The new owner of The Ring magazine and website confirmed Monday that the stacked pay-per-view card he has organized for February 22 will cost considerably less than American boxing fans are accustomed to paying for shows on that platform.
Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh announced to his 7.1 million followers on Elon Musk’s X that the seven-fight pay-per-view extravaganza headlined by The Ring light heavyweight championship rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol will cost consumers “no more” than $25.99 in the United States. That price point is at least $50 less than the typical charge for four-fight offerings on pay-per-view in the U.S.
The February 22 show – which will take place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – will cost a comparable maximum of £19.99 in the United Kingdom. That is the going rate for most pay-per-view events in the UK.
Alalshikh’s announcement confirmed his commitment to lowering pay-per-view costs in the U.S. and addressed one of the most common complaints among American boxing fans. High pay-per-view prices spawned a damaging piracy epidemic in the U.S., where the once-prominent sport has been relegated to niche status.
“We want the fans [to] be happy and enjoy it,” Alalshikh wrote in his statement posted on X. “[Let’s] get boxing great again.”
The 43-year-old Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, added that the February 22 card will be made available for “no more” than the equivalent of $25.99 outside of the U.S. and UK.
The discounted pay-per-view price should satisfy often-fickle fight fans in the U.S., who were most recently enraged when DAZN charged its American subscribers $19.99 to watch the British-influenced undercard beneath the first Beterbiev-Bivol bout October 12 from Kingdom Arena. Beterbiev-Bivol, which Beterbiev narrowly won by unanimous decision, was offered to ESPN+ subscribers without an additional charge thanks to a deal Beterbiev’s promoter, Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., struck with DAZN and Alalshikh.
The entire February 22 card, including the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch, is listed below. Each of the seven bouts are scheduled for 12 rounds.
Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs; The Ring 175-pound champion) vs. Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs; The Ring No. 1 contender), for Beterbiev’s RING, IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC and WBO light heavyweight titles.
Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs; The Ring No. 3 heavyweight) vs. Joseph Parker (35-3, 23 KOs; The Ring No. 43 heavyweight), for Dubois’ IBF heavyweight title.
Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs; The Ring No. 3 lightweight) vs. Floyd Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs), for Stevenson’s WBC lightweight title.
Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs; The Ring No. 3 middleweight) vs. Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs; The Ring No. 2 middleweight), for Adames’ WBC middleweight title.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs; The Ring No. 5 junior middleweight) vs. Israil Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs; The Ring No. 2 junior middleweight), for Ortiz’s WBC interim super welterweight title.
Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs; The Ring No. 5 heavyweight) vs. Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs; The Ring No. 6 heavyweight), for the vacant WBC interim heavyweight title.
Joshua Buatsi (19-0, 13 KOs; The Ring No. 3 light heavyweight) vs. Callum Smith (30-2, 22 KOs; The Ring No. 6 light heavyweight), for the WBO interim light heavyweight title.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Madrimov is scheduled to face Ukraine’s Sergii Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) in a 12-round bout on the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury undercard December 21 at Kingdom Arena. If Madrimov wins, he will advance to oppose Ortiz two months later.
Keith Idec is a staff writer for The Ring and a columnist for Uncrowned.com, in conjunction with Yahoo! Sports. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.