Turki Alalshikh put fighters on notice today, letting them know that he wants his Riyadh Season cards to focus on action fighters who come to fight and entertain. Without naming names, Turki said he doesn’t want to see any more Tom and Jerry-type boxing matches where one fighter is running around the ring and the other is chasing him.”
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom)
No More Running Fights
It should be this way. Focus the Riyadh Season cards on action fighters that come to fight and are willing to mix it up. To rebuild the sport, focusing on entertaining the fans is crucial. The boring fighters should be phased out by not being used in cards. That’s the easiest way for Turki to change the sport.
Runners make fans not want to watch boxing because it’s difficult to watch, and people have better things to do with their lives than to be subjected to that style.
Outdated Styles Must Go
With the stiff competition that boxing has with other sports, the Internet, and movies, fighters who use the outdated 1990s hit-and-not-get-hit style don’t fit in this era. There’s too much competition now. Safety-first movers can’t be used on cards because they’re poison, causing people to avoid watching.
The Times Square event last month received widespread criticism for the boring performances put in by Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez. Both moved continuously and refused to stand their ground against opposition that they were favored to beat. The next night, William Scull used a lot of movement in his fight against Canelo Alvarez on May 3rd. That fight was unbelievably boring..
Turki’s card next month on July 12th has Shakur Stevenson fighting William Zepeda in the co-feature slot at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York. Tickets for that event have not been selling thus far, and some fans believe that Shakur is one of the reasons for that. He has a dull fighting style that has led to him being booed in some of his recent fights.
The Grandfather Clause Idea
It’s a given that Stevenson is going to run all night from Zepeda, because he doesn’t stand a chance of beating him if he stands his ground. Zepeda is too strong and throws too many punches for a light-hitter like Shakur. It’s too late for Turki to kick Shakur off the card, and he’s incapable of change without it ruining his career, such as it is.
If Turki is going to continue using fighters like Shakur and Haney for their careers, he would need a special grandfather clause, similar to the one in Major League Baseball. When the spitball was banned in 1920, a grandfather clause was given to the spitball pitchers who had used that pitch throughout their careers.
They were allowed to continue using that pitch through the remainder of their careers. So there were a handful of spitball pitchers who were exempt from the new rule. Therefore, if Turki wishes to continue using the runners, Haney, Shakur, and Teofimo in his Riyadh Season events, he can exempt them from the new rule by utilizing the grandfather clause. The new ‘no runners allowed’ rule would only apply to other fighters selected for the Riyadh Season events.
However, it would be better to simply sweep those three out, too, if they can’t change their fighting styles to become more entertaining. Teofimo used to be an action fighter until recently. He’s been transformed into Shakur 2.0.
From this point on, I don’t want to see any more Tom and Jerry-type boxing matches where one fighter is running around the ring and the other is chasing him. We can longer support these kind of fights with Riyadh Season and The Ring. We want to support fighters who leave it all…
— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) June 11, 2025