Canelo Alvarez and Turki Alalshikh

On September 14, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez won a lopsided unanimous decision over Edgar Berlanga at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Canelo did what he was supposed to do against a game but overmatched opponent. But the event had far-reaching implications because of larger issues that were involved.

First the fight…

For the past decade, Alvarez has been boxing’s most reliable and bankable star. He began boxing professionally aged 15 and has fashioned a 62-2-2 (39 KOs) ring record over 19 years. During one 11-bout stretch, he fought Gennady Golovkin three times, Danny Jacobs, Sergey Kovalev, Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, and Dmitry Bivol with less challenging outings against Rocky Fielding and Avni Yildirim included in that mix. The Fielding and Yildirim fights were necessary because no fighter can win and retain all four major sanctioning body belts – in Canelo’s case, at 168lbs – without fighting some paper champions and undeserving mandatory challengers along the way.

Alvarez emerged from those 11 fights with nine wins, one loss, and a draw. 

Canelo-Berlanga was a fight that few people who didn’t have a financial interest in Edgar wanted to see. 

Berlanga began his career with 16 consecutive first-round knockouts against carefully-chosen opponents. Then the level of opposition rose and he went the distance in his next five outings against opponents who have been knocked out by other fighters 11 times. In his most recent fight, he stopped the lightly-regarded Padraig McCrory in six rounds. Nothing on his resume indicated that he would be competitive against Canelo. 

Eric Raskin offered his take on the matter, noting that in recent bouts Alvarez had pivoted to fighting less formidable opposition than before and writing: “If you’re not a little old, a little undersized, made to order with a one-dimensional style, or all of the above, you’re probably not fit for what Canelo wants to do.”

Berlanga, of course, had a different view. At the kick-off press conference, he advanced the delusional narrative that he’d received the nod as Canelo’s opponent because he has “superstar status” and David Benavidez – often mentioned as a more challenging opponent for Canelo – doesn’t. Later, Edgar added: “I’m a star. I have everything. I can fight. I look good. I’m appealing. I’m Puerto Rican with an island behind me. I have the whole package, which is what you need in the sport of boxing to become a star.”

Actually, Berlanga was born and raised in Brooklyn, although his parents are from Puerto Rico. 

Edgar also sought to create controversy when he said of Canelo: “I didn’t like it when he smiled at me at the press conference. I felt like he was taking me as a joke. I’m from the hood in New York. If you’re smiling at my face, that’s disrespectful.”

As for how he could beat Canelo, Berlanga, a 14-to-1 underdog, predicted a knockout and advised the media: “I’m training for IQ, intelligence, and being smart.”

Later, Edgar added: “Canelo is overlooking me. He’s 100 per cent doubting my fighting IQ and experience. He thinks it’s a cakewalk for him. He thinks it’s a walkthrough, but he’s going to walk into a brick wall. I’m a knockout artist. Sixth-round knockout; that’s what we’re going for.”

“It’s easy to say you’ll knock me out,” Canelo countered. “But it’s much more difficult to do it. Saturday night is gonna be very difficult for him, for sure.”

Jim Lampley – who provided live commentary on the fight for PPV.com – spoke for many when he assessed the presumably one-sided nature of the bout and acknowledged: “To most ringside reporters, this feels perfunctory. It’s up to Canelo to deliver an outcome exciting enough to reinforce his credentials as boxing’s biggest dollar-for-dollar star. He needs to win in spectacular fashion to make this choice worthwhile.”

Canelo-Berlanga headlined the fourth Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view card for which Amazon was the primary platform. In December, PBC and Amazon announced that Prime Video would distribute PBC pay-per-view events on a non-exclusive basis. The deal gave PBC a huge platform to build on. But to date, Amazon has provided little in the way of marketing support. And Showtime-PPV’s marketing machine has been sorely missed.

The first three PBC pay-per-view shows on Prime Video – Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora, Canelo-Jaime Munguia, and Gervonta Davis-Frank Martin – fell short of anticipated pay-per-view buys. And a promised series of “free” PBC Championship Boxing fight cards to be shown in the United States exclusively on Amazon Prime has been slow to materialize.

Canelo was guaranteed a reported $35 million to fight Berlanga. Edgar’s purse was in the high seven figures. If the pay-per-view tanked, it would be a financial disaster for PBC. Unlike Turki Alalshikh – the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority – PBC impresario Al Haymon is loath to lose millions of dollars on a show.

Questions about Haymon were a subplot to Canelo-Berlanga. He likes to be his own boss. How long would he be able to maintain his independence in the face of the Saudi tide? And where was Haymon? In recent months, he has been even more inaccessible than before.

The announced sell-out crowd of 20,312 on fight night was a tribute to Canelo’s drawing power. Two of the undercard fights warrant comment.

Trevor McCumby gave Caleb Plant more of a fight than most people thought he would. Or maybe Plant was less prepared than he should have been. Either way, McCumby dropped Plant in round four and was half of an entertaining slugfest that continued until Trevor, still on his feet, was stopped at the bell ending round nine.

At the other end of the spectrum, the “co-main event” matching Erislandy Lara with Danny Garcia was dreadful. 

Lara is a 41-year-old Cuban expatriate whose last significant victory was against Austin Trout in 2013. Garcia, aged 36, had one win in the previous 55 months – against Jose Benavidez, who in turn has had one win in the past six years. Somehow, this qualified Garcia – who had never fought at middleweight – to fight Lara for the WBA middleweight championship.

Garcia embarrassed himself. He fought like he was there to pick up a paycheck and nothing more. Danny landed a total of 33 punches in nine rounds. Discard round eight – which Lara took off – and that number drops to 23 punches landed over eight stanzas. The crowd started booing, whistling, and jeering midway through round one. Garcia fought so passively that Angel Garcia – his father and chief second – repeatedly asked, “Are you okay?”. Finally, in round nine, Danny was dropped by what the commentator Joe Goossen called “a little dinker left hand” (or maybe he took a knee) and Angel called a halt to the proceedings.

Then came the main event.

There has been talk that Canelo is slipping; that 66 fights over 19 years have taken a toll. His past six fights have gone the distance. But he’s still a formidable force.

Think of watching a great actor in a play. Not every play that Laurence Olivier starred in was written by William Shakespeare. But Olivier was always worth watching to see a great craftsman at work.

Canelo-Berlanga matched an all-time great – a skilled defensive fighter with fast hands who can whack and might have the best chin in boxing – against a straight-ahead puncher who had never fought a world-class opponent.

Berlanga fought cautiously for most of the fight while Canelo stalked, never giving Edgar time to rest, and breaking him down with hard thudding blows. Berlanga fought credibly. He was dropped by a left hook in round three, took a beating, and didn’t fold. At times he turned chippy. Often, he was in survival mode. He just wasn’t good enough. The 118-109, 118-109, 117-111 scorecards in Canelo’s favor were charitable to Edgar.

Through it all, the shadow of Turki Alalshikh loomed over the proceedings. That calls for comment on a supervening issue.

The General Entertainment Authority has the deepest pockets in the history of boxing. As Tris Dixon observed: “Money the likes of which boxing has never seen before is sloshing through the sport.”

The scene is evocative of a billionaire on a shopping spree at high-end stores on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Shops are opened after hours for his pleasure. His taste is praised by obsequious sellers no matter what he buys.

It’s hard to compete with or say no to someone who has unlimited resources, is willing to spend them, and doesn’t have to balance a budget. And the Saudis keep spending to enlarge their influence in boxing. One informed source says that Riyadh Season recently agreed to pay $2,000,000 to the World Boxing Council and $1,500,000 to the World Boxing Association as sponsorship fees.

Meanwhile, Turki Alalshikh is beginning to sound more authoritarian in his quest to become the dominant player in boxing; more heavy-handed in his pronouncements; more openly adversarial towards those who don’t adhere to his wishes.

Articles and video content have been altered or pulled down in their entirety from boxing websites because of a concern that Saudi interests might be or were offended. There have been suggestions that offending journalists might be denied credentials for future Riyadh Season fight cards and other fight-related events.

When John Sheppard declined to sell BoxRec.com to Saudi interests earlier this year, he was hit by a wave of hostile activity that is still being sorted out. 

Turki Alalshikh is also said to be on the verge of acquiring The Ring, which would give him control over the magazine’s championship belts and rankings.

Donald McRae – one of the most respected boxing writers in the world – recently declared: “I think that he [Turki Alalshikh] has some good ideas. But already, his desire for control and his ego are threatening to undercut these positive aspects. He clearly does not like it when people say ‘No’ to him, whether that be Canelo Alvarez or John Sheppard. That seems ominous to me.”

And McRae added: “I can’t get past the fact that Saudi Arabia is using boxing – just as it is using football and golf – to try and portray an image of the country that glosses over the reality of the oppression that still disfigures large parts of the country.”

Attorney Kurt Emhoff is in accord, and noted: “There is now little mention of sportswashing in boxing. The Saudi Arabian involvement under the Riyadh Season banner has been normalized rather than scrutinized in many quarters, and those not part of the merrymaking are seen as bitter dissenters and party-poopers rather than impartial judges.”

Turki Alalshikh seems to enjoy the spotlight. Riyadh Season boxing telecasts show him entering arenas and embracing virtually every celebrity who comes his way. His name is spoken with reverence by television commentators. On August 7, he posted an image of himself on X beside the legend “The Face of Boxing”.

And it’s hard to forget a moment that occurred during the August 3 telecast of Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov when Rich Marotta, who founded the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, announced in the ring that His Excellency had been selected for honorary induction into the NBHOF. To date, His Excellency has never been involved with a boxing match in Nevada. 

Moreover, Turki Alalshikh has become increasingly outspoken with regard to fighters who don’t bend to his will. Canelo Alvarez is a case in point.

In May, Canelo said: “I can fight with any fighter and win my good money. I can do whatever I want at this time. I deserve it because I did everything in my career and I deserve to be in this position.”

Turki Alalshikh viewed things differently. He wanted Canelo to commit to fighting Crawford under the Riyadh Season banner in February 2025. On August 3, he declared: “I give him the offer. If he is smart, he will accept it.”

Canelo didn’t accept it. Three days later he responded, saying: “I respect everybody but I don’t like the way he [Alalshikh] talks. It’s his problem, not my problem. I didn’t ask for a fight. They wanted to meet with me and see about the fight with Crawford in February. I said, ‘Look, I’m not interested in talking about another fight. After September 14 [when I fight Edgar Berlanga], we can talk. But not right now’.”

That earned a harsh rejoinder from Alalshikh, who responded on X: “I heard what Canelo said, that he respects me but doesn’t like the way we do business. As for him respecting me, it doesn’t matter to me if he does or not. As for the way I do business, I know why he doesn’t like it because I only target big fights at fair prices, so of course anyone who likes easy fights won’t like that. And I know how he feels after losing to Bivol, so he’s been looking for easier fights ever since. Also, I’m not the one who’s afraid of fighting Benavidez or Crawford. Therefore, I knew he was wasting our time and making excuses. So I’m continuing my way to make big fights that serve the boxing world, and he’s on his way to making easy show-only fights.”

Later, when asked about the possibility of fighting under the Riyadh Season banner, Canelo answered: “I never say never. We’ll see. Who knows? Maybe in the future. I’m not begging anyone, and I’m in no hurry.”

Meanwhile, Saudi financial support enabled the UFC to hold a competing Riyadh Season event in The Sphere in Las Vegas on the same night as Canelo-Berlanga. As the tension between Canelo and Alalshikh escalated, His Excellency uncharitably said of Canelo: “We will eat him.” Alalshikh sat next to Crawford at the UFC event.

Turki Alalshikh also voiced displeasure with Tim Tszyu, who turned down the opportunity to fight Vergil Ortiz in order to pursue a match against Bakhram Murtazaliev for the IBF 154lbs title on October 19 under the auspices of PBC on Amazon Prime.

“I will not work with Tim Tszyu,” His Excellency said. “Let him do his way. He doesn’t understand.”

Referencing that history, Elliot Worsell wrote: “Dissenters run the risk of isolating themselves and becoming outcasts. Tim Tszyu, for example, was recently given the Alalshikh cold shoulder, on camera no less, presumably for not agreeing to hold hands and instead wanting to maintain some autonomy in his career. Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez has felt the wrath of ‘His Excellency’ for playing hard ball with Terence Crawford, Alalshikh’s favorite new toy. That was the wrong answer, it turned out, and now Alvarez has made himself an enemy and in so doing revealed a side of Alalshikh previously concealed from the public. More outspoken now and more bullish, Alalshikh clearly doesn’t like being told ‘No’ and was, before hearing it said, firmly of the belief that his crusade in boxing would go unopposed.”

Turki Alalshikh, with his money and methods, has done things that hitherto seemed impossible. One of these things has been to get Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn to work cooperatively in the pursuit of big fights. Another has been to turn Al Haymon and PBC into sympathetic underdogs. Some PBC fighters have appeared on Riyadh Season fight cards. But PBC on Amazon has become a sanctuary for fighters like Alvarez and Tszyu, who want to chart their own course and have the power to do so.

Looking ahead; Saturday’s fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in London is expected to be Riyadh Season’s most successful boxing venture to date. There will be an enormous enthusiastic crowd, solid pay-per-view numbers, and the possibility that the fight will pay for itself rather than run millions of dollars in the red. Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol, October 12, and the rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, December 21, will follow. The latter two bouts are expected to be good fights that lose millions – if not tens of millions – of dollars.

The much-talked-about Saudi-backed boxing league seems stalled for now. And managers are reporting that the purses the General Entertainment Authority is paying for most undercard fights have dropped significantly in recent months.

Surveying the scene, one promoter observes: “There will always be another gold rush in boxing. The mother lode in this one is richer than most. But in the end, it will be mined out and we’ll all go looking for the next one.”

Meanwhile, this is boxing. So Canelo Alvarez and Turki Alalshikh may well do business together in the future. But Canelo has earned the right to fight on his own terms and has the clout to assert his independence. If he were running around telling everyone that he’s the greatest fighter of all time, the opponents he’s choosing now would merit more critical scrutiny. But Canelo isn’t doing that. He has consistently said that he’s building his legacy as he chooses and it will be for other people to judge his place in history. There’s nothing wrong with that. His body of work speaks for itself. 

It would be nice if the new “Face of Boxing” were a little more respectful toward a man who has given his life to the fight game, spent decades in the gym, and actually been punched in the face. 

Thomas Hauser’s email address is [email protected]. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.