Comments Thread For: Hearn: They Want To Make Saudi Arabia The Home of Boxing

[Phill lynott]

Please, no more fights in Dyeria! Watching fans on there cell phones wearing table cloths on their heads that came from an Italian restaurant makes me nervous.

[Weebler I]

This is the beef I have with Hearn more than any. IGNORE a country's massive human rights violations.... all in the name of more money. Seems to be a recurring theme as years pass by. Like Vegas or NYC or London doesn't bring in more than enough money to finance a big fight.

The strict regime ruling Saudi Arabia is consistently ranking among the "worst of the worst" in Freedom House's annual survey of political and civil rights. Many people take freedom for granted, and are just too lazy to bother researching just how bad it is in SA. They engage in capital punishment, including public executions by beheading. The death penalty can be imposed for a wide range of offences including obviously murder... but also for drug use, apostasy, adultery, witchcraft, sorcery... even for merely politically protesting... and can be carried out by beheading with a sword, stoning or firing squad, followed by crucifixion. Saudi Arabia is a destination country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of slave labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Women's rights are not anywhere near fair and equal. It is common for women to be imprisoned and given hundreds of lashes with a whip... for being ****d if they cannot prove **** happened. One man got 200 lashes and 10 years in prison, merely for making tweets critical of Islam, and denying the existence of God. Torture is carried out on a large scale. Hardcore racism and antisemitism are rampant. Saudi Arabian government officials and state religious leaders often promote the idea that ***s are conspiring to take over the entire world. These are just a few examples of just how disgusting SA is with regards to human rights.

I don't expect boxing fans to care en masse about all this, but I myself would never go there or go to any nation that had anywhere near as dismal of a human rights record as SA does. And before you scoff, just remember you yourself would be whining your guts out if you were denied basic human rights.

But is the answer to just isolate them?

Isn't it better to expose them to the positives of the Western world so they can open their minds?

Their women are now permitted to drive, so they're not totally closed off to progress.

Anyhow, there will never be a "home of boxing", it's a global sport.

[meat_abstract]

Gonna make Don King wish he was a younger man - moving boxing to a country where everything and everyone is for sale. Say goodbye to any possibility of enforcing doping rules! I mean if you think boxing is crooked now... I bet if you beat the house favorite in SA you need to be careful you don't have an "accident". Might trip and fall over into display case full of knives, like Khashoggi did.

Though I guess it would be funny if the "Mecca of boxing" was actually Mecca. That's funny ****.

[PunchyPotorff]

But is the answer to just isolate them?
Isn't it better to expose them to the positives of the Western world so they can open their minds?
Their women are now permitted to drive, so they're not totally closed off to progress.
Anyhow, there will never be a "home of boxing", it's a global sport.

Massive sanctions and isolation has worked in the past quite often. Why should they make money while still torturing? And BTW, one or two concessions doesn't even remotely mean real change.

[Weebler I]

Massive sanctions and isolation has worked in the past quite often. Why should they make money while still torturing? And BTW, one or two concessions doesn't even remotely mean real change.

Not exactly...

In one of the most comprehensive studies on sanctions to date, academics examined more than 100 cases and concluded that the measures were partially successful only 34% of the time.

More often than not, it's the ordinary people who are hit hardest by sanctions.

There are no easy answers, but engaging in an attempt to break down barriers is a better route than hostile isolation imo.