Last weekend, Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov reportedly lost $10 million in a Riyadh Season event at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. His Excellency Turki Alalshikh put on the event staged in Southern California rather than Las Vegas.
A Main Event That Poisoned the Well
Placing Crawford-Madrimov in the main event in SoCal was a cup of poison, and fans didn’t want to drink.
Losing $10M+ might not be a big deal for Turki if money is no object to the Saudis, but they can’t be pleased if they are concerned about making a profit. Journalist Kevin Iole says tickets were given away for the event to fill the BMO Stadium, yet it wasn’t full. Indeed, you could see many empty seats, even during the Crawford-Madrimov main event.
In hindsight, Turki’s decision to match Crawford against the little-known Madrimov was bad for a main-event fight. Fans in the U.S. aren’t familiar with the former WBA junior middleweight champion Madrimov, who came into the fight with just 11 pro fights and was a complete unknown.
Empty Seats Despite Giveaways
“The Crawford-Madrimov card in Los Angeles last week, the first Riyadh Season event put on by the Saudis in the U.S., likely lost more than $10 million, several sources told KevinIole.com. The pay-per-view sales were negligible,” said Iole on his site about last Saturday’s Riyadh Season event headlined by Crawford vs. Madrimov at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. “Scores of tickets — thousands of them — were given away for the Crawford-Madrimov show, and still the stands weren’t full. Tickets were way overpriced and even when they were cut dramatically, it’s not like there was a massive demand.
If these numbers are accurate, Turki Alalshikh must focus on getting superstar Canelo Alvarez for Crawford’s next fight in 2025. Canelo-Crawford would sell, and it’s big enough to fill a stadium on the West Coast, should Turki want to stage it there.
Reasons for Crawford-Madrimov event failure
- Crawford’s inactivity: He hadn’t fought in 13 months and had competed annually since 2020.
- Lack of star appeal: He was non-smiling, lacking in charisma, and came across as having a chip on his shoulder going into the fight.
- Israil Madimov was not well known to Americans.
- Staging fight in the wrong location
- Poor promotion
- Undercard problem: Although the undercard was excellent, there wasn’t a fight that was big enough on its own merit to help the poor main event. Crawford vs. Madrimov was the main event, and it was pure poison.
The former Top Rank-promoted Crawford fought the wrong opponent because he’s not a big enough name to lure fans to pay to watch him fight an obscure newbie world champion. Madrimov had captured his WBA 154-lb title last December, and he’d not been around long enough for anyone in the States to know him.
Canelo: The Crawford Antidote?
Crawford, 36, isn’t a big draw and needs a popular fighter like Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis or Canelo Alvarez to headline a fight card on the West Coast. Turki needed a big name to help Crawford last weekend because he’s not a ticket or PPV seller and never has been.
Although Crawford has a lot of technical ability and talent, he’s not popular with casual fans, lacks charisma, and his fights are generally not entertaining. To sell, Crawford needs guys that fans are eager to see. If Turki can’t get them big names for Crawford to fight, he needs to put him in small venues, preferably in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
Aside from them, Crawford lacks the popularity to headline in a stadium on the West Coast. He’s fine in a small venue, but you can’t put him in a stadium and expect it to fill, even with a great undercard.
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