Mike Tyson has opened a gym in Saudi Arabia.
The training grounds, located in Riyadh, have been a hub for many recent training boxing camps, including that of Francis Ngannou for his March 8 bout with Anthony Joshua.
Over the past year, world-class heavyweight boxing has essentially moved to Riyadh. And Saudi Arabia, which has delivered big bucks to the big men of the sport, has achieved something where it has fallen short in similar endeavors (see: golf). The investment in boxing has seen some of the most relevant people in the sport get involved in its development in Saudi Arabia.
The next move seems to be the establishment of an iconic gym. Amer Abdullah, the director of boxing at Skill Challenge Entertainment and a liaison of sorts for Tyson in the Middle East, recently spoke to BoxingScene about the significance of a boxing gym in Saudi Arabia bearing Tyson’s name.
“It is the hottest gym in Riyadh,” Abdullah said. “It has training camps happening there, it is bringing up local prospects.
“He just keeps pushing the bar and reinventing himself,” Abdullah said of Tyson.”Here we are in 2024, and he is still very relevant in the sport, a living legend. I remember we did a meet-and-greet in New York 10 years ago or so, and one of the [venue workers] said, ‘Is that Mike Tyson from ‘The Hangover?’”
The gym came about when Tyson visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to attend the Tyson Fury–Ngannou fight last October. Turki Alalshikh, an advisor at the Saudi Royal Court and current Chairman of General Authority for Entertainment, extended the invitation to Tyson.
“Boxing is not a mainstream sport,” Abdullah said. “There are two names people know, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. Mike gets recognized just as much here as he does in the United States. Everyone loves Mike Tyson. They love what he has done in boxing, they love that he is a Muslim.”
Alalshikh has quickly become a household name to boxing fans, and he is among the influencers helping turn Saudi Arabia into a staging ground for some of the biggest fights. Of the four pay-per-views on the upcoming boxing schedule, Las Vegas and New York – quintessential boxing enclaves – will host one each. Saudi Arabia will feature two.
The region does come with its share of political baggage – something all that surrounding wealth can’t make simply go away. Yet this fertile ground offers fighters, who risk their lives in the ring, a chance to prosper. Think of it along the lines of the dream of the California Gold Rush. Especially for the heavyweights, hope of a man striking his fortune clearly exists in the Middle East.
“Boxing is going to go where there is the most opportunity,” Abdullah said. “How long did some of these fights take to make? Here it is – boom, boom, boom. These are the fights the fans want to see, these are the fights Saudi Arabia [wants] to deliver.
“They are reinventing how boxing is done – not just from a promotional or marketing standpoint, but also a visual aspect.
“You have never seen the trailers or the promo videos the way you are seeing them now for [these] fights. It’s a movie. Everyone looks forward to the next one.”
Politics aside, there are other drawbacks. Fights are no longer scheduled at optimum times in the United States. Travel to Saudi Arabia can be complicated. Local fans are just getting used to the big fights.
But a development such as the founding of Tyson’s gym, now a year old, suggests something big may be brewing in Saudi Arabia. Like the Kronk, the Summit at Big Bear and the Wild Card Boxing club, Tyson’s gym could become the next in a long line of classic training destinations. Sometimes genius hides in plain sight. If Saudi Arabia is building an economy around the sport, why shouldn’t a gym fronted by one of the most high-profile heavyweights of the modern era become boxing’s next mecca?