Gareth A. Davies is in a unique position on this whole thing as one of the only leading MMA and boxing journalists.
Certainly in the last twenty years, Davies of The Telegraph and others in the UK, and internationally, has been one of the few, along with Kevin Iole of Yahoo in the US, that have covered both boxing and MMA at the highest level.
So, the new UFC of boxing type league and promotion announced this week by Turki Alalshikh and Dana White, is right up Davies’ alley.
Speaking to Boxing King Media Davies went into detail on his view:
Interviewer: Okay, so just tell us initially—what do you think is going on? Because we’ve seen His Excellency, Dana White, and Nick Khan, who, you know, they do all the organizing of the events. They basically plan, do all the structure around the events, and make sure everything’s running smoothly for the fighters and people who attend them—and the fans. So, what does this actually mean? Does this mean they’ve set up a promotional company to rival Matchroom, Queensberry, and they’re going to have their own set of fighters? Or are they going to work alongside them?
Gareth A. Davies: That’s the bit I think you can take away—the word ‘to rival them.’ Because I don’t think it’s set up to deliberately go against them. But what Turki Alalshikh—it’s the biggest shift we’ve seen so far in the 18 months that Turki Alalshikh has been involved. I’ve been very transparent about this now. And you might have been aware of this as well. I was fortunate to be in some deep-level, top-level meetings with Turki Alalshikh at the very beginning, before Battle of the Baddest, in which he said, ‘I want to create a known champion in every weight division. I want to return boxing to what it was 50 years ago, and I want it to be fan- and fighter-first. I want to revolutionize the sport. I want to have divisions. I want to have leagues.’ So, he’s gotten to that point, and he’s decided—and it’s the biggest shift we’ve seen so far—it’s very multifaceted, very layered. And, by far, the most powerful man in boxing, Turki Alalshikh, is joining forces with the most powerful promoter in MMA. And Dana White’s a boxing guy from the beginning. It’s a mandate—this is my top line on it, and I’ve repeated it a few times—it’s the mandate from Turki for Dana White to radically change boxing as the head man.
Interviewer: So, Dana White’s been saying for 10 years he wanted to get back into boxing.
Gareth A. Davies: White, I’d say, started as a boxing guy. The TKO Group Holdings owns both the UFC and the WWE—they’re worth $12 billion. Nick Khan has been talking with Turki Alalshikh for a year, and I think he introduced the two men. They’ve been in talks, and Dana White has proven that he’s not part of the old school—he’s part of the new school. He wants the best to fight the best—we know that. But my view is they will use the Ring Magazine rankings. They’ll use the Ring Magazine belt. It spells a difficult period for the four sanctioning bodies, although the WBC has obviously been involved in this five-event Grand Prix in Riyadh. And they’re going to be running it in four different weight divisions. That’s probably a test—and a promotional test—for the WBC.
And I know that George (Warren) and Frank Warren are over in America—no doubt they’ll have meetings with Turki, and no doubt Eddie Hearn will. They can’t have not known any of this was coming because they’re quite close to him and work with him all the time. We were only out there two weeks ago. But I think my view—and it’s only my view—is that having seen him get everyone to work together piece by piece, I think he’s going to get everyone to work together with Dana White at this top level as well. And I think they will all work under the umbrella of Turki Alalshikh, Ring Magazine, and TKO. I think Duane will still carry on with Oscar (Golden Boy Promotions), Queensberry, and Matchroom. I think they’ll be—and remember, this is only the top tier they’re talking about in the weight divisions, the top—so everyone’s going to cooperate together around that. The top 20 fighters in the world. There’s still going to be medium events. You look on BoxRec for Friday and Saturday—there’ll be 90 events around the world. It’s not going to stop boxing from happening around the world. Boxing was happening before Turki Alalshikh came along 18 months ago, and it’ll happen after he’s gone—when and if he goes from the sport. Ring Magazine was around 102 years ago. All it is is a revolution right now in the way things are going to be delivered—hopefully for the better.”
Some very spot on stuff there from Davies, a man who knows the professional boxing and MMA industries well.
Already some reports earlier have suggested that Eddie Hearn is looking to possibly retire (leading promoter from Matchroom Boxing) from the sweet science soon.
Another thing, too, as in, one thing that Davies, and maybe no one else yet either has brought up, is what if this new league and promotion from White, Turki Alalshikh, Khan and others, given its size alluded to above in monetary terms — were to actually buy out some of the other promoters and organizations in boxing.
This isn’t out of the realms of possibilities either boxing fans need to realize.
If you are boxing fan don’t you want to see it all unified and the best fighting the best like back in the eighties or before that even?
When baseball stadiums in America used to be packed out for world title fights?
When Muhammad Ali and George Foreman filled a stadium in Africa outdoors in the Rumble in the Jungle?
When free television networks around the world showed major world title fights free to air for the general public to watch?
Or if on pay per view reasonable prices with good production for viewers?
At reasonable times in each country where possible?
Involving boxers and events from all over the world with the best fighting the best?
Consistently so done with seeing the sport able to have replacement quality opponents step in on short notice if injuries occur to avoid big events been shelved?
This is the type of times ahead for the sport and boxing fans surely want to see these days come back to what is, after all, the greatest sport on Earth.
