Tris Dixon reports and Lance Pugmire corroborates that Turki Alalshikh is either planning to sell a controlling interest in Ring Magazine to DAZN or has already done so.
The parties in question have yet to release statements. Mike Coppinger, Alalshikh’s less-charismatic Mouth of Sauron, is similarly silent in favor of supporting autocratic chicanery on X, the Everything Website.
Alalshikh purchased the publication from Oscar De La Hoya in late 2024 with grand promises of “brilliant writers,” “restor[ing]
the legacy” of its ranking system, and editorial independence. It pretty much failed on every front; it didn’t turn into the full state-sponsored propaganda outlet we feared, save for a semi-hagiographic comic series published by Dark Horse and penned by the legendary Gail Simone*, but the writing’s been pretty much the same as always save for Alalshikh’s occasional co-opting of its social media to air petty grievances. The phrase “Bible of Boxing” isn’t any less obsolete than it was in ‘24.
DAZN’s sins tend towards predatory pricing models and terrible commentary crews instead of bonesaws, so it’s a welcome development on that front, though it’s still not ideal. DAZN’s built itself into a pugilistic Death Star of late, and even if it’s not a true monopoly, putting a sport’s most recognizable publication in the hands of its greatest movers and shakers isn’t the recipe for journalism that speaks truth to power.
Not that I expected the modern sportswriting scene to produce a pugilistic Spider Jerusalem, but it’s nice to imagine, isn’t it?
* Assuming it’s not canceled, I’ll be doing a write-up of it after the next issue drops.
