. It just appeared out of nowhere in promotional vocabulary and is pushed on us as if it's as iconic as the Olympics or World Cup

 

Boxing is too corrupt for that ever to occur, otherwise it would have happened when the Mob controlled the sport.

 

They have tried to enter a number of sports
But they all are all regulated, boxing really isn't as we know
It's why they have stuck with it
You honestly think fan backlash would have stopped them in football?
Not a chance it was just that, footy fans will moan all day and still follow the club
Sure a few might give up but there's always a new customer waiting

Saudis will have there time, boxing will resume normal standards in the UK at some point
Personally I don't see a problem right now
Atmosphere is not great but I can live without it
I watch boxing for the fights and the atmosphere is always a bonus

 

The term Riyadh Season reminds me of a female's period

 

The Saudis are the biggest mob of all with the most money and power, not regional gangster looking to launder a a few million. We are talking trillions here, links to every Royal family and every major government in their pocket. Gangsters need to skirt around the fringes, the Saudi's do not, they own their country and are untouchable. They even have the Americans and British (governments) bending at the knee, they are simply on a different level to anything seen in boxing or sport before and it's not even close. Look at the beef between promoters pre Riyadh season and look now, nobody dare say anything negative about "Uncle" Turki, I have not heard one word of criticism towards him from any of the boxing fraternity. He has got them all in his pocket.

 

I know it’s hypothetical, but I genuinely think a fight like Wardley vs Huni ends very differently in Saudi. The emotionless crowd changes everything — no roar to lift you, no tension to break through. That energy shifts outcomes, and the best athletes don’t just feed off it — they create it.

You saw it clearly in Times Square. Garcia boxed like he was sedated — no urgency, no spark. It felt like a dress rehearsal with a billion-dollar budget… and it flopped like Rocky V.

 

If Turki really wants to flip the script and take control, he’d have to do what no one else has dared: tell the fighters to drop the alphabet belts and crown the Ring belt as the only one that matters — the only one tied to Saudi riches.

That’s how you kill the old guard. Not with pageantry, but with power moves that make the old belts irrelevant overnight.

 

If.buts maybes for you. That was the first fight, pre drug catching for Benn.

It DID take place under Saudis it didn't out with them. And like I said eubank literally said due to the failed test this fight wasnt happening without stupid money being thrown at him. Much more than he was getting paid before.

 

Exactly if boxing didn't offer the opportunity of big pay days the amount of people wanting to do would dramatically drop, most fighters do it for the money ultimately. If any of these fighters were offered say 100k for a fight but a sold out wembley or 1m for a fight in a car park with 1000 people im pretty sure most would choose the 1m.

 

True but Benn hadn't failed a drug test at that point and as a result eubank didn't need to paid much more because of it. This time he did and the only ones putting up that kinda cash were the Saudis. That's at least what eubank says , it might be bull but it's all we have to go on.

 

I'm not actually disagreeing with you on that point by it Garcia is a bad example
He is bonkers and has fought badly previously with a big crowd

In fact that whole American crowed of him, Teo, and Haney are just trying to mug him off

 

It's not possible though

Any boxer Turki isn't giving a pay day to will stick with the current sanctioning bodies

There's too many options for him to create a monopoly

 

He doesn't need to kill the alphabets they all love a pound note and will do exactly as Turki wishes.