Some boxing gloves on the wall. Photo credit: John Heider/hometownlife.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC.
The Saudi Arabian government has been focusing on sports in recent years and is reportedly looking to bring about major changes to the sport of boxing.
According to a report published by Reuters on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is in talks with several different boxing organisations to combine the sports into one league.
Historically, boxing has been run by many different promoters representing many different fighters. In recent years, promoters have tended to make deals with television networks to pit their clients against each other. This approach has limited high-profile bouts between fighters represented by rival promoters. Additionally, there are numerous sanctioning bodies, such as the WBC, WBO, and WBA, each with different rules for determining championship belts.
If a comprehensive league were formed, independent of promoters, to bring fighters together and pit them against each other, the sport would be much more interesting and healthy. Simply put, boxing has nothing even close to the UFC, a global mixed martial arts organization with many of the world's best mixed martial artists under contract.
According to the report, the Saudi Arabian government wants to bring together many of the key players in boxing, including major promoters, to take minority stakes in the venture.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has already disrupted or acted in golf, soccer and Formula 1, and they want to do something similar with boxing.
