Turki Alalshikh has entered the limelight again, a far from irregular occurrence given he has taken it upon himself to deem himself the emperor of the sport of boxing, but not every appearance is positive as he once more proves himself to be roughly ignorant about what boxing is.
As explained in a prior article, fighters who are deemed to be “running” are heavily-criticized but those who can not seem to cut off the ring? Their faults are blatantly ignored, creating a myopic and one-sided view on what truly troubles boxing; the lack of efforts in training to produce more complete fighters.
As evident by statements Turki Alalshikh made, he does not appear to know at all what the root cause of the issue in boxing is when it comes to entertainment and competitiveness, despite having sunk millions in the sport over the past two years. In what can arguably be construed as the worst comment he’s made thus far, perhaps Alalshikh caved in to possible endless complaints by Canelo Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KO’s) after he faced William Scull (23-1, 9 KO’s) who was “running” the entire fight―as Alvarez is clearly is incapable of or unwilling to cut off the ring and does not want to spend his time actually putting in effort to land on his upcoming September 13th opponent, Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KO’s)―who will obviously not allow a “bigger man” to have his way with him through the entire match by just standing in the ring and trading.
“From this point on, I don’t want to see any more Tom and Jerry-type boxing matches where one fighter is running around the ring and the other is chasing him,” Alalshikh posted on social media.
“We can longer support these kind of fights with Riyadh Season and The Ring. We want to support fighters who leave it all in the ring and fight with heart and pride!“
Alalshikh’s reaction is quite odd and reactionary, showing himself to be easily swayed by public opinion or the ears of fighters who dislike putting in effort to cut off the ring. Throughout the plethora of Riyadh Season shows held over the past two years, there were relatively no “Tom and Jerry-type” boxing matches that occurred.
Yet the fallout of mostly Alvarez’ match with Scull, and perhaps Devin Haney’s match with Jose Carlos Ramirez, made for a skewed outlook on what’s the actual reality; that being there haven’t been that many “Tom and Jerry” fights to begin with to prompt such a fierce reaction.
Alalshikh’s response that “we can no longer support these kind of fights with Riyadh Season and The Ring” suggests this is a common occurrence, which it isn’t.
There’s also the reality that no promoter or organizer can change how another fighter fights unless they’re closely involved in a fighter’s development, which means investments etc. to ensure that fighter competes exactly the way Alalshikh wants.
Which sounds a lot like a dictatorship.
Not to say Turki Alalshikh isn’t wrong about the lack of entertainment that comes from “Tom and Jerry” fights, however few have occurred on his cards, but the lack of any sort of criticism regarding fighters that are incapable of cutting off the ring is astounding.
It’s clear bias rooted from a need to see fighters seek to demolish each other in the ring, despite there being plenty of attractive fighting styles that does not just involve standing in the middle of the ring and brawling.
Moreover, there is a reason some fighters do not simply stand in the center and trade from start to finish; with some, as fans often refer to, lacking the power or having weak chins preventing them from doing so, while others simply refuse to incur needless brain damage for the entertainment of fans.
There are ways to address what Alalshikh is concerned about. No one wants to see a lack of engagement in fights; something that occurred during the fight between Ryan Garcia and Rolando Romero, both of whom were not “running” in any sense and largely stood in the center of the ring yet broke one of the records for throwing the fewest punches in a 12-round fight.
Yet Alalshikh was clearly not referring to the Romero-Garcia fight.
All it shows is bias and a sheer misinterpretation of facts, one that skews what’s actually going on which is why Alalshikh’s plea appears so backwards, as he is not spurring fighters to improve and become more complete―he’s only trying to showcase a battle of flat-footed fighters as two fighters standing in the middle of the ring and giving each other brain damage is considered entertainment these days.
Yet the entirety of the sport is boxing is a lot more than just that. Something one would expect a thorough boxing fan like Alalshikh to understand.
Instead of pushing all fighters to improve, Alalshikh aims to single out fighters who prefer to box from the outside as he finds that less entertaining―or at least the public does.
And that’s the best he seems to be able to do at this point, after all these years and investments.
Point a finger, impose his authority on others, all based on a small sample size of fights that does not reflect the actual overall performance of his cards.
All signs of what is essentially a tyrant or someone that doesn’t know boxing.
Or both.
