Turki Alalshikh is not a fool, but too many people involved in boxing treat him like he is.
The Saudi businessman has become the most powerful figure in the sport given his deep personal wealth and his access to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The PIF is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, with assets close to $1 trillion.
Because of Alalshikh's personal wealth and access to the Saudi money, far too many in the sport — promoters, managers, media members and fighters — have fallen over backwards trying to get close to him.
What they’re really after, of course, is sticking a hand in his pocket.
And Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia and Canelo Alvarez did just that. They are three of the most highly paid fighters, and they competed Friday (Haney and Garcia) and Saturday (Alvarez) on cards financed, arranged and put together by Alalshikh.
What he got for his money was little more than a slap in the face from those three boxers in particular.
They stunk out the joint. Haney fought Jose Ramirez in the ring Alalshikh built in Times Square in New York — at a cost of tens of millions — and absolutely reeked.
Haney-Ramirez was one of the worst fights at the elite level I have ever seen. I’ve been sitting ringside in Vermont watching two pig farms throw down and yeah, it was bad. They also weren’t making north of $1 million, either.
Then Garcia followed, and was almost as terrible in a shocking loss to Rolly Romero.
And then Alvarez, the so-called face of boxing, might have been worse than either Haney or Garcia. He threw 152 punches in 12 rounds.
It might have been easier on the eyes to stick toothpicks in them than watch Alvarez ‘fight’ William Scull Saturday for the undisputed super middleweight title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Alalshikh, and boxing fans, were robbed in plain sight.
God bless promoter Oscar De La Hoya for speaking out on it on Sunday. A bleary-eyed De La Hoya, wearing a bathrobe and fresh out of bed, recorded a video excoriating the fighters on the cards on Friday and Saturday for their poor efforts.
“I feel bad for Turki, I really do,” De La Hoya said. “He’s paying all this money to the fighters to turn out, to show up and give the fight fans what they deserve, and that’s great fights. Show up.”
I’ve known De La Hoya for more than 30 years and have had my share of disagreements with him, particularly since he began promoting.
But he is 100 percent on the money blasting the athletes for their poor efforts.
Bad fights happen.
De La Hoya has taken plenty of swings at Alvarez over the years. The two had a bitter split and are frequently at odds. So it’s not surprising that De La Hoya would single out Alvarez for criticism.
He’s the guy who on his “Clapback Thursday” video on Instagram ends them with “And oh, Canelo? F*ck youuuuuuuu!”
So he’s not unbiased when it comes to Alvarez, but in this case, he’s once again correct.
Alvarez was close to a nine-figure deal to fight Jake Paul when Alalshikh came in and signed him at the last moment. Alalshikh’s deal with Canelo provided for the Scull fight and then a Sept. 12 bout in Las Vegas against Terence Crawford.
“Canelo? Jesus! Lord, come on,” De La Hoya said. “You’re getting paid all this money to fight against a runner who we all knew was going to run.
Cuban style? You chose him, and now you say you hate fighting runners? Well, then don’t fight runners!
“We all know who we want to see you in against, [David] Benavidez. Go up against Benavidez. Fight Benavidez. He won’t run. What’s wrong with that? It’s a good fight. But it’s sad. It really is. And you know it starts from the top, too. I mean, when you’re fighting for the money and not the legacy, every young fighter just follows that pattern.”
De La Hoya spoke three minutes of truth on Sunday. Hopefully, he rattled some cages.
If this is what boxing’s elite are going to bring to its richest stages, Turki may soon decide it’s not worth the money or the effort.
Worse, before he gets to that point, the fans may have decided once and for all it’s not worth their time.
Ryan Garcia (L) and Rolly Romero fought a less than pleasing bout on Friday in New York.