I imagine Turki Alalshikh left the final news conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for his mega boxing card feeling nauseous. He’s the most powerful man in boxing, but no matter how much power one wields, there is nothing one can do when a boxer isn’t physically able to compete.
Alalshikh is learning the same truth about individual sports, one that fight promoters have struggled with for years: Money or influence can’t keep someone from getting hurt or sick.
On Monday, Floyd Schofield fell ill and ordered out of his lightweight title bout with Shakur Stevenson. On Thursday, IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois got sick and was out of his title defense against Joseph Parker.
It’s crushing for Parker because he had a brilliant camp with Andy Lee and felt he was on the verge of a second reign. And it’s devastating for Triple D because victory would like have earned him a rematch with unified champion Oleksandr Usyk next.
Josh Padley got the call to replace Schofield, and the card lost a bit of luster. Martin Bakole will step in for Dubois. With those changes, the card looks just a little less stacked, a little less appealing.
It’s still a terrific card. Any show that has undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev rematching ex-champ Dmitry Bivol for the light heavyweight title is sturdy. We’ve still got Vergil Ortiz versus Israil Madrimov. Carlos Adames and Hamzah Sheeraz should be lights out. And Zhilei Zhang, the Andre the Giant-sized contender will face unbeaten Agit Kabayel for an interim heavyweight title.
It’s still good. Maybe a little less epic, but an entertaining card on paper worth the $26 price on DAZN and PPV.com.
Mikey Williams/Top Rank
Giant-sized heavyweight Zhilei Zhang squares off with Agit Kabayel.
This is never fun. A largely unknown 122-pounder named Manny Pacquiao stepped in on two weeks’ notice in 2001 to fight IBF champion Lehlo Ledwaba. Pacquiao destroyed Ledwaba in his first shot on the world stage and over the next two decades became one of the most iconic boxers in history.
The UFC swapped Brian Ortega for Dan Ige at UFC 303 just three hours before showtime. At UFC 311, Arman Tsarukyan pulled out of the main event mid-weight cut with a back injury.
Late cancellations have tended to hurt boxing more. Until recently, promoters rarely built deep undercards, whereas the UFC’s event structure makes it easier to absorb a last-minute hit.
But Alalshikh stacked this show with seven title fights, and while it stings to lose the two fights that changed, there is still much to look forward to on Saturday.
Stevenson is going to pummel Padley; there’s no question. He was a -1200 favorite to defeat Schofield, but the unbeaten Schofield is a young talent who was stepping up and had the potential to push one of the most talented fighters in the world outside his comfort zone.
Padley is game, but Stevenson could win this in his sleep. This isn’t a title fight so much as an expensive sparring session.
Bakole is better as a late-replacement than Padley. He has power and comes to fight, but in these situations you take what you can get.
“It’s a disaster for a show, a disaster for a promoter because somehow we have to find a replacement for Shakur Stevenson,” promoter Eddie Hearn said of Schofield’s withdrawal. “He’s been training for 12 weeks, [and] he’s ready to fight. We did that in a way that really warmed my soul. There was no doubt from His Excellency that he wanted to make sure Shakur Stevenson fought on Saturday. But in doing that we also gave another life changing opportunity to a fighter in Josh Padley.
“A guy that was in training, ready for that phone call to come, that got him out of bed and on a plane the next day for an opportunity to fight for a world title and financially secure himself. And in this sport, that has to be the aim. Fighters have to strive for legacy, but at the same time they have to make sure that financially they can live a great life after boxing.”
If Beterbiev-Bivol delivers like it should, much of the gnashing of teeth of the loss of Schofield and Dubois will be forgotten.
The main event features the world’s No. 4 and No. 6 pound-for-pound fighters in a rematch that delivered the first time, and could be even better now. It wasn’t Corrales-Castillo I or any of the three Gatti-Ward fights, but it was a fun, entertaining fight that left the audience engaged.
Both fighters could stand to be more aggressive, and Bivol hinted at a change in strategy that could accomplish that. He predicted the rematch would be more exciting than the first.
“All athletes want to win,” Bivol said. “We’re like gamblers, and of course I wasn’t a winner. Now I want to win. It’s burning inside of me. I want to change something because I can see where I was wrong and I want to change it.”
The Ortiz-Madrimov fight has a chance to be special. Madrimov is reminiscent of a young Gennadiy Golovkin, and Ortiz is one of the hardest-hitters in the sport.
They’re not one-dimensional sluggers, though, and when this card is in the books, don’t be surprised if Ortiz-Madrimov is the fight we’re still talking about.
“In my opinion, this is the best fight on the card,” Ortiz said. “I’m very excited to see all these fights in person. Very privileged to be here and I’m not going to let this opportunity go to waste.”
And that is the message that promoters need to learn. The deeper the card, the easier it is to weather the inevitable fall-out.
In the pay-per-view era, it has been more common than not to get a good main event and then a bunch of garbage down card.
Alalshikh paid to stack the card, though, and that decision is now bearing fruit.
The illnesses that cost Dubois and Schofield the opportunity to compete, though, are exactly why that needs to be done.
If this forces promoters to rethink how they build cards, then losing Dubois and Schofield won’t have been a disaster. It will have been a needed wake-up call.
Mikey Williams/Top Rank
Vergil Oritz (L) and Israil Madrimov could steal the show Saturday.