🥊 Boxing: Saudi Arabia's Main Event

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💰 Saudi Arabia replicates golf strategy for boxing

The last few years have seen Saudi Arabia pretty much outspend everybody else when it comes to global sport. Amongst other achievements:

• they now own golf with the LIV Golf tour,

• they have brought some of the biggest footballers in the world to play in their national football league, including Ronaldo,

• they own Newcastle United football club in the English Premier League,

• they have brought F1 to Jeddah.

They have also been aggressively bringing key boxing matches to the Kingdom as well, including 2024’s undisputed heavyweight champion match between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. UFC and WWE matches are now regular fixtures in Riyadh and Jeddah.

So it was only a matter of time before the country replicated their golf strategy (where they launched a new, flashy golf tour and lured high profile players with ludicrous paydays) and implemented it in another sport. The sport they chose is boxing. On Wednesday, the Saudi General Entertainment Authority announced a new boxing promotion in partnership with TKO, the parent company of the biggest MMA promotion company in the world, the UFC, and the WWE, the biggest wrestling promotion company in the world.

Why partner with a wrestling and MMA company to build a new boxing promotion? To find that out and more, this issue of Signpost will look at how the story was covered within the sports media (ESPN) and the entertainment media (Deadline), because this is as much about sports as it is about entertainment.

🎬 DEADLINE: TKO Launches Boxing Promotion Partnership With Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh, Sela Group [link]

📢 What Deadline is saying
Deadline’s summarily short article mostly pulls from the press release — the agreement has been signed between the entities mentioned, and everybody is very excited. Interestingly, comments are provided by Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, and the COO of TKO Mark Shapiro, but not from Dana White, arguably the most famous face of the UFC.

1. 📸 Visuals

There’s only one visual for the article, which sits at the top. In it, we see the New York Stock Exchange Building from street level, with a large black banner draped over it’s front facade. On the black banner are the logos of UFC, TKO, and WWE, in that order from left to right. Below it hang three American flags, under which sits a simple black banner proclaiming ‘TKO Listed NYSE’.

At the bottom of the image, taking up about a third of the picture, are two combat sport championship belts, with the one on the left being a UFC belt with the word ‘champion’, and the one on the right being a WWE belt with the words ‘undisputed champion’ on it.

2. ✍🏽 Words

The headline announces a new boxing promotion being launched by TKO in partnership with the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, along with Sela Group, Saudi Arabia’s national entertainment and events company. The first paragraph restates this, indicating that this is not strictly speaking an unexpected announcement, calling the development ‘as promised’ by TKO Group.

The second paragraph shares more information about the corporate structure, outlining the role TKO will play in this new promotion (‘day-to-day operational expertise, management and oversight’) under the leadership of UFC CEO Dana White and WWE president Nick Khan (no relation).

This is followed by two statements, beginning with TKO COO Mark Shapiro, and followed by Turki Alalshikh (whom Mark Shapiro calls ‘his excellency’). Both statements are full of platitudes extolling the new promotion’s ambition to bring boxing into the mainstream once again. And, in a lyrical touch, Shapiro’s statement refers to boxing as ‘the sweet science’.

The article then ends with a laundry list of Sela’s achievements in raising the profile of Saudi involvement in world sports, including hosting high profile boxing events in Los Angeles and Wembley Stadium in London, and also their track record of bringing sports to the Kingdom, including Formula E, and the Italian Super Cup. The article wraps up with a bullet point list of all the things the new promotion is expected to achieve, including talent development, access to the UFC Performance Institute for boxers, and world class fan experiences.

❓ What it means
The article is quite sparse in any details outside of what I expect was presented in the press release. Yes, there is some explanation of the various Saudi organisations involved, but the article still puts TKO at the forefront of this. In fact, the headline announces this as a TKO boxing promotion in partnership with the Saudis, which feels a bit like putting the cart before the horse. Even Shapiro’s statement is presented first, before Alalshikh’s.

Would TKO have launched a boxing promotion irrespective of Saudi partnership? Seems unlikely. But the article seems to present it that way.

However, the article does hint at who the main power broker is, as the deal is presented as one between TKO Group and the Turki Alalshikh, with Sela’s name only coming later. The Saudi General Entertainment Authority is only mentioned in connection with Alalshikh’s chairmanship. Even Shapiro’s statement specifically mentions Alalshikh. Alalshikh’s statement does not mention Shapiro.

⚠️ Why it matters
The audience for this article is very specific — American entertainment industry folks. And that itself tells you all you need to know about the power of sport in the entertainment industry in the last few years. Even Netflix has recently started broadcasting live WWE matches around the world, following their successful livestream of the Paul vs Tyson fight, followed by a few NFL games, in December of 2024.

Especially with the dramatic rise of streaming services like Netflix and YouTube, increasingly it’s only live sports that people are willing to pay for and turn up for. All other content is ad-supported. Only major blockbuster film events pull people to the cinemas anymore, but major sporting events around the world are most-likely to fill stadiums and drive on-screen eyeballs.

I suspect the reason why the article presents this as a TKO-led initiative and minimises the Saudi angle is to make the article more palatable to their Hollywood readership, whose famously liberal fraternity would I’m sure would have several issues with Saudi Arabia financing another sport/entertainment property.

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🏆 ESPN: TKO Group partners with Saudis to form new boxing promotion [link]

📢 What ESPN is saying
With ESPN, the focus is purely on boxing. There is a fair amount of detail on the current state of the sport, along with an explanation of how Alalshikh has become the most influential man in boxing. There are several statements by UFC president Dana White, along with a brief history of WWE president Nick Khan, that contextualises the story better.

1. 📸 Visuals

There is only one visual in this article (that sits about halfway down) and it is the embedded X post from Turki Alalshikh’s account announcing the launch of the new boxing promotion. The post itself has a comment from Alalshikh at the top, followed by a photo of him and Dana White sitting behind a brown table in an unusually dark room shaking each other’s hands, while sheets of papers and pens lie in front of them on the table. Behind them, very dimly lit against a black wall, is the logo for TKO, and part of the logos of Sela and The Ring (more on this below). There is somebody sitting next to Alalshikh, but only their right hand is visible (the full picture shows it to be WWE president Nick Khan). Alalshikh himself is wearing dark glasses and is in traditional Saudi dress.

Both men are offering their right hands for the shake, but White has crossed over to reach for Alalshikh’s hand, who looks very relaxed.

The photo is also accompanied with a screenshot of the press release, which oddly enough looks like it has a glaring formatting issue under Mark Shapiro’s statement.

2. ✍🏽 Words

There’s a surprising amount of information in this article so I will summarise the known bits and spend more time on the unique bits. Starting with the headline, which announces the development as a partnership between TKO and the Saudis, the very first words of the article are ‘Turki Alalshikh’. The first three paragraphs then quickly state the details of the announcement, including that the first boxing event is planned for 2026, before moving into a media statement from Alalshikh.

Here, the article begins to provide context.

Several lines are spent reiterating high profile boxing events held in Saudi Arabia, Los Angeles, and London over the past few years. These achievements are attributed to Alalshikh, including his purchase of The Ring — the ‘bible of boxing’ — a publication that launched in 1922, along with an upcoming fight in Times Square. The article mentions how Alalshikh has worked with several different promoters to organise these high profile events, and, along with UFC president Dana White and WWE president Nick Khan, was ranked #1, #2, and #3 respectively on ESPN’s most influential figures in combat sports list from September 2024.

Here we get the first quote from Dana White, albeit from The Ring, where he praises Alalshikh, saying “he’s done more for boxing than any promoter in the history of the sport combined.” Alalshikh’s quote follows, saying “[…] I trust this league, in a short time, will crush everything.”

The challenges with the current administration of boxing is further explained, with the article stating that ‘boxing is splintered with four champions in each of its 17 weight classes’. This is further emphasised by more quotes from White, who says for a world champion in boxing, “[…] you don’t need three letters in front of the belt [a reference to boxing’s four sanctioning bodies].”

The article then ends with a brief history of Nick Khan, who has brought ‘record-setting revenue and profitability’ to WWE since he joined in 2020, having managed Manny Pacquiao in a previous life.

❓ What it means
First up, let me just say that I wish I had the kind of confidence Alalshikh has with a new launch. This is the tenth edition of this newsletter and never once did I dream for the newsletter to ‘crush everything’; perhaps that’s what’s been holding me back.

The positioning of ESPN is different than that of Deadline’s. According to ESPN, it’s very clear from the onset that this new launch is all the work of Turki Alalshikh, with TKO playing very much a junior partner role. The Saudi’s are financing (and by extension, owning) the partnership, while TKO are expected to make it work. The fact that the article begins outright with Alalshikh’s name is significant.

The deeply hagiographic quotes from White about Alalshikh is also testament to the power dynamics in this arrangement. Even the X post used in the article is from Alalshikh, despite the socially prolific Dana White also posting about this news on his X account. The fact that the article highlights that the three men, Alalshikh, White, and Khan, are the three most influential figures in combat sports according to ESPN’s own ranking, and are now working together on their own league, underscores just how much power in the world of boxing is being consolidated. They are here to conquer the sport.

⚠️ Why it matters
Boxing is a strange sport. It definitely has a following, but as a layperson, it seems to thrive mostly on high profile ad-hoc events rather than sustainable year-long initiatives like team sports do with leagues (which lead up to a championship), or even individual sports like tennis does with annual grand slams. And while I will refrain from analysing the political leanings of combat sports (you can check out the excellent Karim Zidan’s Sports Politika for that), I will say that the fact that boxing has four separate world champions — awarded by the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, the International Boxing Federation, and the World Boxing Organization, with boxing publication The Ring apparently also awarding it’s own belts — makes this a significantly complicated sport for anybody new to understand or support.

So, should we take this announcement as an indication that in the near future there will likely be a single governing boxing body that awards world champions, like how UFC dominates MMA? Will this make boxing more accessible and simpler to watch? Will live boxing events come to more cities around the world to grow audience and market penetration, like how European football clubs play exhibition matches around the world?

WHAT’S GOING ON? 

💪🏽 Are you not entertained?

Saudi Arabia has consistently been accused of sportswashing, and while there may be some truth to that, it’s also true that their track record has not been all that global in its impact. Perhaps it’s too soon to gauge their success, but I’m personally unaware of anybody who watches the Saudi local football league just to see famous footballers play, and even the high-profile live boxing matches held in Saudi Arabia have been criticised for having no atmosphere. I’m unsure if Newcastle United has had any increase in their fan base, or even footballing success. The grand prix in Jeddah is one of twenty F1 races in the calendar, and one of four in the Middle East alone. Golf is too niche a sport to truly matter to the masses.

This new boxing promotion is expected to develop new fighters, and perhaps that’s what’s key. There’s only so much that buying existing sports allows you to do.

Ultimately, all of this is being financed by the massive $930B Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. So here’s a bigger question — who is this for, really? Is it for the Saudis, to help promote and soften their image? Is it for sportspeople and executives, to finance and grow world sport? Or is it for the citizens of Saudi Arabia, to provide them avenues of entertainment that were inaccessible to them for so long?

The truth, as always, is somewhere in between.
Read widely. Question thoroughly. Decide accordingly.

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Was this forwarded to you? Signpost is a free weekly newsletter analysing what the media says, what it means, and why it matters. It’s free to subscribe. Alternatively, you can add me on LinkedIn.