Ariel Helwani Triggers Boxing Backlash

Moving from MMA media to boxing isn't an easy switch

Combat sports media increasingly looks like a fast-paced game of musical chairs. The competition is brutal. The fans are fickle. And if a writer loses his place, they’re out of the game.

Given that context, maybe we should be charitable about the MMA-turned-boxing writers and their deep, abiding love for Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, aka “His Excellency.”

Or maybe not. Was I the only one who burped up a little cranberry sauce last week when I read Kevin Iole’s bracing Thanksgiving message to boxing fans?

If it weren't for the money being invested in the sport by Saudi Arabia, who knows what state it would be in today?

I know this: It's not great now, though it would be a lot worse without the funding from the Saudis.

So as American Thanksgiving arrives on Thursday, how about a thanks and a tip of the cap to Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia who has almost single-handedly kept boxing afloat the last couple of years?

It sure seems Iole’s younger peers in combat sports media have gotten his message.

At least judging from the reactions to Turki’s latest card scheduled for February 22 in Riyadh from the leading lights of MMA-turned-boxing-media.

First Turki announces the card.

Then, the accolades poured in. Ariel Helwani led the way with “Deepest boxing card in recent memory? I’d say so” and Luke Thomas upped the ante with, “If there’s been a better boxing card than this one, what was it?”

Ariel had to post twice because he initially reacted to a Tweet Turki quickly deleted:

It’s Turki’s Ring, You Just Write About It

I guess it could be worse…none of these guys outright work for “His Excellency,” unlike the staff at The Ring magazine. As Patrick Stumberg wrote for Bad Left Hook:

17 years after purchasing The Ring, Oscar De La Hoya has seemingly sold “The Bible of Boxing” to Turki Alalshikh, confirming a September report from Julius Julianis.

This marks the Saudi royal’s second major grasp at control of boxing’s unofficial ranking systems, having previously partnered with Fight Fax and the WBA earlier this year in a move that got the sanctioning body booted from BoxRec. As Fight Fax currently has Marco Huck tied with Oleksandr Usyk for no. 1 at heavyweight, Sergey Kovalev no. 2 at cruiserweight, and Sergio Martinez no. 1 at middleweight, this strikes me as the more noteworthy acquisition.

It’s also the second upheaval of a noteworthy boxing news site this year after ProBox purchased BoxingScene, which has (in my opinion) led to a sharp decline in breaking news in favor of vapid thinkpieces from the likes of Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri.

The Ring’s belts and rankings carry significant weight in this sport and should be under greater scrutiny going forward; there have been some notable cases of ownership overruling staff in newsrooms of late and I frankly do not trust Alalshikh to keep his personal aims from influencing the publication’s content.

It’s interesting that The Ring has been owned by Golden Boy Promotions’ Oscar de la Hoya for 17 years and only now am I hearing concern about editorial conflict of interest.

Media Musical Chairs

But I digress.

The bigger issue is, there’s hardly a living covering boxing these days. Just like there’s hardly a living covering MMA.