03/19/2025
Photo Credit: Riyadh Season
Don’t count on seeing Garry Jonas holding hands with Turki Alalshikh in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia anytime soon. In an exclusive interview with Raw Sport, the ProBox and Boxing Scene head honcho did not mince words when talking about the man behind Saudi Arabia’s boxing revolution.
Jonas’ stance on Alalshikh is blunt: he believes the Saudi chairman is throwing money around without a long-term plan, burning through resources at an unsustainable rate.
“I don’t give a shit what this guy’s doing,” Jonas said.
“He’s wasting everybody’s time. It’s good for the fans, good for the fighters, good for the managers, good for the promoters.
Everybody, take his money. Take it. My blessing. Fans, enjoy it. I’m not knocking it. He will not be here forever, because sooner or later, the Saudi government is going to say, ‘Why are we wasting all this money on sports? Like, why are we funding sports suddenly?’”
Jonas doesn’t believe there’s a viable business model behind Alalshikh’s spending spree—only an unchecked ego.
“He has no path to profitability. His path is indulging himself with money. You go to an auction, where you can bid on a car, and your competitors show up with a printing press of counterfeit money—you’re never going to win another auction. This guy’s got money to just burn as if it was not real money. So, let him run his course.”
Photo Credit: Garry Jonas
Jonas argues that while Saudi Arabia has taken control of the sport internationally, its influence in the U.S. remains limited. And he doesn’t see Alalshikh’s methods as sustainable.
“Have I ever, in my history, seen a guy spend money in business with no expectation of profitability and burn massive amounts? We’re watching something in the history of man we’ve never seen before.
I’ve never, and I don’t know that there’s another business case where a lunatic shows up and just says, I have unlimited money to spend recklessly on something.
And he’s not doing anything to improve the sport. He doesn’t have a fucking clue. He’s got childish, impulsive ideas. And everybody around him goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, let’s do that. Okay, boss, you’ve been paying us a ton of fucking money.’”
Jonas is fully aware that ProBox will be competing with the newly announced Saudi boxing league, a partnership with the TKO Group that will be run by Dana White. But he isn’t impressed.
“You know, he’s using TKO and just funding them, because TKO did make it clear. We might as well. The guy’s going to give us a ton of money. We might as well, formally. We’re a service provider now. It’s his league.
He’s just giving us a ton of money to administrate it. So yeah, why not? Right? They’ll take his money and they’ll try. But why? Why is he using them? You have to read between the lines.”
Photo Credit: Riyadh Season
Jonas sees Alalshikh’s moves as an attempt to establish a monopoly—one that targets two specific entities.
“There’s two entities he hasn’t conquered yet. One of them relatively small and burgeoning. The other one, big and at times looking like it may not make it. That’s PBC and ProBox TV.”
With Top Rank struggling due to its ESPN situation and Golden Boy already tied to DAZN, Jonas believes that the battle lines have been drawn.
“He took over the UK like it was nothing. Eddie and Frank, that’s their decision, their choice. They want to sell out and put the sport in his hands. That’s fine. I personally don’t buy it. I think they’re just taking his money. I think he’s going to blow his brains out. So that’s their strategy. It’s obvious. But the Americans didn’t want to give in that much.”
Jonas views the Saudi takeover as an existential threat to boxing’s identity in the U.S.
“This [boxing] is a pastime of the US, and we think that the sport should be here. While the current placeholders that have been running the sport haven’t done the best job at times, it’s still a pretty popular. And that’s being diplomatic. There’s still 20,000 people in that arena the other night [for Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach], right? And there’s still millions of fans that are watching, and it could be better, but it’s still what it is.
Photo Credit: Riyadh Season
Them [boxing entities] giving the sport over to this guy, who’s a little disrespectful, he’s a little degrading to people. He doesn’t do business in a respectful way. He just wants to tell you what to do. He wants to subjugate everybody. That’s everybody’s to each their own. If you need money that bad, bend your fucking knee.”
Jonas doesn’t see himself following that path.
“But otherwise, it’s not like anybody really wanted him to do this unless you were really struggling in the sport and you needed a lot of money, and you wanted to sell out for the money. I’m not doing it for that, so I’m not interested in his proposal.”
Jonas is convinced that Alalshikh’s ultimate goal is to wipe out any competition.
“PBC is trying to, and he’s really taking his money, big chip stacking everybody and trying to create a monopoly. When he realized that he couldn’t conquer the U.S., that there’s a little bit of resistance over here, he went to Dana White and he said, hey, can I hire you to go at them? That’s really what he’s done.”
Jonas doesn’t see White’s involvement as a direct attack on PBC and Top Rank. Instead, he believes Alalshikh is taking a different approach.
“Let’s be clear. He’s already gone after them and he’s gonna take their fighters and keep taking their fighters and assaulting them with bags of money till he’s created an absolute monopoly at the championship level.
Photo Credit: Riyadh Season
There has been a problem and he’s acknowledged it. There’s this little company, ProBox TV, that seems to be doing things intelligently and they’re growing. And if I chop off all the heads of the major promoters with all the star fighters, but I forget about that little weed that’s growing, well, what am I gonna do about him now?”
Jonas believes ProBox is on Alalshikh’s radar—and that the moves involving TKO and the WBC are meant to undermine ProBox’s ability to develop talent.
“Who are they interfering with? Who might they be getting in the way of? So I can see what he’s doing. He can see what I’m doing, I can see what he’s doing. And again, I have employees of his who’ve shared with me that he’s out to destroy ProBox TV, Boxing Scene, and Garry Jonas. Which at first I was like, really? Me? Why me? I’m nobody.”
Photo Credit: Garry Jonas
Jonas suggests that an antitrust case could emerge from Alalshikh’s actions.
“So he wants a monopoly. He’s going to big chip stack everybody into it. There’s probably an antitrust case somewhere in here. And TKO is probably going to walk themselves right into one, right? Because you can’t sue the Saudis over there. They don’t care. They don’t play by the rules. But now that TKO has walked into it, there’s a deep pocket, right? So let’s watch this unfold.”
Jonas, seemingly war-ready, isn’t backing down.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as they think. I don’t think the boxing fans are going to receive Dana White well. We have 50, 60 fighters. We’ve got a very good stable of young fighters. So bring it on. Let’s go. This is, may we live in interesting times. And Turki has made it really interesting.”
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