Dana White meets Saudi Arabia royalty ahead of UFC debut with spectacular card

A meeting of combat sports minds - Dana White and Turki Alalshikh.

Dana White meets Saudi Arabia royalty ahead of UFC debut with spectacular card

Dana White met with Turki Alalshikh (Image via: IMAGO, X)

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has become a hotbed for combat sports, particularly boxing. They welcomed MMA as well with the PFL vs. Bellator: Champs PPV. The UFC would debut in the kingdom with a PPV-level fight night card in June. Months before their debut, UFC CEO Dana White met with Turki Alalshikh, the mastermind behind the high-profile sporting spectacles in the country.

As an advisor in the Saudi court, Alalshikh is royalty and holds a rank equivalent to a minister. Dana White has always spoken highly of the UAE royal family, particularly for their help during the pandemic. White has also spoken highly of Alalshikh. Therefore, it was not a surprise to see Alalshikh tweet nicely about the UFC CEO after the meeting they had

A great man whom I respect, with exciting things coming in the future ahead! @danawhite
Turki Alalshikh via X
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Alalshikh’s respect for Dana White possibly stemmed from their track record of putting the fights people wanted to see. White has made the best fights in MMA, and the UFC 300 fight card can attest to that. As for Alalshikh, he has already made Francis Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou vs. Anthony Joshua. Moreover, Fury will take on Oleksandr Usyk in May for the first undisputed boxing heavyweight title in decades.

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Under Alalshikh, high-profile boxing events became normal in Riyadh. Recently, all the big fights in the boxing’s heavyweight division happened in Riyadh, with many more to come. Moreover, Riyadh will also witness the first undisputed light heavyweight boxing champion as unified champion Artur Beterviev will take on WBA champion Dmitry Bivol in June.

Dana White speaks about Turki Alalshikh

Turki Alalshikh has grown a fanbase due to the high-profile sporting spectacles he made in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Recently, he made a 5 vs. 5 fight card between eternal rivals Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn. Both promoters respect Alalshikh and only have nice things to say about him.

Dana White on Turki Alalshikh
Dana White on Turki Alalshikh (via Imago/MMA Mania)

On his appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, White stated that Alalshikh is the last ray of hope for boxing. White felt boxing had become too political as superstar boxers evaded fighting each other. As Saudi Arabia has lavish money to make fights happen, they have the power to keep all the big boxing superstars under.

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Nonetheless, White also stated despite having immense money, they still had problems in some fights. Gervonta Davis once demanded Ferrarris to fight in Saudi Arabia when Alalshikh expressed his interest in making Gervonta Davis vs. Devin Haney. Moreover, Canelo Alvarez has evaded David Benavidez, his mandatory challenger. Benavidez even made a plea to Alalishikh, but Alvarez did not entertain the idea. Nevertheless, Alalshikh has turned around the sport of boxing for good.

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