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Turki Alalshikh Eyes Unique Event Locations Including Alcatraz Prison
NEWS
Keith Idec
Keith Idec
RingMagazine.com
Turki Alalshikh Eyes Unique Event Locations - Including Alcatraz Prison
There are already Ring and Riyadh Season boxing events respectively planned for May 2 at Times Square in New York and September 13 at Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.

Turki Alalshikh has various unique sites in mind beyond those two shows, however, most notably Alcatraz. Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, told ESPN.com’s Mike Coppinger during a wide-ranging interview posted to ESPN’s YouTube channel Friday afternoon that he hopes to stage a boxing event sometime this year at the long-closed federal penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco.

“What do you think if there is [an] event, fight in Alcatraz jail one day?,” Alalshikh asked Coppinger, who informed the head of Riyadh Season that the infamous prison has been transformed into a museum for tourists.

“It is like a museum now,” Alalshikh replied. “You know, sometimes I get in my mind I want different places to do [fights]. Sometimes in mountains, maybe someday in the Pyramids in Mexico, someday in [the] Eiffel Tower in France, [The] Coliseum in Italy. You understand this concept?”

The correctional facility at Alcatraz Island closed in 1963 because it became too expensive to maintain and operate.

Alalshikh brought Riyadh Season’s first U.S. event to BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on August 3. Four-weight world champion Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), who will challenge Canelo Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) for at least the Mexican icon’s Ring, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles September 13 at Allegiant Stadium, unanimously outpointed Israil Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) in the 12-round, 154-pound main event August 3.

The ambitious Alalshikh isn’t certain which boxers would compete on a card at Alcatraz, which would require cooperation from government officials in California.

“If they accept, if they accept – the mayor there, if he accepts, I think it is [the] perfect place,” Alalshikh added. “Also, the mountain. [Mount] Rushmore, there [in South Dakota]. Or also, the big aircraft [carrier, The Intrepid], yeah, in New York, there. You understand me? Strange places. You know what I mean now? In front of the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. You understand me now? I am thinking to do something there.”

Duva Boxing presented a card ESPN2 televised from the flight deck of The USS Intrepid in June 2001. The aircraft carrier was decommissioned in 1974 and is docked on the Hudson River in Manhattan.

Ring’s card May 2 in Times Square will feature rivals Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney in separate fights. If Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC), of Victorville, California, defeats Rolando “Rolly” Romero (16-2, 13 KOs), of North Las Vegas, Nevada, and Haney (31-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), of Henderson, Nevada, beats Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs), of Avenal, California, that night, Garcia and Haney will advance to a highly anticipated rematch.

Garcia dropped Haney three times and won their 12-round welterweight bout by majority decision last April 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The official result of their fight was changed to a no-contest because Garcia tested positive for ostarine, a banned substance. The New York State Athletic Commission suspended Garcia for one year and fined him $1.2 million for that transgression.

Keith Idec is a staff writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.

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