Some 65,000 people will watch Saul “Canelo” Alvarez defend the super middleweight championship of the world against Terence “Bud” Crawford this Saturday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, while another 30 million or so will watch the fight unfold live on Netflix.
With that many eyeballs concurrently fixed on a roughly 400-square-foot patch of canvas, the need for an unbiased media to report on what transpires is minimal. The world will see for itself.
And so the story of Alvarez-Crawford, the factual story of who wins and who loses, and, with some room for interpretation, the general thread of how victory and defeat were determined will be told regardless of whether BoxingScene has been granted or denied a media credential to cover this event.
But in the grand scheme, whether BoxingScene has proper media access is of great consequence. Because in the grand scheme, suppression of dissent impacts us all.
Oh, in case you haven’t inferred it yet: BoxingScene was denied accreditation for Canelo-Crawford on Saturday.
Lance Pugmire, the 2022 recipient of the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence, a journalist who has covered boxing professionally for more than 20 years for such outlets as the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and The Athletic, who won a first-place prize just last year in the BWAA’s annual “Bernie Award” writing competition – one of three firsts and 18 overall placements for BoxingScene in 2024 – had his credential request as a writer for BoxingScene turned down according to a representative of Dana White’s TKO Boxing, one of the co-promoters of the event (in conjunction with Riyadh Season and Sela).
Initially, Pugmire was approved. But less than two weeks out from fight night, the approval was reversed.
BoxingScene editor Matt Christie subsequently reached out to Chris Bellitti, UFC’s vice president of corporate communications, to ask why, also calling attention to Pugmire’s sterling reputation in the industry and BoxingScene’s standing as a prominent, BWAA-accredited outlet. Bellitti responded last Tuesday that he would “look into it and circle back.”
This past Monday, Bellitti wrote back: “I don’t have specific details, but the denial does not appear to be coming from the TKO side. With an event as complex as this, there are multiple stakeholders involved that have a say in the credentialed media (e.g., the main event boxer, Riyadh Season, etc.). One of those relationships may be strained, but I don’t have the back story.”
Yes, suffice to say, one of those relationships is strained.
This is the treatment BoxingScene receives when it comes to events handled by Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season or promoted under the banner of The Ring, the 103-year-old media outlet Alalshikh bought last November. My colleague Tris Dixon wrote about it in some detail in April after our website’s credential applications for the first Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn fight went unacknowledged. (The response from Bellitti is very similar to those received from other promoters when they have been associated with Riyadh Season events to which BoxingScene has not been welcome: Not our decision.)
The last time BoxingScene was credentialed for a Riyadh Season or The Ring event – whether a fight card or a press conference – was for Crawford’s last bout prior to facing Canelo, on August 3, 2024, in Los Angeles.
For 13 months and counting, BoxingScene, which has been owned since February 2024 by ProBox TV promoter Garry Jonas, has been frozen out of anything connected to Alalshikh and the Saudi General Entertainment Authority.
No other promoter has denied BoxingScene access. This happens only when Riyadh Season is involved.
And that represents half the story when it comes to Alalshikh’s enterprises and potential suppression of dissent.
Last November 11, in announcing his purchase of a name-brand media outlet, Alalshikh tweeted, “The Ring Magazine will be a fully independent company without any involvement from Riyadh Season.”
As someone who got his start in the boxing business as an editor for The Ring, I wrote in reaction about the real and perceived conflicts of interest that permeate the boxing media, from BoxingScene to The Ring and nearly all points in between. I acknowledged my own past conflicts, particularly as a podcaster employed by both HBO and Showtime.
In the piece, I pointed out numerous reasons to be skeptical of Alalshikh’s assurance of editorial independence.
But I also expressed that the appropriate thing to do was to give him the opportunity to prove that he, the deepest-pocketed promoter in the sport, would not interfere in the editorial product.
Ten months have passed, and in that time, there have been multiple signs that Riyadh Season is suppressing the media. That suppression goes beyond just banning news outlets and includes stifling its own reporters.
“I can’t say that we were ever told specifically what we couldn’t write. But it was clear that anything even remotely critical would be immediately addressed,” said Jake Donovan, who has a unique perspective. Donovan wrote for The Ring both at the end of the Golden Boy Promotions-owned era and the start of the next era under Alalshikh’s ownership, as well as having written for BoxingScene before and after his tenure at The Ring.
That claim from Donovan is backed up by another source I spoke with who requested anonymity.
I said to this source, “It seems with The Ring that, as far as you know, nobody has been told, ‘Do this, don’t do this,’ but there is sort of a silent understanding that we’re not going to trash Turki.”
The source refuted my generous interpretation: “No, it’s been made very clear to everybody there,” the source said.
Donovan – who, to reiterate, is currently writing for BoxingScene, so be as circumspect of his perspective as you choose to be – noted that Alalshikh’s promise of editorial independence struck him from the start as “an obvious lie,” but he chose to continue with his day-to-day coverage of boxing for The Ring just as he had before, prepared to be as honest and critical as circumstances warranted.
“Everyone else chose to keep their heads down and stay in their lane,” Donovan continued. “It’s fine for job security but just not how I believe a writer should conduct himself. But we are in an era where the sport’s biggest stakeholders expect us to be an extension of their PR team.
“Nothing I wrote during that time was ever altered, beyond normal copy edits, or asked to be taken down. My social media feed, on the other hand, was an entirely different story.
“In the nine months I was with Ring while still owned by Golden Boy, we had complete freedom to cover the sport. It was understood on the GBP side that we had a job to do, even if it meant being critical of their fighters or even Oscar [De La Hoya] himself.
“For me personally – again, not speaking for my former colleagues – that went away the minute Turki took control.”
Rick Reeno is the founder and former owner of BoxingScene. He continued to run the site after selling it to CBS Sports Digital in 2018. Reeno left when CBS sold it to ProBox/Jonas last year. He then began working for Alalshikh and is now the chief operating officer of The Ring.
“Every week,” Donovan asserted, “came a phone call or text from Rick Reeno, either asking me to take down a post or questioning its intention anytime Turki or our own social media team caught wind of something.”
As just one example, Donovan was surprised to see Joseph Parker among the announced list of nominees for The Ring’s 2024 Fighter of the Year when Parker had fought only once that year (a close decision win over Zhilei Zhang). Parker had not been put forward during the editorial staff’s discussion of nominees for the award. Donovan posted on his X account that the “objective reporter in me wonders how Joseph Parker is up for Fighter of the Year.” He didn’t say it publicly, but he suspected Alalshikh’s people had forced Parker’s name onto the list. Parker is signed with Queensberry Promotions, and his past four fights have all been staged in Riyadh.
Reeno wrote to him: “if possible, can you remove that Parker tweet, getting so much heat over that,” and Donovan did delete the post.
Another source confirmed this structural approach, whereby Reeno is the messenger and therefore Alalshikh is able to keep his hands clean by not dealing directly with writers and editors.
I sent two messages to Reeno last week seeking comment and received no response.
Whether the editorial staff and freelancers for The Ring are told what they can and can’t say, either for the publication or on their personal social media feeds, the reality is that they all understand, to use a cliché, who butters their bread.
See, for example, The Ring’s coverage of the Times Square “Fatal Fury” card on May 2, an event that was widely panned by independent media for both the quality of the fights and inaccessibility to fans. On The Ring’s website, you’ll find no criticism of the VIP-only set-up, and no mention of the atmosphere at all, except for one description of it as an “iconic environment.”
In July, after Tim Tszyu was stopped by Sebastian Fundora, Alalshikh posted on X, “I said to you from the beginning, Tim Tszyu does not deserve to be on a Riyadh Season or Ring Magazine card. He can be useful as a sparring partner for a champion in Riyadh Season.” The comment was widely panned as disrespectful toward a fighter, and Alalshikh later deleted the post.
Many outlets reported on the incident. There is no trace of it on The Ring’s website.
Most recently, the Alalshikh-guided BoxRaw “Sparring Club” event – which was essentially a professional boxing card minus the regulations and safety precautions – drew a fierce rebuke in The Guardian and across social media. The event was marketed as sparring, but the fighters were incentivized to perform well by promises of slots on upcoming major cards and were therefore trying to do damage to each other, and several of the pairings were mismatches that would not have been approved by any respected regulator.
On The Ring’s website and social media accounts, however, all that could be found about the abomination was fluff.
The current editorial operation at The Ring certainly has strengths that should be acknowledged. The website is a valuable source of breaking news. Several of the very best writers covering boxing today contribute to the site and/or the magazine.
A knowledgeable source told me there seems to be some degree of “brand split” between the website and print magazine. For the magazine, the publishing lag has long created timeliness challenges, which means much of the content often skews more toward the historic. That has helped it to appear less compromised than the website, where articles post with immediacy.
That said, since the magazine returned to print, The Ring has produced 10 issues. Every single one of those 10 covers has featured either a Riyadh Season fight or at least one Riyadh Season fighter, except for the “Celebrating Big George Foreman” issue that followed the Hall of Fame heavyweight champion’s death.
Last week, I emailed two editorial staffers in an effort to get some formal comment on their working conditions with regard to editorial independence, hoping they might confirm or deny, or in some way offer balance. I’ve known both of these journalists for years and respect them, and don’t think it’s vital in this article to reveal specifically who they are. I could certainly have reached out to additional writers and editors for the magazine or website, but given the response I received in this initial effort, that struck me as pointless.
My email to the two staffers began:
“Hope all is well. I’m working on an article for next week for BoxingScene. Pretty delicate topic – exploring the degree to which Turki has or has not interfered with any of the editorial product since buying The Ring. Will also be weaving in BoxingScene getting shut out of media credentials, and looking at the Riyadh Season relationship with the boxing media in general – although that part doesn’t concern you two. I have some people on record who worked for Ring or were offered work for Ring, some saying there was interference, some saying they haven’t experienced anything like that. I’m trying to make this as fair and even-handed as possible.”
One or both of the journalists to whom I sent the email ran it up the flagpole, as I expected they would. All I received in response was an email from publicist Caroline McAteer – with BoxingScene owner Jonas copied, even though Jonas was not involved in the outreach, didn’t know at the time that I was pursuing this topic and has no say in what we cover or how we cover it – and McAteer’s email read, in its entirety:
“hi Eric
Unfortunately much of the information you have below is false.”
I’m not sure what information she was referring to, as my email contained no information aside from the fact that I was working on this article (demonstrably not false) and that I’d spoken to people and gotten both some positive and negative feedback (some of which has been included in this article prior to this paragraph, and some of which is still to come).
I made no specific allegations in the email, which makes it awfully curious that I was sent a blanket denial.
I also find it interesting that there is a presumption coming from the Riyadh Season camp that Jonas interferes in the editorial product of the website he owns. (To my knowledge Jonas has never interfered with the editorial product since he purchased BoxingScene – something that editor Christie has categorically confirmed.) I wonder if there is some degree of projection happening here. We’ve seen it with certain prominent politicians, where accusations lobbed at the opponent frequently turn out to be admissions of their own guilt. It’s possible Alalshikh simply can’t imagine an owner of a media outlet not wielding influence over that outlet.
One area of particular concern for me at the time Alalshikh purchased The Ring was the independence of the divisional ratings and championship belts.
I messaged writer Adam Abramowitz of Saturday Night Boxing, who is on The Ring ratings panel and has been for years. He told me: “I have seen no noticeable changes in the rankings process, other than there have been new additions to the panel over the last year.”
Some of those new additions did raise eyebrows because their names were wholly unfamiliar to other panelists, according to my BoxingScene colleague Dixon, who was part of the panel at the time, late last year (and wrote for The Ring from 2003-23).
Dixon, in addition to getting stonewalled on credential applications for the past year, divulged other cases of apparent suppression. One such occurrence could be explained away as coincidence. But there’s a pattern here.
Dixon conducted an interview with a top heavyweight contender through an interpreter for an article that was supposed to run on BoxingScene. A couple of days later, the interpreter messaged Dixon pleading with him not to use the interview, but not saying why.
Other outlets published interviews with the heavyweight around the same time frame.
Then again, other outlets and other writers didn’t necessarily cover the topic of sportswashing with the attention Dixon and BoxingScene paid it last year.
Dixon was all set earlier this year to interview a prominent world champion who was preparing to compete on a Riyadh Season card. Everything was arranged. And then a publicist asked Dixon if the interview was for The Ring. No, Dixon clarified; it was to be for BoxingScene.
The publicist soon got back to Dixon with the unfortunate news that all of the interview slots were taken.
Last month, multiple BoxingScene writers were invited to a David Adeleye media day in advance of his fight in Saudi Arabia with Filip Hrgovic. Tom Ivers agreed to attend, only to be told the day before that Adeleye’s “training times have changed” and they will “have to come back to you to get you booked in another time.” Posts from other media members would seem to suggest the session took place as scheduled, with plenty of outlets in attendance.
Could the General Entertainment Authority’s disdain for BoxingScene be born of a belief that the writers are substandard? That seems unlikely, as Dixon is one of many now writing for BoxingScene who were pursued at some point by the Saudis to write for them. At various times over the past couple of years, people affiliated with Alalshikh tried to recruit Christie, Pugmire and Declan Warrington, as well as me and my longtime podcast partner Kieran Mulvaney.
Dixon at one point asked the party pursuing him for the Alalshikh-owned media outlet whether the writers there would be censored, and he was told no. But when Dixon asked if they could cover anything, including sportswashing, he was told that would not be appropriate.
As for my experience, on October 19, 2023 – when I was podcasting weekly for Showtime but not writing about boxing anywhere regularly – I received a LinkedIn message from Abdullah Fatani, the creative marketing department manager at the General Entertainment Authority. The message read:
“I am connecting with you in regards to an opportunity with a new boxing venture in Saudi Arabia for a position in the Editorial team particularly in the podcast team , that will be reporting directly to His Excellency. Please share your updated resume or CV and let’s connect to discuss the opportunity further.”
My podcast co-host Mulvaney received the same message. We had each spoken publicly and privately beforehand about our concerns over Saudi sportswashing and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and, though I will admit I had some curiosity about the financial offer and contemplated “selling out” if by chance there was life-altering money involved, in the end I did not reply at all to the message. Neither did Mulvaney, whom I don’t believe even remotely considered the possibility of working for the Saudi General Entertainment Authority for any price.
Warrington, now a colleague of ours at BoxingScene, received the same message and ignored it. But he was pursued further. Over the phone, he was offered first-class air travel throughout his potential job tenure; the person offering it apparently thought that would make the difference in whether Warrington would or would not take a job. Warrington declined, and then declined again when a third approach was made.
After that last effort, a fellow journalist who chose to do work for The Ring commented to Warrington, “I’ve heard you’re keeping your independence.”
“That was pretty telling,” Warrington reflected. “That someone working on their behalf used the word ‘independence,’ I think speaks volumes, really.”
Pugmire was also recruited at one time and now finds himself the latest to be denied media accreditation.
But, to be clear, that form of suppression is not purely an Alalshikh vs. BoxingScene problem.
Oliver Brown wrote for The Telegraph last September about how he had his credential for Daniel Dubois vs. Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium revoked after he wrote a piece in which the headline labeled the fight an “unashamed sportswashing exercise.”
As Brown wrote two days after the fight:
“In 20 years as a journalist, I had never been barred from any sporting event for any reason, let alone for simply expressing an opinion that the hosts did not like. But on Saturday night at Wembley, with the stadium bathed in a garish green light to reflect the Saudi flag, and the Saudi national anthem given precedence over “God Save the King” in genuflection to the money men, I found myself marooned at the entrance, told my credential for Anthony Joshua’s world title fight against Daniel Dubois had been revoked. The transgression? To have called out this exercise in reputation-laundering for exactly what it was.
“For five years, ever since Eddie Hearn first staged a Joshua bout in Saudi Arabia, British reporters have been warning about where this craven acquiescence to the repressive Gulf kingdom could lead. Well, now we know.
“It ends in the obscene spectacle of Britain’s own anthem being given second billing behind the Saudi equivalent, purely as a sop to the billionaire bankrolling the show, ‘His Excellency’ Turki Alalshikh.
“It ends in an all-British heavyweight contest being rebranded as ‘Riyadh Season: Wembley Edition,’ as if this country is now nothing more than a subsidiary of the Saudi state.
“And it ends, as I can attest, in a Saudi-style crackdown on freedom of the press in the heart of London.
This dilemma isn’t exclusive to boxing. The Saudi sportswashing efforts have extended every bit as prominently into golf. In August, Golfweek reported on LIV Golf revoking Bill Hobson’s media credential after Hobson refused to take down a podcast interview in which he brought up the topic of LIV being financially supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
To be certain, Riyadh Season and The Ring effectively banning BoxingScene from all events is not the first time in history that a boxing promoter has blackballed a media outlet. As just one modern example – and an ironic one now – in 2012, the BWAA had to intervene on behalf of The Ring editorial staffers to get Top Rank to credential representatives of the magazine owned by rival promoter Golden Boy.
So none of what’s happening right now is entirely novel.
But it certainly seems far worse and more extreme than anything I’ve seen in my 28 years covering boxing.
The impact of banning certain reporters and outlets who are critical of a promotion or a fight goes well beyond just quieting those reporters and outlets. It sends a message to those who haven’t been banned that, if they want to continue to be welcomed in the ringside media section, if they want to continue to be granted interviews with boxers, if they want to continue to get invited to the prefight dinners and the postfight parties, then they will toe the line. They will not mention sportswashing. They will celebrate “His Excellency.” They will look the other way if there is the appearance of impropriety during a Riyadh Season fight.
When fear dictates what the boxing media writes and says, that is the beginning of the end of the boxing media.
A boxing media that covers all sides of the sport, with the opportunity to dissent when warranted, is an essential part of the ecosystem.
Take away all dissent, and there no longer exists a separation between journalism and cheerleading.
Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.