Kingmaker Turki Al-Sheikh wants to make WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) fight former two-time unified champion Anthony Joshua 28-3 (25) twice, with one bout in Saudi Arabia and the other in London, according to Eddie Hearn.
Al-Sheikh, the Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia, has emerged as the most influential figure in the sport, largely due to the buckets of gold the oil-rich nation can offer to get fights made.
Fellow Brits Fury, 35, and Joshua, 34, have long been linked to a fight but those talks have hit various roadblocks in the past that have prevented the bout from being made.
“This is a gentleman called Turki Al-Sheikh, who is obviously a very influential figure in sports and entertainment in Saudi Arabia,” the Matchroom Boxing chief explained on The Sports Agent podcast. “He’s also the biggest fight fan I’ve ever met. And quite amazingly, he’s now talking about staging two AJ vs Fury fights, one in Saudi Arabia and one at Wembley Stadium.
“He’s one of those guys that listens and reads everything. So he’s definitely reading about, ‘I wish this fight was at Wembley’, or ‘it’s a shame the fight is in Saudi Arabia’. I mean, we really must have more of a global vision in sport, boxing doesn’t just sit here but two Brits, fighting for the undisputed world championship, I think he would probably bring one of them to UK, I really do. And that financially, they’ve got the ability to do that.
“But for the fighters, you’re talking about three times the purse to do it, potentially, in the Middle East and in Saudi Arabia. It’s a very difficult conversation to have. If you said to everybody, where would you rather fight, most Brits are going to say Wembley Stadium, but you know, it’s prize fighting. It is a dangerous sport and it is a difficult conversation to have.”
Fury already has a full dance card this year with two fights against WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) in the pipeline. He will meet the 37-year-old Ukrainian southpaw for the first time at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 18 with the rematch to be scheduled after that.
Hearn was asked directly about ‘sportswashing’, the process of investing in sport to draw attention away from human rights abuses.
“I am always happy to discuss sports migrating to the Middle East, sportswashing, which people talk about,” Hearn said.
“Every time we go there, the experience from us, from a production point of view, from a logistical point of view, the fighter experience, the athlete experience, you will never hear anything bad.”
Asked about Saudi Arabia’s record on women’s rights record, Hearn said: “I have to be honest, when you’re on the ground and you’re experiencing it and you’re seeing it with your own eyes, the change that I’ve seen has been incredible… I could tell you six or seven female journalists that were at the fight last weekend… I think every country has their problems and there needs to be change there.
“But the change that I’ve seen, we’re talking about grassroots boxing increasing by 300% to 400%. I was down at the academies, full of female fighters in a grassroots amateur boxing club. I see something very different there.
“I know that I see also a certain world in in Saudi Arabia and there’s other issues to overcome. But I see mass participation for female athletes, the change that I’ve seen from 2019, which is when we first went there, to 2024 is incredible.”
Hearn added: “I think I’m buying into the change that’s occurring in the country, particularly by using sport and entertainment, to change the face of what’s happening… I don’t see sportswashing, I see using sport and entertainment, to change the opinion of the country, to change opportunities in the country, to change participation… The argument could be that all of these academies and all of this increase participation at grassroots level is just a movement to try and convince you. I don’t buy it.”
