Turki Alalshikh is the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and wields so much power in boxing that he is already looking ahead to matching the winner of the potential undisputed light heavyweight fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dimitri Bivol.
Alalshikh has made Saudi Arabia the new boxing capital of the world. He has organised some of the sport’s biggest nights, from Tyson Fury’s clash with Francis Ngannou to the December 23 card that pitted some of the world’s top heavyweights against one another.
And there is no time to pause since thatwith the first undisputed heavyweight fight scheduled for February 17, and just weeks later Francis Ngannou will take on Anthony Joshua in the Kingdom on March 8, though he has vowed to avoid YouTube fights in future.
Right now, negotiations are ongoing for two unbeaten light heavyweight talents Bivol and Beterbiev to come together and battle it out for all four belts at some point in summer, and Turki Alalshikh already knows who he wants the winner to face.
Speaking to DAZN, he outlined his plans and they involve the former IBF cruiserweight champion.
“I want to see the winner of Artur and Bivol to fight Jai Opetaia. We need to see this fight.”
He then said he wanted to get boxing back to being the global phenomenon it was in previous decades.
“Before, we see all the fighters fight the best of their generations. Before, if we said name the best athletes in America, in the 70s and 80s, half of them would be boxers.”
He is already doing a fine job of growing the sport’s popularity by making previously unmakable fights.