Turki Alalshikh will only be involved in the boxing industry for an inherently finite amount of time according to a decorated champion within the sweet science. In an interview with midnite.com, George Groves touched on several subjects of intrigue across the Queensbery Rules landscape. When speaking at a Midnite Q&A event regarding Alalshikh's prevelance in boxing today and the history of prizefighters chasing massive prizes, Groves said,
“Everyone’s desperate to be part of Riyadh Season, desperate to be friends with Turki Alalshikh because he’s got so much money. But at some point he’s going to get bored of running at a loss so maybe that’s why Dana White’s on his way in.
“Every now and again you get a gift in boxing and you get overpaid. DAZN came in ‘We’ve got a billion dollars’. Great, a quarter of that is going to Canelo. Who else are you going to sign? You sign two more fighters and they’re going to want the same as Canelo and you’ve got no money left.
“Before them it was PBC who came in with massive investment. MTK was throwing money around. This stuff doesn’t last forever.
“Tyson Fury does a deal with ESPN and he’s allegedly getting £80 million over three years or five fights. The first few fights are just the gifts, the puddings, and then you’ve got to fight Wilder - it can be hard.
“It’s like ‘I’m getting the same money to fight this donut and to fight this fella who might take my head off.”
Turki Alalshikh and Dana White not a good fit for boxing, per Groves
Turki Alalshikh and Dana White, with specific focus on the latter, seems like a force that will do more harm than good for the boxing industry according to George Groves. The former WBA titleholder expounded upon this thought process at the same Midnite Q&A event as Groves stated [via MMA Knockout on SI],
"I always look at boxing from the boxer’s point of view and not the fan’s point of view. To get the very best fights you have to build fighters properly to get them being at their very best."
"So all these ‘Records don’t matter, put them in early,’ you ruin fighters by putting them in early in too tougher tests or 50/50 fights. Someone’s going to suffer."
"The money that the UFC fighters are paid compared to boxers is incomparable - it’s peanut. That’s why anyone that gets a big enough name in the UFC transitions over to boxing like Conor McGregor or what not."
"I wouldn’t say he is good for boxing, but that’s from a boxer’s point of view and not a fan’s point of view. But I don’t think he’ll be able to complete boxing, I don’t think anyone can."
