Is Saudi Arabia the New Boxing Capital of the World?
The past several years have been crucial for Saudi Arabia in sports. In 2021, Jeddah hosted the nation’s first-ever Formula 1 race in the heat of Lewis Hamilton’s titanic championship battle with Max Verstappen. The night race was a spectacle that poured millions of dollars into the community and supplied hundreds of jobs. However, one sport is even more prominent in the region than Formula 1: boxing. In fact, in recent years, Saudi Arabia has emerged as the next capital of boxing, with the sport bringing a tremendous economic and cultural boom to the nation. Let’s look at the impact that boxing is having in the area and how it will continue to grow.
The History of Boxing in Saudi Arabia
Las Vegas has been the unwritten but widely recognized home of boxing for decades, with many of the top fights with the best boxers taking place in Sin City. Despite that, Saudi Arabia has had its fair share of boxing history. From Mohammed Ali’s visit to the Kingdom in 1972 to Anthony Joshua’s fight against Oleksandr Usyk in 2022. Across those 50 years, Saudi Arabia has remained one of boxing’s staple locations, with fans of the sport calling it home.
However, it wasn’t until recently that significant fights began taking place in the kingdom. The Joshua v. Usyk fight may have been the biggest fight to date when it took place just two years ago. Now, Saudi Arabia will host the undisputed heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, which has every online sportsbook buzzing. What changed? It started with the Day of Reckoning card.
Why Is Boxing Booming in Saudi Arabia?
To put it bluntly, if the sport wasn’t already booming in Saudi Arabia, it is now thanks to the Day of Reckoning card, a massive, star-studded night of fighting in Riyadh in December 2023. The card featured heavyweight stars Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, Dmitry Bivol, Lyndon Arthur, and Daniel Dubois.
Image credit: Ekrem Osmanoglu via Unsplash
There were some hiccups, as is often expected. The supposed fight between Wilder and Joshua that could have come from the event was put to bed with Joseph Parker’s domination of Wilder in the co-main event. There were also criticisms of the schedule and the conflicts it created in the United States. The Day of Reckoning occurred just two days before Christmas and on the same day as an NFL doubleheader, making viewership in the United States lower than desired.
However, despite those issues, the event was a smash hit otherwise. Nearly 15 million people viewed the YouTube trailer alone, and few cards in the history of boxing have featured more top-flight boxing talent than the Day of Reckoning card.
This card helped Saudi Arabia land the historic undisputed heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, which is set to be one of the biggest and most highly anticipated fights in recent memory. All of these factors have led to Saudi Arabia being the heir apparent to being the next boxing capital of the world.
What Can We Expect From the Region in the Future?
As for the future, this boxing boom should only get bigger. Saudi Arabia has long sought to bring more professional sports to its country, but unlike other nations, it has the funding to do so. Veteran boxing promoter Frank Warren said that Saudi Arabia’s wealth will soon make it the fighting capital of the world. Unlike other professional sports leagues, boxing will never have a true home. Boxers don’t fight in a home stadium. It is a nomadic sport, and with such sports, destinations follow money — something Saudi Arabia has plenty of. In boxing, it is all about the prize fights and the pay-per-views, and just as fans came out in droves to Las Vegas for the past 50 years, fans will surely do the same here.
So what can we expect from the future? We can expect the sport to continue growing rapidly as long as the kingdom provides fans with epic fights on their turf. It can’t go without mentioning that Saudi Arabia has serious human rights problems, and those problems are worth discussing. Sports shouldn’t take the front seat in those instances.
However, similar to what is happening in golf with the new Saudi-based LIV Golf league, sports usually follow the money. And fans follow the sport. Despite seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton’s vocal opposition to racing in Jeddah, the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was a massive success. As long as the sport gives fans the best fighters on the best stage in Saudi Arabia, there won’t be any slowing it down.
Is Saudi Arabia the New Boxing Capital of the World?
While this might be the direction boxing is going, it’s too soon to make this declaration. However, the Fury-Usyk fight is a huge step in that direction. While the Day of Reckoning was a massive event, it didn’t give the competitive draw that Fury-Usyk brings. This is a historic, undisputed heavyweight title fight happening in Saudi Arabia. It might not be the boxing capital yet, but it is well underway.
