Ruiz – Joshua 2: Cash on the Dunes

Ruiz – Joshua 2: Cash on the Dunes

Now that Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz is in the rearview mirror, it’s time to focus on boxing’s next big heavyweight fight.

On August 9, promoter Eddie Hearn announced that the rematch between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz would take place on December 7 in Saudi Arabia.

Three days later, Hearn hosted a two-man press conference in London with Omar Khalil, managing partner of Skill Challenge Entertainment (the Saudi Kingdom’s “official event partner” that is putting up the money to bring the fight to Saudi Arabia). After Hearn’s opening statement, he engaged in a dialogue with Khalil who told those in attendance, “We’re a democracy of forty million people” and said that the event was part of a plan to “enhance the quality of life and overall wellbeing” of the Saudi people.

“We love what you’re doing here for sports,” Hearn responded. “This is how you grow the sport of boxing. The world will stand still to witness history in Saudi Arabia.”

Matt Christie (editor of Boxing News, the world’s longest running boxing publication) wrote of the announcement, “It’s hard to remember confirmation of such a highly anticipated showdown being so poorly received.”

Joshua’s career has been built on the adoration of British boxing fans, most of whom (like members of the boxing media) have little desire to travel to Saudi Arabia. Some employees of Sky Sport (which televises Joshua’s fights in the United Kingdom) and DAZN (which will stream the bout live in the United States) are also wary of going to Saudi Arabia.

More significantly, the choice of Saudi Arabia as the site for Ruiz-Joshua 2 has led to an outpouring of criticism from human rights groups and others who are concerned that the move plays into the Saudi Kingdom’s efforts to “sportswash” its dismal record on human rights.

Let’s start with some facts.

Saudi Arabia is not a democracy.

The National Democratic Institute (a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization founded in 1983) states, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has one of the most tightly controlled political systems in the world . . . Ordinary Saudis lack protections for the exercise of basic civil rights, including speech and association, and have limited opportunity to participate in the political process at the national level.”

The Economist’s 2018 Democracy Index ranks the Saudi government as the ninth-most authoritarian regime in the world among 169 countries listed.

Reporters Without Borders has described the Saudi government as “relentless in its censorship of the Saudi media and the Internet.” In 2019, it ranked Saudi Arabia 172nd out of 180 countries in its Press Freedom Index.

Saudi Arabia has played a troubling role in the ongoing war in Yemen.

Women in Saudi Arabia are relegated by law to second-class status.

Same-sex activity in Saudi Arabia is punishable by fines, imprisonment, and torture.

And the involvement of the Saudi government in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, is a matter of public record. It’s particularly troubling that, at the September 5, 2019, press conference in New York for Ruiz-Joshua 2, Eddie Hearn acknowledged the presence of Prince Khalid bin Salman, who had traveled to the United States for a meeting with officials of the Trump Administration. Prince Khalid has been named in reliable intelligence reports as having been complicit in Khashoggi’s murder.

Moreover, there are legitimate safety concerns related to holding Ruiz-Joshua 2 in Saudi Arabia.

The United States Department of State has four advisory levels for travelers:

Level 1 – Exercise Normal Precautions

Level 2 – Exercise Increased Caution

Level 3 – Reconsider Travel

Level 4 – Do Not Travel

As of November 24, 2019, the State Department website had a “level 2” advisory for Saudia Arabia with the notation, “Exercise increased caution in Saudi Arabia due to terrorism and the threat of missile and drone attacks on civilian targets . . . Terrorists have targeted both Saudi and Western government interests, mosques and other religious sites (both Sunni and Shia), and places frequented by U.S. citizens and other Westerners.”

The September 14 terrorist drone attacks on nineteen key Saudi Arabian oil facilities further undermined confidence in the safety of the Ruiz-Joshua 2 promotion.

But money talks. And the Saudi Kingdom has given the promotion a lot of money (estimates range from $40 million to $100 million) to bring the fight to Saudi Arabia. Eddie Hearn referenced this reality at the September 5 press conference in New York when he declared, “No other country can compete with the money that’s available for boxing in the Middle East. If I don’t do it, some other promoter would.”

Hearn has also referenced two fight cards previously contested in Saudi Arabia – the September 28, 2018, World Boxing Super Series final between Callum Smith and George Groves (before the murder of Jamal Khashoggi) and the July 12, 2019, event headlined by Amir Khan vs. Billy Dib.

Other thoughts offered by Hearn have included:

*         “We really wanted to go somewhere who believed in the sport of boxing, that had a vision. We have to realize that there is another world out there outside of Cardiff and Madison Square Garden, and we have an obligation to grow the sport of boxing to new areas, to new regions. This event could change boxing forever because, if Saudi Arabia are going to invest in these kind of fights with the population that they have, with the potential to grow the sport of boxing, you could be seeing a big change in the dynamics of the sport. That’s something that really truly excites me.”

*         “The world will stop to watch this fight. I’m telling you, this is another Thrilla in Manila. This is another Rumble in the Jungle. Trust me when I say, this is one of the biggest heavyweight events of all time.”

*         “This [Saudi Arabia] is probably the safest place I’ve ever been to.”

Tickets for Joshua-Ruiz 2 went on sale on September 13. The top ticket price was listed at approximately $13,500.

There are political and economic reasons why the United States and United Kingdom do business in Saudi Arabia. But that doesn’t mean we should pretend that it’s a democracy or has the entertainment value of Disneyland.

In March of this year, Endeavor (which owns UFC) returned a $400 million investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and severed ties with the Kingdom to protest the role that the Saudi government played in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The absence of democracy in Saudi Arabia, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia’s role in the ongoing war in Yemen, and other issues involving the Kingdom should be weighed by the media in determining how to report on, and whether or not to attend, Ruiz-Joshua 2.

British journalist Kevin Mitchell spoke for many when he wrote in The Guardian, “This is about money, not morals – because the business does not do all that well with morals. Human rights abuse, the slaughter of innocent people in Yemen and the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi seem to have been no impediment to doing a deal with a regime so transparently desperate for international approval that ‘sportswashing’, as it has become known, is a central plank of their public relations platform.”

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book — A Dangerous Journey: Another Year Inside Boxing — was published by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism.

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