Queensberry-DAZN Deal Reeks Of Deadly Boxing Collusion

With the announcement of Queensberry Promotion’s multi-year media rights agreement with DAZN, there should also come some red flags.

The biggest of those red flags would sport a big capital “C” for collusion

The exclusive rights deal, which kicks off April 1, 2025, brings the UK-based promotional company under the same broadcast umbrella as UK rival Matchroom Boxing and, also, Golden Boy Promotions, with all involved parties working under Saudi Arabian sponsorship.

So, in short, here’s the situation as it’s presenting itself:

Promotional companies responsible for the operation of boxing business are tied to a broadcast entity, which is being sponsored, at least in part, by a deep-pocketed third party, which is also sponsoring the same promotional companies.

Now, throw in the fact that the same entity “sponsoring” all of the above is also “sponsoring” two of the sanctioning bodies responsible for issuing recognized world championships and championship rankings, as well as major media sources responsible for reporting on the sport– possibly including one which issues its own rankings and self-described “real” world titles.

That’s a whole mess of conflict.

The legal definition of collusion is as follows:

“An arrangement where two or more persons (or business entities through their officers or other employees), usually business rivals, enter into a deceitful agreement, usually secret, to defraud and/or gain an unfair advantage over a third party, competitors, consumers or those with whom they are negotiating…to disrupt the market’s equilibrium.”

If that’s not happening now, it certainly gives off the vibe that all the ducks needed to do so are currently being lined up in a row.

Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudia Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and point man for the Saudis’ sportswashing efforts, has spent the last couple years laying the groundwork for an unprecedented amount of control over boxing.

Taking advantage of the sport’s disorganized business structure and general lack of focus and long-term business planning, Alalshikh’s inroads to control have come startlingly quick. For instance, it took less than two years for pretty much the entirety of UK boxing to come under Saudi influence. American promotional companies Golden Boy and Top Rank have also signed on to Saudi “partnerships.”

The take-control strategy has mostly come through the promoters, who’ve grabbed at lucrative Saudi deals to take big fights to Saudi Arabia and/or work under the Saudi Riyadh Season banner and, ultimately, under the sometimes overbearing watch of Alalshikh, who has had no qualms about violating legally binding promoter-fighter agreements when it suits his whims.

Heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson’s ultimately disastrous decision to jump into a bout with Martin Bakole, for example, came as a result of Alalshikh illegally circumventing promoter Top Rank to make the fight directly between the two combatants. The Bob Arum-founded promotional company, working under a “partnership” with Alalshikh, opted not to enforce their contractual rights to stop the fight they opposed making.

The influence Alalshkih has attained has been leveraged into strategic business moves, with some arguing that the free agent signings of Americans Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Shakur Stevenson with Matchroom Boxing came as a direct result of Matchroom’s more Saudi-friendly status. As a matter of fact, Stevenson pretty much said so in his first public statement announcing his deal with the Eddie Hearn promotional outfit, acknowledging his teaming with “Matchroom and Riyadh Season” to make him “unstoppable in and out of the ring.”

When it comes to broadcasters, Alalshikh has gone on record, championing the cause of DAZN with glowing social media endorsements and a stated desire to see the streaming service “become the home for all combat sports, especially boxing and MMA.”

The Saudi figurehead, finding this more friendly broadcast partner, was not discreet in his efforts to prop up the business that had begun to flat-line in some parts due to tech issues and lawsuits related to unfair business practices. A deal with DAZN for rights to the Al-Hilal Saudi Football Club would funnel a considerable amount of money to the company, to go along with the boxing business being nudged there and the promise of more business to come.

In the present tense, that “more business to come” looks to be firmly targeting “all the business to come.”

Recent Alalshikh/DAZN efforts to price fix and lower pay-per-view costs have generally been written off as a positive “to bring down costs for fans.” However, the end result of those efforts, thus far, has seen fans charged these reduced pay-per-view prices for events that normally would’ve been shown for free (often via outlets with greater mainstream viewership), on top of normal DAZN subscription fees.

When/if DAZN, working with a Saudi-influenced cabal of boxing entities, takes full control of the sport, they will have full say-so on pricing. That’s not a great thing when it comes to a company that has a history of acting in bad faith as a business entity, constantly raising prices and allegedly engaging in dubious billing practices.

An illegally united business front will also, eventually, be bad news for fighters as they face situations where they are negotiating open market deals in a closed market, where all of those competing for their services are in partnership with one central controlling entity who can cap purses and set terms at will.

Unfortunately, “illegal” will also be subjective when it comes to this current boxing dynamic as the boxing West is handing over power to entities beyond their jurisdiction. Enforcing the law of the land in the US, for example, will merely result in more of the sport moving out of the US.

The Queensberry/DAZN deal is just another chess piece being moved into place for the gambit that is likely to come. And, barring an unlikely united front among all US boxing companies to fight off this consolidation of power, there’s no solution.

The sport and its fans certainly can’t turn to its media to fight the battle.

In response to the Queensberry/DAZN news over the weekend, the boxing media just re-wrote the press release sent to them and never gave any of it a second thought. They would go on to cover the important issues of their day, like how so-and-so is rumored to be looking for a fight with so-and-so and how so-and-so looks to be in “beast mode” ahead of his upcoming bout.

So…apparently…All Hail our new Saudi overlords?

Just a moment, before you leave…Boxing needs independent media, like The Boxing Tribune, to compete against the major media sites, which are fully owned by promotional companies and other industry interests. As we build our profile, donations will help operating costs and give us a budget to hire more full-time writers to further provide quality boxing coverage. Please consider a small donation and click on the button below. Thanks.