Saudi Arabia could be the savior fans are looking for, with His Excellency Turki Alalshikh saying today that he plans on bringing ‘The Face of Boxing’ Gervonta Davis and Devin Haney to his country for a mega-fight in 2024.
Alalshikh says he’s already sent a message to Gervonta’s manager, Al Haymon of PBC, to tell him about his interest in making a Haney-Davis fight in Saudi Arabia.
“I want him [Gervonta Davis], and I send a message now to Al Haymon – let’s do the job, brother. I want to see Haney in my country. I will try to do it in 2024,” said His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to DAZN Boxing.
With Turki Alalshikh’s ability to put together massive fights, there’s an excellent chance that he’ll be able to work with PBC to put together a deal between Tank (29-0, 27 KOs) and Haney (31-0, 15 KOs).
We’ll see if the Saudis can make this fight. There are still a lot of hurdles that they’ll need to overcome financially, particularly with the weight.
If Tank is going to be outweighed by 20 to 25 lbs on the night by a 165-lb Haney, he’s going to want to want it to be worthwhile for him to be giving up that much weight.
Ambition for a Global Stage
Saudi Arabia is becoming the place where the biggest fights are happening, at least thus far, for heavyweight cards. Now, it’ll be interesting to see if the Middle East can become a landing spot for the top 135 & 140-pounders, like Tank Davis & Devin Haney.
The two fighters have certainly shown interest in fighting, but Devin’s stubborn stance of not agreeing to any weight stipulations and believing he’s on the same level as Gervonta has undermined his cause.
Although his dad, Bill Haney, has been working hard at angering and shaming Tank into agreeing to fight him, it hasn’t worked. Tank is a little more worldly than that to get fooled into fighting Haney without having any A-side concessions.
Fueling the Fire
What’s interesting is that Alalshikh’s initial approach to making the Haney-Davis fight is by sending a message to Haymon, the manager for Gervonta, letting him know that he wants to bring him over to Saudi Arabia for this clash. He’s no longer with Mayweather Promotions as of April of last year.
