LENNOX HITS BACK AT AJ: PAGE 51
ANTHONY JOSHUA will be more worried about Andy Ruiz tomorrow night in Riyadh than the tacit support he is giving to Saudi Arabia by fighting there. But having taken the money, he has bought himself a priceless chance to take a stance.
A world heavyweight champion’s voice carries far and wide and if Joshua exacts his revenge over Ruiz he should use the moment to address matters beyond boxing.
Unlike the Saudi bloggers and commentators who risk imprisonment and, in the case of murdered journalist
Jamal Khashoggi worse, Joshua is untouchable.
Every boxer who climbs into a ring is brave. If Joshua spoke up for change in the country that would be properly courageous.
The Saudis’ mission to bring these events to The Kingdom has been described by Amnesty International as ‘sportswashing’ – a lavish distraction policy designed to take attention away from a human rights record the organisation describes as ‘abysmal’ and the war in Yemen.
This year Saudi Arabia has already staged Formula E, European
Tour golf, an Amir Khan bout and WWE – if that counts as sport.
After the Joshua fight later this month comes a six-day equestrian festival, a tennis tournament headlined by Stan Wawrinka, the £16million Saudi Cup horse race in February and a Ladies European Tour event the following month.
For the Saudis, this is part of their efforts to move beyond an oil economy and to turn the country into a tourist destination – to normalise what, through Western eyes, is a highly abnormal place.
Dubious regimes have always used sport to paint themselves in a more acceptable light and, as long as the money has been right, sport has been happy to follow.
The Rumble In The Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman was held in Zaire – a military dictatorship run by President Mobutu, a despotic leader who used to fly to Paris for shopping trips on Concorde. The purses were part-funded by Libyan tyrant Colonel Gaddafi.
Pick your least favourite national government and sport will be doing business with it. The Euros will be part-staged by Russia despite the Salisbury poisonings, the World Cup is headed for Qatar, where hundreds of migrant labourers have died building the stadia.
The United Arab Emirates is hardly a bastion of free speech, neither is China. Israel continues to build new settlements in the occupied West Bank, Iran and North Korea enrich their uranium.
Yet we still play games with them. Saudi Arabia remains an outlier internationally but there have been signs of change inside the hardline Islamic Kingdom of late.
The country is softening its stance in certain areas – the ban on cinemas has been lifted and more mixing between the sexes in public areas is allowed. Sport could help to encourage the pace of change.
The involvement of women is particularly interesting in a country where the female population only gained the right to drive a car 18 months ago and remain subject to strict male guardianship laws.
The Saudi women who get to see Nicola Curry ride or Charley Hull swing a golf club in their own land will hopefully feel emboldened.
Joshua is unlikely to be thinking of the greater good tomorrow, only his own legacy and bank balance. But he should. The door to enlightenment has opened a fraction in Saudi Arabia. Joshua has the power to push hard at it.