The Meaning of Turki Alalshikh's Heel Turn on Ariel Helwani
The Big Apple's politicians roll over for Ring Magazine & Rick Reeno.
What has happened to the good ‘ol United States of America?
Enforcers for foreign powers, who are above the law in their home countries, are seemingly above the law in America as well.
Notice how New York’s loudest politicians are awfully quiet these days when it comes to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Unless it’s a Trump visual, it’s radio silence.
The same political leaders — like Governor Kathy Hochul, US Senators Chuck Schumer & Kirsten Gillibrand, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Jerry Nadler — who can’t stop doing cable news hits about Big, Bad Republicans, suddenly can’t muster up enough energy to protest a Kingdom’s enforcer running roughshod in their own backyard.
Fretting about Zohran Mamdani becoming the next Mayor of New York City? They can’t stop Ring Magazine’s Rick Reeno!
Watching Turki Alalshikh and his various proxies invade the New York boxing scene has been incredible to watch. Team Turki is dictating their own rules of engagement, and everyone is playing along. From current NYC Mayor Eric Adams to the NYPD, whatever Turki wants, Turki gets. The vaunted tough-as-nails New York State Athletic Commission is no match.
Helps to have the support of the current US Federal Government, doesn’t it?
There is no greater visual disproving the supposed toughness of US Democrats than watching Turki Alalshikh say and do whatever the hell he wants in New York’s biggest venues without a single political protest. NYC, home to some of America’s biggest and richest professional political protesting organizations, magically can’t find enough voices to organize a two-car parade against a man whose government reportedly is actively executing journalists (Turki Al-Jasser) and supposedly imprisoning critics in the “Tutu wing” of a Riyadh area prison.
How quickly things have changed over the last decade for mainstream political activists.
Many individuals who were loudly and proudly protesting at “No Kings” rallies across America in opposition to US President Donald Trump won’t dare utter a word in opposition against a man with the title of His Excellency.
The dogs aren’t exactly barking right now.
Last week, Turki Alalshikh was VIP royalty for a sponsored smoker sparring event in which East Coast professional boxers were headhunting to see if they could win over the big man’s heart for a booking on the Canelo-Crawford undercard in Las Vegas. The fallout from this made-for-TV event is starting to surface, and there are consequences.
That’s the amazing zeitgeist of the fight business in 2025. The previous era of ¿Quién es más macho? has transitioned into a new era of fighters conditioned to slobber like Pavlov’s dogs for the applause of Dana White, Donald Trump, and Turki Alalshikh.
And you thought Conor McGregor telling Mike Perry “dance for me!” was a psychotic moment that couldn’t be matched.
If Turki isn’t picking winners and losers, he’s busy telling promoters what he wants to see, and if he’s not happy, he’ll back out of an event (e.g., see Chris Eubank/Conor Benn). The Man of the People is busy selling a marketing pitch that his events will no longer be on DAZN PPV.
With each new announcement, Turki Alalshikh dominates the news cycle. He is controlling the narrative.
Part of controlling the media narrative is rewarding your allies and punishing your enemies. When your media allies cross your perceived boundaries, you lay down the law. Ariel Helwani is finding this out the hard way.
Turki knows that he can publicly make promises against his perceived enemies, knowing that no leader in the state of New York will sacrifice political capital by standing up and challenging his authority.
Turki has some weapons at his disposal that reveal what a smart and cunning manipulator he can be. The amazing part is how naive so many in the media are about what is unfolding before their eyes. Especially the blood-thirsty sycophants and sidekicks who think they can weaponize the Kingdom against their penny-ante professional enemies.