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Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority and president of the Saudi Boxing Federation, is not stopping at reenergizing the public popularity of the boxing industry. He is doing a lot more.

Alalshikh made it clear in Las Vegas this past week that he is determined to give the sport the badly needed boost it needs to reach worldwide audiences in greater numbers.

The idea of empowering boxing and other sports began in 2018, when Alalshikh laid out his ideas during a meeting with King Salman and leading sports promoters. He aimed to bring professional sports to �������� in a big way, while boosting them throughout the Middle East and even the world.

Alalshikh has certainly succeeded. Not only has he put professional boxing back at the top of worldwide public interest, but he has also changed the public focus on the sport, which in the past had only a narrow interest in the heavyweight division. He has broadened the sport’s appeal to the wider public.

Alalshikh did that by changing boxing’s narrow focus on heavyweight title fights to include all weight divisions, thereby increasing public interest.

Enthusiasm for the Alalshikh-promoted Canelo-Crawford fight was record-setting and worldwide

Ray Hanania

Boxing bouts are organized based on the weight of the fighters. There are 17 official weight divisions in professional men’s boxing, ranging from strawweight (under 105 lbs) to heavyweight (200 lbs-plus). These divisions are designed to ensure fairer and safer competition by grouping fighters of similar body weights. The divisions provide a clear structure, allowing for better matchups and a greater variety of fighters to be competitive.

Up until the 1960s, boxing was more of an insider sport. In 1964, Muhammad Ali intensified the spotlight on the heavyweight division, taking it out of the control of organized crime and attracting attention from the broader public.

Ali, who had strong ties to Islam and the Arab world, had a personality that made his bouts exciting, although the fact he was a heavyweight meant this division still overshadowed the others. Hollywood movies also helped bolster the public’s interest in boxing beyond the mob and the gamblers.

Alalshikh is now elevating public interest in all the weight divisions. That showed with his promotion of last Saturday’s super middleweight bout between champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Terence “Bud” Crawford in Las Vegas. In the past, the super middleweight division received only secondary billing under the intensely bright spotlight of the heavyweight division, meaning it got lower ratings.

Enthusiasm for the Alalshikh-promoted Canelo-Crawford fight was record-setting and worldwide, something that had not been seen since the 2015 welterweight fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, which drew a record 4.4 million pay-per-view purchases.

In significant contrast, more than 41 million people watched the Canelo-Crawford fight on Netflix, while there was also a record attendance of 70,482 at Allegiant Stadium, where the bout took place.

One of Alalshikh’s biggest achievements has been to make boxing and other sports more affordable

Ray Hanania

The fight was billed with the same enthusiasm that surrounded past heavyweight division fights that featured Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, George Foreman and Mike Tyson, all African American champion fighters. Crawford’s victory over the previously undisputed champion Alvarez has reawakened the enthusiasm for boxing among African Americans.

One of Alalshikh’s biggest achievements has been to make boxing and other sports more affordable for the public.

The average Major League Baseball contract salary in 2025 is $5.2 million, although some of the biggest stars have received more than $70 million. These rapidly rising salaries have dramatically increased the cost of tickets, along with those of ancillary items, from food concessions to souvenirs — a major deterrent that reduced crowd sizes.

In the past, Netflix had also imposed a supplemental cost to its subscribers to watch live special events like boxing. Even Netflix subscribers had to purchase a “viewing ticket” to see such fights. However, the Canelo-Crawford bout was available for free to all subscribers, not just in the US and Canada but around the world.

Alalshikh’s achievements in sports so far have been brilliant. He has expanded the focus on boxing from primarily the heavyweight division to all divisions, meaning there are many great fighters in the lower weight divisions that are receiving much more attention today than they would have done a decade ago. And Alalshikh has helped bring such events to the public without requiring them to pay a hefty one-off fee.

With WrestleMania 43 coming to �������� in 2027 and more sports likely to follow and expand in the same way under Alalshikh’s guidance, competitive sports have never had it so good. Neither has the public, which can enjoy these high-profile events without breaking the bank.

What Alalshikh has done for boxing is a major first-round knockout for the entire sporting industry.

• Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com. X: @RayHanania