With “The Battle of the Baddest” we wanted to do a big show in Saudi Arabia, but is our mission accomplished? Nothing is less safe.
• Also read: Simon Kean will have to think
The gala, which served as the opening of the so-called Riyadh season, a time of fall celebrations, was full of splendor.
We initially wanted to focus on an almost full card of heavyweights. It’s definitely spectacular because it’s a weight class where there are a lot of knockouts, but that’s where the problem lies.
Only one fight, the final one, reached the tenth round. Everyone else ended in a knockout. or by the decision of the arbitrator. Arslanbek Makhmudov was fastest, finishing off junior Anthony Wright in just 70 seconds. Result? There was a lot of downtime.
A month of Sundays
We also decided to hold all fights, with the exception of the final between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou, in an outdoor ring set up next to the arena where the Tyson-Ngannou duel took place.
Almost two hours passed between the start of this fight and the end of the previous fight.
Between the two? A time of transition, certainly, but also a too-long “opening ceremony,” with rap artists performing one after the other on a stage that eventually moved to the side to reveal a ring sticking out of the ground. We thought we had finally gotten to the fight. No, we waited for almost 30 more minutes while the hosts extended the time and showed us stars around the ring.
Because that’s exactly what this gala was all about. The celebration of grandeur and splendor, Saudi style. It was a huge advertising campaign in favor of Saudi Arabia, the pioneer of money laundering through sports. The boxers were practically asked to sing praises to the kingdom after every victory.
Better than expected
During the wait, fans on social media became more and more impatient, especially as they believed that the wait for a fight between Tyson Fury, WBC heavyweight champion, and Francis Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, which would be a short one, would be in vain would have his first boxing match.
Ultimately, it was the most interesting fight of the evening, with Ngannou even knocking Fury to the mat in the third round.
The Cameroonian showed that he could hold his own in the ring just as well as in the octagon. Actually, it was his dream to box. We risk seeing him again quickly in the arena.
It’s always a victory.