by Keith Idec
TURKI ALALSHIKH promised American boxing fans early Tuesday morning that the stacked card he has lined up for Feb. 22 won’t cost them as much as usual to watch on pay-per-view.
The head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority revealed via X that a card titled “The Last Crescendo,” headlined by the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol rematch, will cost “no more” than $25.99 in the United States and the corresponding amount in all the “rest of the world.” Alalshikh also revealed that British boxing fans should expect to pay a maximum of £19.99 to watch a pay-per-view event which will also feature a fight between London’s Daniel Dubois and New Zealand’s Joseph Parker, a 12-round bout for Dubois’ IBF. heavyweight title.
Alalshikh, who has become boxing’s most powerful figure since late last year, played on US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign slogan by making the aforementioned announcement about what he called “one of the biggest cards ever.”
“We want the fans (to) be happy and enjoy it,” Alalshikh wrote in a statement to his 7.1 million followers on X. “(Let’s) make boxing great again.”
American consumers complained when DAZN informed its subscribers on Oct. 12, the day of the first Beterbiev-Bivol fight, that it would cost $19.99 to watch a UK-focused undercard in the U.S. Beterbiev-Bivol was made available to ESPN+ subscribers in the U.S. without charge. additional charge because Beterbiev’s promoter Bob Arum made a deal with Alalshikh to bring their light heavyweight unification title to a wider American audience.
Russian-born, Montreal-based Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) went the distance for the first time in 11 years as a professional, defeating Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia, also the site of the February 22 event. Beterbiev retained the IBF, WBC and WBO 175-pound championships and won the WBA belt from Bivol of Russia.
Reducing the cost of pay-per-views, particularly in the US, is one of Alalshikh’s missions in trying to rebuild boxing’s dwindling fan base. However, the price for February 22 is the same in the UK as it was when Beterbiev and Bivol first fought almost two months ago.
The interesting undercard for the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch is listed below:
Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) vs. Joseph Parker (35-3, 23 KOs), 12, for Dubois’ IBF heavyweight title.
Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) vs. Floyd Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs), 12, for Stevenson’s WBC lightweight title.
Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs); Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs), 12, for the Adames WBC middleweight title.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) vs. Israil Madrimov* (10-1-1, 7 KOs), 12, for Ortiz’s WBC super welterweight interim title.
Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) vs. Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs), 12, for the vacant WBC interim heavyweight title.
Joshua Buatsi (19-0, 13 KOs) vs. Callum Smith (30-2, 22 KOs), 12, for the interim WBO light heavyweight title.
* Israel Madrimov must defeat Ukraine’s Sergii Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) in his 12-rounder on the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury undercard on Dec. 21 at Kingdom Arena to face Ortiz two months later.
