Saudi Arabia and His Excellency Turki Alalshikh want to change the sport by creating a global boxing league.
The idea is to unite the promotional companies by having one boxing league with 200 best fighters in twelve weight classes competing.
Fans on social media are mostly excited about the concept of one single league because the current setup doesn’t work and confuses people.
It would remove the scattered mess that the sport currently has with its four alphabet-sanctioning bodies, each with its own world champions and set of rules that water down the sport.
Vision for a Unified Sport
The new league would have more structure and a competitive schedule, which the current system lacks.
Under the global league, there would be consistent high-profile fights, not the nonstop mismatches that fans have become accustomed to seeing due to the wily promoters choosing to avoid having their fighters beaten and devalued.
With the global league, it would create interest and money in boxing. The sport is now in a downward spiral largely due to the witch’s brew of sanctioning bodies and promoters putting together non-competitive matches and bringing little interest.
The global boxing league is comparable to the UFC model, which has been successful quickly due to its entertaining match-making.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) reportedly plans to spend billions on the global league. With the funds that they’re pumping into this new league, it’s going to be a factor factor in boxing, whether the older promoters like it or not, especially when they start putting on competitive fights that the fans want to see.
Industry Reaction and Challenges
The reaction from fans to the proposed new global boxing league is mixed. While some fans are in favor of it, welcoming seeing better fighters due to centralized control, others feel that it’s not going to be feasible.
The promotional companies in the U.S, who have gotten used to making easy money with low-level events involving non-competitive fights, will likely resist being part of a global league with consolidated power that would put their fighters into risky fights.
Setting up fights and dealing with contracts between the fighters would be difficult to manage under a global league.
