By David Phillips,Fights Around The World

Copyright yardbarker

For all the prominence that Matchroom Sport has in boxing, the arrival of Turki Alalshikh, the billionaire Chairman of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation, into the boxing arena in recent years has shaken up the sport. Alalshikh is a mysterious and controversial figure focused on backroom deals. The Saudi sports promoter has been accused of human rights violations that include repression, disappearances, and the torture of those who oppose the rule of the current Saudi Arabia Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Salman. You will find not even a second of discussion about those alleged malfeasances in Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen, a sizable miss that can reasonably be questioned as a bending of the knee by Netflix, a company that has become increasingly involved with live sports, including boxing. It’s a real miss by the series to present Alalshikh as something of an incredibly wealthy and eccentric mover and shaker. While the series discusses the dirtiness of boxing, it rarely explores it in a meaningful way.

Still, other events depicted on the show are compelling. The first significant boxing competition in the series is the Queensberry vs. Matchroom 5v5 boxing event back in June of 2024. The show pitted five Matchroom Sports boxers against five Queensbury Promotions fighters, with the winning promotional company scoring the biggest purse and bragging rights. The latter distinction was more significant than the former, as the Hearns and Matchroom were facing off against longtime rival Frank Warren. Matchroom and Queensbury have been the top of the British boxing food chain for decades, and there is no love lost between the Hearns and Warren. When Matchroom gets shut out in all five fights, the pain and embarrassment are palpable. One thing you quickly learn about the Hearns, though, is that today’s defeat cannot be allowed to linger, and that there is always another event to turn to.

In that regard, the next major boxing event on the horizon for the Hearns in the series is their greatest boxing success, Anthony Joshua, taking on IBF champion Daniel Dubois in September of 2024. A win by Joshua over Dubois would have seen Joshua become the heavyweight champion for a third time, leading to even more big-money fights in the future. Best laid plans do not always pan out, though, and Joshua gets knocked out in the fifth by Dubois. To add insult to injury, Dubois is managed by Queensbury as well.