Usyk parts ways with Riyadh Season; Wilder fight on PBC?

Usyk's gonna regret it when instead of 50-100 million per fight from Turki, he's barely scraping 5 million from the dying USA promoters.

 

Who is left for Usyk for 50-100 mil?

 

yeah, he's a solid dude. his folk done good raising a man.

 

“Ameri-Bum” buffet Feast.

 

The Saudis are not throwing $50 million paydays at these fights, dont believe all of the BS rumored purses on the internet.
Also, their budget is drying up. There is a good reason why Usyk vs Dubois II was in England, and why Canelo fought in the US.

 

Usyk vs Dubois 2 was still a Riyadh Season event like Joshua vs Dubois was even though it was in the UK. Turki is only interested in massive matchups that move the sport forward. He isn’t interested in a glorified sparring session for Usyk where he has to pay him 20 million and I don’t blame him. The Saudi money is not drying up at all, not even close. Turki is just pivoting more to his own shows under the Ring banner now and the massive Riyadh season events he only wants massive matchups.

 

I am fully aware of Usk vs Dubois being a Riyadh card, thats why I brought it up.
Most of the biggest fights Turki put on last year took place outside of Saudi. They wanted to stop doing PPV´s, but instead DAZN now offers a PPV subscription.

Also, World Boxing News recently had an article: Cold Turki Withdrawal: NYT Warns Boxing Hooked on Unstable Saudi Funds
Google it, its a good read, I cant link it directly here.

 

“The Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority called the New York Times’ allegations untrue and promised the boxing calendar for 2026 will deliver surprises the industry has never seen before.”
“100% not true,” he declared, adding: “Many surprises will be announced in 2026.”

 

Of course they did, do you honestly expect someone in their position to admit that they are facing financial strains? Of course not.
The issues brought up in the article are easily verifiable, such as the PIF pulling back spending on mega projects. This is primarily due to the low global oil prices.

Turki wanted to drop PPV´s all together, and what happened? They kept the PPV´s and DAZN introduced a special PPV subscription for boxing fans. The only reason why Turki wanted to drop the PPV´s was because not enough people were buying them, and the reason they are keeping the PPV´s is because they dont have the funds to freely finance everything on their own.
If Turki and the Saudi´s had no issues throwing around 7 and 8 digit paydays then there would be no PPV fights. Everything would be on regular DAZN or some other network.

Canelo vs Crawford was the biggest fight of the year, at least for Turki, and what happened? Netflix paid for it and put it on US soil.

 

Turki bankrolled that event, Canelo’s purse was part of his 9 figure deal with Riyadh Season. Not even a fan of Turki but if you think he’s “running out of money” you’re stupid. Just because he won’t pay Usyk 20 million plus in a nothing fight which does nothing for anyone other than Usyk’s bank balance doesn’t mean he’s going bankrupt. He’s still putting on the biggest match ups in the sport with Teofimo vs Shakur coming up in January and I’m sure many more to come.

 

Even if they are pulling back slightly Turki could still put on massive cards multiple times a year for the next 20 years and it would barely make a dent to him. These people have trillions in backing.

 

If they have so much money to spend, and can put Canelo vs Crawford on regular Netflix - which you said Turki bankrolled - then how come is Teo vs Shakur a PPV?

I am telling you, the money is drying up. Does this mean that they will stop financing these big fights? No, not really. But they wont be growing any bigger. At best it will still be one big even each month on average, a similar schedule SHO had before they went out of business, only Riyadh has a bigger budget.

 

You think he’s going to just do it for free? Lol. He’s still a ruthless businessman backed by a dictator with wealth in the trillions. Doesn’t mean he’s just going to give money away for nothing. Of course he wants at least some return on his investments in the sport. Even then he still uploads all his fights for free on YouTube a few days after his events. All he cares about is publicity for Saudi and Riyadh and of course now he has Ring which he manages with his team and his backers from the Royal Family. He can keep this up as long as he retains interest in the sport. If everything still goes ahead after AJ’s crash he’ll bankroll Fury vs Joshua this year as well.

 

This makes sense. They are willing to spend, but not too much. However, right after this you contradict yourself:

So which one is it? Are they businessmen or are they willing to spend whatever it takes just to get publicity?

This is true, if you ignore the financial hurdlers PIF is facing.

 

The saudis most likely havd lost money with their boxing venture, their public investment fund is drying up and the big paydays are coming to an end.