The pay-per-view costs for Saudi Arabia’s mega-card on 22 February have been revealed, as Turki Al-Sheikh bids to make ‘the fans happy’.
Saudi Arabia has drawn allegations of sportswashing for its aggressive venture into boxing, which has seen the Kingdom organise numerous fight nights over the last two years, frequently creating match-ups that fans are desperate to see.
And many of those fans are claiming that next year’s February event is the ‘greatest fight card of all time’, as Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol 2 headlines after Daniel Dubois fights Joseph Parker, with other significant names including Zhilei Zhang, Shakur Stevenson and Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Yet Al-Sheikh, the Saudi adviser who has overseen the Kingdom’s boxing ventures, continues to target low pay-per-view prices, with the cost in the US much lower than usual for the 22 February event.
Al-Sheikh tweeted on Tuesday (3 December): “We will make PPV price no more than 19.99 GBP in UK, and in USA and the rest of the world not more than 25.99 USD (We want the fans [to] be happy and enjoy it… Lets get boxing great again).”
The main event sees Bivol attempt to avenge his first professional loss, a narrow decision defeat by Beterbiev in October, when the latter became undisputed light-heavyweight champion. All the major belts will be on the line again when Bivol and Beterbiev return to Riyadh next year.
Meanwhile, Dubois makes the second defence of his IBF heavyweight title, following September’s knockout of Anthony Joshua. The Briton, 27, faces New Zealand’s Parker in the chief-support bout on 22 February.
The rest of the card is as follows: Shakur Stevenson vs Floyd Schofield for the WBC lightweight title; Carlos Adames vs Hamzah Sheeraz for the WBC middleweight title; Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Israil Madrimov for the WBC interim super-welterweight title; Zhilei Zhang vs Agit Kabayel for the WBC interim heavyweight title; and Joshua Buatsi vs Callum Smith for the WBO interim light-heavyweight title.
