Turki Alalshikh has made him name well known in the sport of boxing since his relatively recent entry.
Under the Riyadh Season banner, the 43-year-old from Saudi Arabia has helped stage such fights as Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou and, most recently, Terence Crawford’s successful bid at a world title in a fourth weight class against Israil Madrimov.
That Crawford card was Alalshikh’s first effort outside of Saudi, taking the show on the road to Los Angeles. One fighter who was meant to feature on the entertaining undercard was former WBO Super-Welterweight Champion, Tim Tszyu.
Tszyu was upgraded from interim to full champion last year and defended the belt successfully against Brian Mendoza. He suffered a nasty cut in his second outing as champion against Sebastian Fundora and lost on the cards.
He was set to bounce back in a big way by facing Vergil Ortiz on the Riyadh Season LA card, though doctors ruled it was too early for him to spar after the Fundora cut and it was canned.
Alalshikh was asked by Fight Hub TV if Tszyu, now fit, was in his plans for the future, but has answer was a stark no.
“I will not work with Tim Tszyu. Let him [do it] his way. He doesn’t understand.”
Ortiz instead faced Serhii Bohachuk this weekend, winning the WBC Interim belt on points after a fight of the year contender. Alalshikh said the fight could have been called a draw and encouraged a rematch.
His decision on Tszyu comes just days after he entered into a public spat with unified super-middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, claiming the elite Mexican fighter no longer wants to challenge himself in the ring. In this more recent interview, he said they may work together down the line if Canelo was ‘wise.’
