Final Saturday’s Riyadh Season present in Los Angeles was, on the entire, a good card. Andy Cruz delivered, Bakole vs Anderson was what promoters need us to assume all heavyweight fights are like, and the primary occasion turned out to be a really aggressive and tactical conflict of high-level fighters.
That stated, the second that almost all stood out to me was Todd Grisham and Sergio Mora falling over themselves to extol the virtues of Turki Alalshikh taking on the game. Admittedly, Todd and Sergio are typically the lowlights of any broadcast no matter what they really say, however this was significantly egregious.
There may be and at all times has been loads of attraction within the idea of a benevolent dictator; it’s the typical particular person’s knee-jerk reply to the query of “what can be the most effective type of authorities.” What’s to not like a couple of realized autocrat doing what’s proper and logical with out the necessity for paperwork and pink tape?
Factor is, that’s a fantasy. All the time has been. Talking as a recovering UFC fan, you do not need this sport to maneuver on the whim of an untouchable god-king.
To be clear, I’m not saying the act of utilizing private wealth to reward fighters for dangerous matchups is unhealthy. Having that a lot cash in any respect is unethical in my e-book, however you possibly can guess that if I had billions of {dollars} I’d spend my first day arranging Bam vs Junto on the BLH Ultradome. For the co-feature, I’d create an offshoot of karate tile breaking the place a bunch of club-level heavyweights line up in single file to see what number of Deontay Wilder may concurrently knock out with a single punch.
The whole lot else is a pink flag. For one, we have already got cautionary tales on the risks of boxing autocracy: the sanctioning our bodies, or on the very least the WBA and WBC. Mauricio Sulaiman’s racket has written clauses in its guidelines that quantity to “these solely apply after we really feel prefer it,” which is why some WBC champions get stripped for catching COVID and others require three years of inactivity and a DWI to lose their belts.
For those who broaden the lens to fight sports activities on the whole, simply have a look at the UFC. With assured cash by way of their ESPN deal, the promotion has roughly given up on even pretending to make an effort. Serghei Spivac rolled over and died in opposition to Ciryl Gane final September and received rewarded with a 3rd consecutive fundamental occasion this coming Saturday, whereas flyweight Nate Maness received booted from the promotion for “not being thrilling” regardless of going 5-2 with three post-fight bonuses. The heavyweight division is caught within the mud as a result of s*ithead-in-chief Dana White insists on giving a title shot to Stipe Miocic, who’s developing on 4 years with out a win.
Two issues may stop comparable shenanigans within the Turki Period. One is significant competitors or another technique of retaining him in test, however I’m not holding my breath. By no means earlier than have I witnessed such shameless ass-kissing from everybody with out the cash to inform Turki to shove it, from fighters to commentators to aforementioned turds like Sulaiman.
The opposite is Alalshikh breaking the mould by not being a thin-skinned, self-aggrandizing, insecure weirdo. Additionally unlikely, as evidenced by his Reddit-ass response to Canelo brushing him off and, , the final ludicrous pageantry that goes on between fights on his playing cards. No one who makes you name him His Excellency needs to be trusted so far as you possibly can throw him.
Don’t count on some hypothetical successor to be any completely different, both; in my expertise, these traits are endemic to anybody above a sure tax bracket.
I received’t deny that he’s given us some excellent fights, however the first hit’s at all times free. That is neither ethical nor wholesome for the game in the long run.
