General Entertainment Authority (GEA) chairman and Riyadh Season organizer Turki Alalshikh appears to be gradually implementing his reported vision for boxing after him and WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman jointly announced an upcoming boxing tournament during the 62nd annual WBC Convention; the WBC Grand Prix.
Earlier this year, GEA chairman Turki Alalshikh had been reported as one of the possible parties planning a major boxing tournament or league and now appears to be putting the beginning parts of this plan into motion with the recently-announced “WBC Grand Prix”. As revealed during the WBC’s 62nd annual convention, held this year from December 8 to December 14 in Hamburg, Germany, Turki Alalshikh and WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman jointly announced the upcoming tournament on Monday, December 9th.
The “WBC Grand Prix”will see over one-hundred prospects of four different weight classes compete in a competition that will ultimately verge into a round of finals, including a quarter-final and a semi-final. Participants of the tournament can not be aged older than 26 and will have to have less than 10 professional fights on their record in order to compete.
The tournament is scheduled to start next year in February and will see the finals, held over 10 rounds, be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
During Monday’s convention, Turki Alalshikh was further rewarded with the WBC’s “Man of the Year” award for his contributions to boxing through Riyadh Season. Riyadh Season was founded in October 19 and is organized by the Alalshikh-run GEA but only officially appeared to be involved in boxing in 2023 starting with the spectacle bout between Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KO’s) and MMA fighter Francis Ngannou (0-2, 0 KO’s).
Alalshikh’s first foray in boxing would be a mixed affair as Fury would shockingly go the full 10 rounds with heavyweight (200+ lbs) debutant Ngannou during a fight that would prominently question the integrity of boxing―though the reputation of the sport would eventually be rescued by Anthony Joshua (28-4, 25 KO’s) who arguably ended Ngannou’s boxing career with a stunning knockout in the 2nd round of their fight held in February of this year.
Since then, however, Alalshikh has firmly entrenched himself in the sport of boxing, helping to organize a multitude of notable cards where the highest-rated boxers over the world competed against each other. This became more prevalent this year as would be seen through the May 8th undisputed heavyweight card featuring Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, the August 3rd Crawford-Madrimov LA card and the 5 vs.5 Matchroom-Queensberry card held on June 1st.
A notable characteristic of Riyadh Season cards is the competitive nature of the many fights which gradually increased with every card that would subsequently be announced. 2025 is set to herald in contests even more relevant as was recently announced with the upcoming February 22nd Beterbiev-Bivol card which will see an array of fights on the undercard that could have been hoisted as a main event in its own right.
While the WBC Grand Prix has been styled as boxing’s “World Cup” by Sulaiman, which was purportedly his father’s―the late Jose Sulaiman and founder of the WBC―dream, the tournament appears to be very much in its beginning phase of a project with only boxing prospects allowed to compete. However, it can potentially be the precursor to a more relevant competition that could rival or even surpass the likes of the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) which saw an array of top contenders and actual world champions compete for all four of the sanctioning bodies’ titles in an official tournament held over one or two years.
