SPORT JOSHUA’S DESERT STORM
Why IS he helping to give the brutal Saudi regime a sporting makeover?
IT is almost certainly lost on Anthony Joshua that his presence in the desert this week has much to do with the influence of a Saudi princess who once ran Riyadh’s Harvey Nichols store and has entertained former British Prime Minister Theresa May during a state visit.
Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan, born into the nation’s ruling House of Saud, has been at the heart of the desert country’s strategy to splash billions on sporting events such as Saturday’s title fight between Joshua and Andy Ruiz to project itself on to the global stage and prove it is not an archaic police state.
That need intensified after Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist and dissident, was seized, murdered and dismembered with a bone-saw at his country’s consulate in Istanbul a year ago.
Princess Reema, 44, is the acceptable, articulate, US-educated face of her country whom Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appointed to the seemingly obscure role of Deputy of Planning and Development at the Saudi Arabia General Sports Authority (GSA).
She has implied she was simply encouraging mass sports participation in a country where girls were barred from PE lessons until two years ago.
But foreign registration documents have revealed Princess Reema is a key figure in the GSA’s work to secure global sports events like Saturday’s ‘Clash on the Dunes’ to divert attention from the state’s dubious human rights record and reduce Saudi’s chronic oil dependency.
Working with LA-based lobbying firm Churchill Ripley Group, Princess Reema has discussed the development of basketball in Saudi Arabia with Kobe Bryant, surfing in the state with Sophie Goldschmidt, the chief executive of World Surf League, and has met the commissioner of the National Hockey League. Discussions are ongoing with Madison Square Garden about a ‘stadium infrastructure’.
‘She is a highly effective saleswoman for Saudi,’ one lobbyist familiar with her work said. ‘Sport is seen as the way to redefine Saudi Arabia’s image. She’s westernised and sophisticated. She speaks their language, literally, metaphorically. The title fight is a big win. It puts Saudi in the same place that Abu Dhabi is – moving the conversation on from human rights.’
It is hard to believe
Joshua, one of sport’s more articulate champions, is not aware of this. But boxing is not the only sport involved.
Days after the fight, on which Riyadh has spent about £38m, the state will host a £2.3m tennis tournament featuring
‘eight of the finest men’s players on the planet’.
In January, Saudi Arabia will stage the Paris-Dakar rally and receive Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Valencia for the Spanish Super Cup, to be played in Jeddah at a cost to the country of £30m-£34m a year in three years.
It is an inconsequential sum for a state with the biggest economy in the Middle East which has a capacity to outspend the UAE and Qatar as part of what Prince Mohammed defines as his ‘Vision 2030’ strategy. But despite significant social reforms granting women the right to drive, attend gyms and freeing them from needing permission from a male guardian, or Wali, to travel abroad, activists insist events like the fight are a cover for brutal autocracy and a crackdown on dissidents.
Khashoggi’s killing prompted Prince Mohammed to re-deploy Princess Reema in a new role as Saudi ambassador to the US – the first time a woman has been named in such a post – in an attempt to smooth things over.
Scores of women have described fleeing Saudi Arabia to escape virtual slavery and abuse by husbands, brothers and fathers — and then facing surveillance and threats against families or business associates unless they report to embassies in the countries offering them asylum.
The Princess, whose marriage to the Saudi prince with whom she has two children was dissolved in 2012, is gushing about Prince Mohammed’s willingness to ‘listen to the community’.
But her empathy for women in her country, who still require the consent of a male guardian to leave prison, exit a domestic abuse shelter or marry, has limits. At last year’s World Economic Forum she said that allowing Saudi women to drive meant ‘there is now no more excuses on lack of productivity. A woman today can’t say, “I couldn’t find a driver”.’
She added: ‘Please understand the values we have are different. They are not right or wrong and they should be honoured.’
Amnesty International have labelled the fight ‘Sportswashing’ but Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said ‘I don’t understand that term’ and when asked about them said human rights considerations were ‘above my head’ and that he had no concerns about bringing his fighter to the state.
‘We are following organisations much bigger than us,’ he said. ‘Every promoter has been trying to land a mega fight in the Middle East for years. I’ve done it and with that comes a little bit of stick because we’re trailblazers.’
‘DENNIS ONLY FIGHTS TOP 15 BOXERS, THERE HAVE BEEN NO TOMATO CANS’
WHAT was once the most prized possession in all of sports will be up for grabs in Saudi Arabia next Saturday. Ahead of Anthony Joshua’s attempt to regain the world heavyweight title that he shockingly handed over to Andy Ruiz Jr, we might as well prepare ourselves for a lot of high-minded talk about how this bout will grow boxing’s global profile.
As if this wasn’t just another episode of ‘sportswashing’ in a controversial Middle Eastern state.
The thing is, that’s nothing new for the noble art. It’s often forgotten – or ignored – that the most famous fight in history was an early example of how sport can be used to cleanse the image of a repressive regime.
When Muhammad Ali met George Foreman in the Zairian capital of Kinshasa for “the Rumble in the Jungle” in October 1974, it was seen as a distraction from Mobutu
Sese Seko’s despotic rule. Of course, that was a time when the entire world stopped for heavyweight title fights. It’s not the case anymore.
If there is any positive thing to be taken from the Saudi regime using the sport of boxing to re-boot their image in the wake of the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the continued daily atrocities committed in Yemen, it’s that most of the globe won’t care. That is where the sport stands in the current order of things.
A few hours after Joshua meets Ruiz in the desert, Dennis Hogan will step through the ropes in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and try, for a third time, to become world champion.
Hogan is the sort of fighter who can give boxing a good name.
He rose to the top in his sport the hard way. Almost nine years ago, he arrived in Australia with a few hundred quid in his wallet, a pair of boxing gloves, a groin guard and a trade in carpentry.
The Kilcullen native was nobody’s idea of a hero back then. He liked to party.
He enjoyed a drink and hadn’t really dedicated himself to his sport in a proper way.
It was only after his third professional fight, when he staggered to a draw with an unheralded Kiwi light-heavyweight called Edmund Eramiha in Melbourne that Hogan decided to turn his life around.
In an era when boxers are protected and carefully-managed by those around them, Hogan ducked no challenges.
He rose to become mandatory challenger for the WBO light-middleweight title because he faced nothing but top 15-ranked fighters in the past two years.
Paul Keegan, a businessman from Dublin who was based in Brisbane and runs DPP Promotions, took Hogan under his wing and it was clear from the fighter that he wanted no padding in his record.
‘When we started doing this, we were determined that Dennis would only face world-ranked fighters. And that has been the case,’ pointed out Keegan.
‘In the past two years, he has only fought fighters who were in the top 15 in the world.
‘There have been no tomato cans, no fighters ranked 300th in the world. We can’t understand this mentality of boxers who just want to protect their record.’
Unfortunately, Hogan’s attitude is becoming a rarity in modern boxing, as was made clear in the aftermath of his controversial defeat in Mexico this past April.
Most objective observers feel that Hogan did enough to beat
Mexico’s WBO champion Jaime Munguia. He dominated his bigger, but younger and more inexperienced, opponent, setting the terms for engagement. Even Munguia muttered afterwards that it should have been a draw.
Hogan and his team were told to quell their objections and they would be given a deserved rematch. But nothing happened. Weeks turned into months and there was stone-walling at every turn. Golden Boy promotions have invested a lot into the young Mexican, who they believe will be their next superstar.
And they don’t want to risk that investment by putting him back in the ring with Hogan.
It has opened the door for charismatic Corkman Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan who will face Munguia in Texas next month. Rather than kicking his heels and seethe with frustration, Hogan has looked for other avenues.
So, he’s moving up in weight next weekend to face the WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. The Texan has won all of his previous 29 bouts and has claimed that Hogan will be number 30 on his record. But as Munguia learnt, under-estimating Dennis Hogan is a dangerous game to play.
The famous green belt that was around the waist of Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard in the 1980s is now within the grasp of Hogan. He may be no Leonard or Hagler, but the Kildareman is not a fighter that is easy to predict.
As he proved in Mexico last April, he’s a tactically astute boxer who is acutely aware of the dimensions of the ring.
And Hogan’s is the sort of story that makes it easier to defend boxing against the reason and rationale of its ardent critics.
It is the hardest game and darkest trade in sport, as we have seen this year with the passing of fighters like Patrick Day, but it still produces the most disciplined, dedicated and decent of sportspeople.
There is still room for a Rocky story, too, like Dennis Hogan who emigrated to Australia with little more than his boxing gloves and a dream, and is now fighting for a belt that was once held by some of the greatest middleweights in the world.
Hogan won’t have many of the headlines this week, not with Joshua and Ruiz Jr clashing on the dunes.
But he should, because it is fighters like him that can give boxing a good name.