Following a weekend of heightened drama connected to the U.S. debut Riyadh Season card in Los Angeles, the fallout/backlash has provoked a search for solutions and peace this week.
On Wednesday’s string of BoxingScene’s Top Stories on ProBox TV, analysts Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri took turns addressing and considering the three major unsolved subjects related to the card that lasted nine hours at BMO Stadium.
–What adjustments are necessary to the overkill of the event?
–Are there too many boxing pay-per-views now?
–Who is winning the Canelo Alvarez-Turki Alalshikh feud?
Former welterweight champion Malignaggi said while it’s a positive that Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh is producing stacked cards that are steadily producing competitive bouts and upsets, the opening show was “a little long-winded,” with its extended intermissions, its in-ring induction into the Nevada Hall of Fame for a man (Alalshikh) who’s never staged a fight there, and the expensive but unnecessary Eminem concert before the main event.
“Keep it business,” Malignaggi recommended. “Fight fans don’t need the casual stuff.”
He suggested shortening some of these cards and putting the other fights on a subscription-only stream.
“It’s a work in progress,” Malignaggi said.
Algieri, a former 140-pound champion, called it “growing pains.
“There was entertainment value and a lot of fights to see, but also some things to work out,” he said.
One of those adjustments is balancing how many pay-per-view fights fans are willing to fund each year. Alalshikh has staged six pay-per-views since October, with at least four more coming by February.
On top of Alvarez’s pay-per-views, that’s nearly one a month at effectively $100 a show.
“Make some cards shorter and free to the distributor,” Malignaggi requested. “Boxing fans don’t care about frills – $5 million for Eminem. Use that money to make some of these cards free. We love what’s being done. We want to see it reach its full potential. I think I speak for all boxing fans when I say that. Trim the fat a little bit.”
Algieri said it’s conceivable boxing will put its fans through pay-per-view fatigue.
“We’re getting monthly pay-per-views plus our monthly subscriptions to watch boxing,” he said. “There’s a better way because it’s tough to build stars on pay-per-view. We’re making a niche sport even more niche.”
Malignaggi agreed, saying “boxing is cannibalizing itself. You’ve got to be careful. You can make a market that will blow itself up.”
Two of the sport’s power players are certainly bickering over Alalshikh’s request to meet Alvarez in L.A. following the Saturday card rebuffed, with Alvarez explaining he’s in training for a fight that will occur before the one Alalshikh wanted to discuss.
Alalshikh is funding some of the UFC’s Sept. 14 card at the Las Vegas Sphere – the same night as Canelo fights Puerto Rico descendant Edgar Berlanga at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Alvarez said he doesn’t feel obligated to make himself available to Alalshikh to discuss a fight beyond this pressing one, and that’s true, considering he’s been making $35 million apiece in recent bouts.
“Canelo doesn’t need the (Alalshikh) money, but Canelo also wants the fans, in a tough economy, to pay their money for these show fights. He’s looking to make these fights comfortable,” Malignaggi said. “We’ve seen the body of work of Turki and the body of work of Canelo. We see who’s right.”
Can the sides get together?
“If I’m Turki, I’d forget Crawford and I’d tell Canelo, ‘Listen, buddy, you either fight (unbeaten now-175-pound interim champion David Benanvidez, who you’ve been ducking for two-to-three years or we don’t work together,’” Malignaggi said. “That’s it. End of story.”
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