Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov the next step in Turki Alalshikh's plan to bring boxing to the modern era

As Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the general entertainment authority and overseer of Saudi Arabia's aggressive financial investment into boxing, prepares for Saturday's debut boxing card on U.S. soil, the drumbeat of questions continue to follow him from those inside the business at just about every turn.

Is Alalshikh, and by extension, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, good or bad for boxing's future? Isn't this just sports washing? And, what exactly is a Riyadh Season?

The answers, in this case, aren't as simple as the questions make it seem.

"First of all, I am a fan of boxing and the people in our country like the boxing," Alalshikh told The MMA Hour in May . "It was the No. 1 sport in the world in the 70s and 80s but now, in our studies, it is 14th. Boxing has suffered a lot of problems in the last 20 years.

"Who has been handling boxing in the last 15-20 years? People who are, in our opinion, doing the business of the 70s and 60s but we are new generation of people and want a different way of thinking. We think we have the chance to have a different format for the boxing to make people happy about it."

One might forgive a sport as disorganized and broken as the sweet science with being skeptical about a singular, well-financed entity swooping in as if its the Robin Hood of boxing to unify sworn enemies and aggressively fix the large multitude of issues. With as low a barrier of entry as any other professional sport, boxing has seen countless others try parts of Alashikh's expansive plan only to run out of cash or change their tune once opportunities for short-term greed became available.

The difference for Saudi Arabia, in this case, is we are talking about a seemingly endless supply of resources, as evidenced by the multiple, major pay-per-view events put on by Alashikh in recent years, often to promote Riyadh Season, the Kingdom's annual three-month festival of cultural events to close the calendar year. It has all been part of the government's aggressive "Saudi Vision 2030" program aimed to lessen the nation's financial dependence upon oil through increasing its diversification both socially and culturally.

The other major difference has been Alashkih's recent track record, which has seen him repeatedly craft dream fight cards aligning opposite ends of boxing's political divide while forcing rival networks to team up for better distribution. Alashikh has also generously raised the career-high purses for each boxer while spending gigantic sums on creative promotion, including Hollywood-level movie trailers to promote the main events.

For anyone in boxing lamenting the possibility of having to fly across the globe to Saudi Arabia as Alashikh continues to help turn the city of Riyadh into the new Las Vegas, that's also not part of his plan. This is why Saturday's card from BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, which is headlined by former undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford atop one of the deepest PPV events in U.S. boxing history, is so important as the beginning of Alashikh's hope to feature the sport across the globe from Tokyo to Berlin, and multiple points in between.

"We don't want to take the place of London or [Las] Vegas or anything but we want to put our city on the map and I think this is our right," Alashikh told talkSPORT Boxing in May . "No one like us is doing great cards in this time.

"Sometimes, what bothers me is when people talk about money washing or sports washing or why [fights] have to be in Riyadh? It is our rights. We are delivering with good price for the tickets in the stadium."

For the record, Alashikh is not attempting to act as a promoter, manager or a representative of a singular broadcasting outfit. What he has done, however, is attack the sport and extend his influence from the inside out, which has included partnering financially with many of boxing's top promotions through sponsorship agreements and advertising (similar to how Alashikh paid UFC to have Riydah Season sponsor its experimental November PPV at The Sphere in Las Vegas).

"My friends, I am not a promoter but my door is open for everyone," Alashikh told the MMA Hour. "This is a clear and direct message. I don't work with someone as a special. I am open and everyone can come do a deal with us for Riyadh Season. If it's the right deal, hello, we can discuss and do it. It is not our interest to be a promoter. We know their job and we know our job. If they deliver what we want, they can work with us. Anyone."

According to Alalshikh and the research done by his team, he believes 98% of boxing fans are unhappy over what has become of the sport from a greed and disorganization standpoint over the past two decades. It does become easier, however, to impart one's influence upon the sport when large sums of money are being exchanged, which is something Alalshikh -- a self-proclaimed boxing superfan -- has used to become a de facto matchmaker to most of the cards he financially supports.

The good news for boxing fans is that Alalshikh has great taste and has largely kept his focus upon making the kind of fights that fans could only previously dream of. He has also gone out of his way to treat the boxers like royalty at each and every turn, which is why fears of a new boxing monopoly chaired by Alalshikh aren't met with the same reservations as that in MMA, where UFC controls just about every aspect of elite MMA, including its reluctance to raise fighter pay despite year-over-year promotional growth.

Alalshikh definitely has his favorite boxers and never seems to hide from declaring which ones he desires most to play matchmaker with. But his recent track record of Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury, Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol and, Alashikh's latest obsession, Canelo Alvarez-Crawford, largely speak for themselves despite the multitude of hurdles that continue to threaten the viability of each one.

"[Alalshikh] is bringing the excitement back to boxing the way it should be," Crawford told All the Smoke Fight last week . "All of the promoters should be trying to work together instead of trying to compete with each other. The fans want to see all of these guys fight and I think what he's doing is mixing the game up.

"I like it and I think it's going to work because all of the control from one promotional company is excluded. Now, it's everybody in one basket. You can't say, 'Oh, he's across the street.' Or, 'he's with the wrong promoter.' If the money is going to be right, you are going to fight him."

Last week, Alalshikh signed new deals with top promoters Top Rank and Golden Boy. This week, he will present a debut U.S. card featuring top fighters from Premier Boxing Champions, whom he has previously never worked with.

Alalshikh is not only reducing the power and influence of boxing promoters, he's making a good deal of their jobs easier by committing so many resources to creatively getting the word out about each event.

"You have to understand, they got money to blow," Crawford said. "They have money to say what they want, how they want it and to put it. Not only is Turki for the fighters but he is for the fan that wants to watch the fighters. The money is nothing to them. They got the money. They doing this for y'all, the people who want to see the fighters and the lifestyle and background of the fighters. He's shaking the game up."

Even though ticket sales were initially slow for Saturday's U.S. debut, Alalshikh has pulled out all the stops, including adding rapper Eminem atop the bill as a performer, hosting the public workouts (along with free undercard fights) on the pier in Santa Monica and even doing a parade across Los Angeles featuring main card fighters waving from the back of convertibles.

"Tell me who can do some card like what we are doing [where] each of the five or six fights can be the main event?" Alashikh said. "Who can do it with the commercial and spin it like we are doing. Sometimes, the commercials cost us more than the fights. We are also doing, for the first time, the old school. We have brochures, fliers, posters in the street and everywhere, including train station, taxi and restaurant."

The only logical next question becomes what will Alalshikh do with all of the power and influence that he and his country have paid so handsomely to acquire. Reports from multiple outlets in recent months have teased a super league of the top promoters while others have speculated Alalshikh, who has not publicly commented, would host tournaments involving the sport's top divisions.

"In the boxing, we are planning to have a big project that will see the light, maybe, at the end of 2025," Alalshikh told the MMA Hour. "But until this, we will still support very big cards. Now, in the last eight months, I have relationship with around 98% of the fighters, direct relationships. My idea is to do big cards to make the world see it, soon. I hope no one stands in our way to doing something like this, from the promoters to the belts [owned by the four major sanctioning bodies], because, in the end, if we wanted, we will do it. And we will be successful doing it."

When it comes to the power brokers in the sport of boxing, it's starting to appear as if you are either with Alalshikh or you are against him. Whether or not the result of that becomes a good thing for all simply remains to be seen as much of Alalshikh's plans for inclusion comes at the cost of singular control from an entity that is still establishing trust within the sport it is so aggressively attempting to reshape.

But one thing Alalshikh appears focused upon above all else is making sure that the two entities long overlooked in major boxing in recent decades -- the fighters and the fans -- get served to the levels in which both deserve.

"We can't make all the people say [what we are doing] is right," Alashkih told talkSPORT Boxing. "Even in the religion, some people do not believe in the God. We understand this but we also ask all the people to be honest in what you see and to tell the truth. This is what I want. I invite all the people in boxing news to be part of this because this is our sport."