In the last month alone, Riyadh Season under His Excellency Turki Alalshikh orchestrated two huge boxing events. A Canelo Alvarez headliner on May 3rd in Riyadh and the May 2nd event in New York with Ryan Garcia vs Rolando Romero and Devin Haney vs Jose Ramirez. Naturally, the expectations were quite high. Unfortunately for the Saudi Royal, both events faced massive criticisms from the boxing community. Why? The quality of boxing presented was subpar at best.

Instead of battling fiercely in the ring, all six fighters adopted a cautious approach. As a consequence, it resulted in all three bouts ranking among CompuBox’s top 10 for the fewest punches thrown combined in a match. This forced HE Turki Alalshikh to put his foot down and implement a new policy, as Riyadh Season prepares for the massive Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford clash in September.

HE Alalshikh took to his X to announce that he won’t entertain passive boxing on his cards. “From this point on, I don’t want to see any more Tom and Jerry-type boxing matches where one fighter is running around the ring and the other is chasing him. We can longer support these kind of fights with Riyadh Season and The Ring. We want to support fighters who leave it all in the ring and fight with heart and pride!🥊🥊🥊,” he wrote.

While the Chairman of the GEA never directly named any particular boxer in his post, fans quickly guessed he was alluding to Devin Haney and Shakur Stevenson, two ultra-defensive boxers. Despite his issues with the aforementioned boxers, Ryan Garcia last night jumped to their defense and became the first fighter to criticize the new standard. Despite a long-standing rivalry with Haney, he took to his ‘X’ and wrote, “The no running rule is wild.” The tweet was odd considering KingRy isn’t a defensive boxer by any standard. In fact, he has been criticized for overtly depending on his hooks and lacking a well-developed defense. However, for him, it risks forcing boxers to alter their natural styles, potentially lowering the quality of matches. So when a fan asked, “Why does it matter. You don’t even run…,” Garcia swiftly responded, “No to me but it’s like you can’t influence boxing styles that way.” 

Well, just as Ryan Garcia predicted or His Excellency wanted, the new policy is already working, with Shakur Stevenson ready to change his style in his toughest challenge.

Ryan Garcia’s worst fears are coming true

It seems like Stevenson is looking at the July 12th bout against William Zepeda as an audition to showcase His Excellency his new approach. In a recent interview with Mike Coppinger, the Newark native acknowledged that the fight against Zepeda will be different. As the Mexican likes to engage against his opponent, the fans can expect a slugfest.

“You know, these guys engage with other people, but they see me and they do something different. But William Zepeda is a hell of a fighter once again, and you know, he said, he going to stop me by the 10th round. So let’s see,” he said. Despite acknowledging Zepeda as his toughest challenge yet, Sugar predicts the fight to go his way. This time, he won’t do it by running, but rather by “whoop his as–, I want y’all to just say, ‘I’m the best.’ That’s all I want,” he declared.

This is exactly the kind of passion that His Excellency wants from his fighters. And to be honest, it would be nice to see Stevenson in this new, aggressive avatar. Yet, it underscores Ryan Garcia’s main concern: boxers abandoning their natural style to deliver more fan-pleasing action.

However, ultimately, isn’t entertaining the crowd what counts most? What do you think? Let us know your thoughts down below.