I was as excited as anyone about 'The Last Crescendo,' the boxing super card Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia that, for a change, featured a lot of fights I actually cared to see. The undercard was far better than the typical pay-per-view fare offered in the U.S., and at a third the price.
You know the cards I’m talking about: The ones where the favorites are so often so absurdly lopsided that if you hit a parlay on a couple of dogs, you could start loading up the truck and move to Beverly. Hills, that is. Swimming pools. Movie stars.
Yeah, that kind of a place.
The rematch for the undisputed light heavyweight title absolutely lived up to its billing. Dmitry Bivol rallied down the stretch to claim a majority decision by the same scores that Artur Beterbiev won on Oct. 12.
The curators of boxing’s superstar division, scarce as it is, have at the top of their to-do lists for Monday to start making space for super welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr. As a boxer, he was eerily reminiscent of his legendary promoter, Oscar De La Hoya (We’ll skip the personal stuff other than to say that Ortiz is a wonderful young man).
Then there was Callum Smith, who nipped Joshua Buatsi in the fight I might have been least interested in watching, but then found myself saying “possible Fight of the Year” in its immediate aftermath.
The show was mostly good stuff, easily an 8.75 or 9 out of 10.
But the question is, how many new fans did it make in the U.S.?
Existing fans appreciated the $25.99 price tag compared to the mind-boggling $79.99 for this week’s Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach show.
That price is unjustifiable. People complain about the cost of eggs and a boxing promoter has the gall to charge 80 bucks for a fight no one asked for. Nobody — NOBODY — was calling to see Davis fight Roach.
And yet, despite how good Riyadh’s card was, it was almost invisible in the U.S. To my knowledge, not a single story about it ran in an American newspaper. That’s beyond alarming.
It wasn’t just a lack of American interest. At the last minute, the event was moved from the swank new Kingdom Arena (26,000 capacity) to anb Arena (8,000), officially to “create a livelier atmosphere.”
Translation: They couldn’t sell enough tickets.
Saudi Arabia is using boxing as a way to boost tourism, but if they were expecting fans from Europe, Asia, or the U.S. to fly in, they badly miscalculated.
Yes, a number of Americans were flown to Saudi Arabia as guests of the Kingdom. But the number of Americans who bought tickets, booked a hotel and flew to Riyadh on their own dime? Let’s guesstimate it was fewer than the number of members of The Beatles and maybe even less than the number of members of Sonny & Cher.
Failing to meaningfully promote in the U.S. and sticking the vast majority of cards in Riyadh is a road to suicide for boxing in this country.
Mark Robinson/Matchroom
Engel Gomez (L) dropped a six-round decision to Mohammed Alakel on Saturday to drop to 0-43-2 in his last 45 bouts.
But that wasn’t even the worst of what happened Saturday. Let’s start by talking about Engel Gomez, who dropped a decision to Mohammed Alakel on the second bout on the card.
On Feb. 27, 2021, Gomez defeated Jenn Gonzalez by unanimous decision in a super flyweight bout in Nicaragua that improved his record to 8-0-1 with five knockouts.
Since then?
Try 0-43-2.
You can look it up.
He was 0-19-1 in 2024, 0-8-1 in 2023 and 0-11 in 2022. After his win over Gonzalez, he finished 2021 by losing his last four.
He’s not getting battered, only beaten. Over and over and over.
Only eight of his 54 fights have ended in knockout losses. The secret is that he’s fighting guys who are just starting.
He isn’t trying to win, and that’s a problem. The contract might as well come with a win bonus. It’s guaranteed.
This guy might set a record for facing unbeaten fighters. In his 54 bouts, including fighters making their pro debuts, he’s fought 45 opponents who had not lost.
Going backwards from Saturday, these are the records of his last 10 opponents at the time they met: 2-0, 4-0, 3-0-1, 2-0, 0-0, 10-1, 0-0, 11-0, 0-0 and 0-0.
When a promoter or a manager needs to get a fighter a win, they call Gomez. And while Gomez doesn’t take a dive, he clearly doesn’t try very hard (he’s also not very good).
It’s cheating the fans and it certifies the British Boxing Board of Control as a joke with a rubber stamp, as it regularly allows this nonsense since Gomez has become a staple throughout the U.K.
If the guy isn’t going to give an effort to win, he shouldn’t be licensed to fight. It’s these kinds of incidents that make boxing look bush league.
And then there’s Turki Alalshikh.
I’m not sure how to phrase what we saw him do during the middleweight title bout Saturday between Hamzah Sheeraz and champion Carlos Adames.
He somehow found out where the fight stood after 10 rounds, information that is not supposed to be available, and he notified Sheeraz’ corner.
Alalshikh is the Saudi government official and billionaire, estimated to be worth $2.8. billion, who has been arranging the funding for these huge cards. He had a strong rooting interest in Sheeraz.
Alalshikh walked over to Sheeraz’s corner after the 10th and told his trainers Sheeraz was down by two.
There was no open scoring in this fight, and the scorecards should be secret to everyone but the regulatory body until they’re announced at the conclusion of the fight.
Sheeraz at least knew he had to pick up the pace and try to knock Adames out in order to win. It gave him an unfair edge: A small one, but still an edge. That knowledge influences how the fight is fought.
Alalshikh has done a lot to resuscitate boxing, but this was a staggering abuse of power.
He didn’t surreptitiously do it. No, he flaunted it because he believes he’s bulletproof. He posted a video of himself on social media, essentially bragging about blatantly breaking the rules.
But who’s going to call him out?
It won’t be the promoters. They’re too busy guzzling at the trough.
Boxing has been run by mobsters, con men and hustlers of every sort for decades. They’ve finagled their way into positions of power and tried to squeeze a fast few bucks out of the business.
It’s just a way of the life for boxing, which the legendary columnist Jimmy Cannon once wrote is “the red light district of sports.”
Huge cards like ‘The Last Crescendo’ should be a celebration of the sport, boxing’s Super Bowl or its WrestleMania.
Instead, a night to remember became a magic trick gone wrong.
The public trust and faith in boxing in so many areas is ridiculously low, and it’s never going to be regained if there isn't a concerted effort to change it.
But get used to it. Accept it for what it is.
Do you think any promoter is going to step up, show some guts, and challenge Alalshikh on this?
If you do, you’re also one of the three or four who believe Engel Gomez has been trying his damnedest during this 0-43-2 skid.
But since boxing's been the red light district of sports for so long, why should we expect anything different?
Matt Richardson/Matchroom
Vergil Ortiz was one of the standouts of 'The Last Crescendo' with his win over Israil Madrimov.