“I think the Saudis and I think the Middle Eastern money is beginning to slow down because I think that the level of investment is now being made,” Jordan said to talkSport Boxing. “I don’t think they want to spend enormous amounts of money going forward. I think they want it stand on its own feet.
“Turki might then step out. I don’t know how much of a brief he’s going to get from MBS, Mohammed bin Salman, going forward to keep on this agenda because it helps him with the young generation in his part of the world.”
Saudi Arabia, led by Turki Alalshikh, has transformed boxing over the past three years by financing many of the sport’s biggest fights and bringing together rival promoters that had struggled to work with one another. The investment has also helped launch Dana White’s new boxing venture, which aims to simplify the sport with a single championship belt in each weight class.
Jordan, however, believes Alalshikh’s role in boxing is more complicated than simply bringing the sport together.
“The irony of needing peace talks is he creates the war and then becomes the negotiator of the peace,” Jordan said.
He also pointed to the influence Alalshikh now holds over the sport, recalling that he once warned Eddie Hearn the Saudi chairman could eventually diminish the role of traditional promoters.
“I told him three years ago, he can do what you do… one day along the line you’re going to be redundant in that perspective,” Jordan said. “He’s got the money to be able to do it and now he’s proven the case. Everyone defers to him.”
Despite questioning the long-term sustainability of Saudi spending, Jordan acknowledged that boxing has grown under Alalshikh’s leadership. He said Turki remains convinced the sport’s commercial ceiling is much higher than its current level, although Jordan questioned whether boxing can ever compete with global giants such as football or cricket.
Jordan’s prediction will likely be tested over the coming years. If Saudi Arabia scales back its financial backing after establishing boxing’s new structure, promoters and broadcasters may once again shoulder a greater share of the burden for making major fights. If investment continues at its current pace, however, Alalshikh’s influence over the sport is only likely to grow.
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