Boxing legend Teddy Atlas says Saudi Arabian promoter Turki Alalshikh is the ‘Face of Boxing’ today, not Canelo Alvarez or Tyson Fury. Atlas notes that His Excellency Alalshikh is making the big fights happen right now. Alalshikh has played a pivotal role in revitalizing interest in the sport.
Alalshikh, Boxing’s Potential Savior?
Some would argue that Alalshikh is singlehandedly saving the sport, bringing it back to where it was in the 1970s when boxing was shown on network television in the U.S.
The major networks no longer show the sport in the United States. Instead, it’s football and basketball, while boxing has been pushed to the margins.
Thus far, Alalshikh has focused on putting fights together in the heavyweight division involving popular fighters Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Francis Nganou, Deontay Wilder, and Anthony Joshua.
Without Alalshikh, we wouldn’t be seeing Fury vs. Usyk and Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev taking place, making him a very important person for the sport.
Ideally, Alalshikh will begin showing interest in the lighter-weight classes, like 135, 140, 147, 160, and 168, as those are the divisions that American fans focus on.
The heavyweight division has fallen out of favor with U.S fans are the dull Klitschko era and Fury having an ugly grapple styler that doesn’t appeal to the average U.S fan.
Atlas’s Endorsement
“If you’re going to get down to the reality of it, is Canelo the face of boxing? Is Fury the face of boxing? No,” boxing expert Teddy Atlas said to Probox TV. “Turki Alalshikh is the face of boxing because he’s making all these cards possible.”
Alalshikh is making British fans and promoters happy with his focus on the UK market, doing the 5v5 event with many UK fighters. Americans aren’t as excited about that competition, though. They want to see high-level fighters like Gervonta Davis, Shakur Stevenson, Abdullah Mason, and, to a certain extent, Devin Haney.
Fury, 35, is not the face of the sport because he’s not a big name in the U.S with casual fans, and he’s pretty old too. His fighting style is boring to American fans, who like fighting and not stand-up wrestling the way he does it.
Fury is seen as old, playing out his string, getting cash, and heading for retirement. There’s no way that he’s the Face of Boxing and not even the most popular guy in the UK. Anthony Joshua is the best heavyweight in Britain by a long shot.
Canelo has lost much of his popularity due to no longer fighting the guys fans want to see him in with. He was at the height of fame when he fought Gennadiy Golovkin the first two times, but after that, he veered away from fighting the best, focusing on guys like Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, and John Ryder.