“There has to be a business case for these events,” Hearn told Cigar Talk. “You can’t just do a show and lose 20 million and move on to the next one. How long is that going to last? It’s not sustainable.”
Hearn said the early run of big cards was driven by scale and ambition, with little concern about how much money was lost on each show. He credited Turki Alalshikh for elevating the sport, but made it clear that the approach is no longer the same. Events, in his opinion, must now stand up as businesses rather than loss-leading spectacles.
“There has to be a business case for these events,” Hearn said. “You can’t just do a show and lose $20 million and move on to the next one.”
Saudi-backed cards have supported many of boxing’s biggest nights over the past year, including events associated with Zuffa Boxing and high-profile fights such as Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson and Ryan Garcia vs. Mario Barrios cards. Hearn didn’t refer to specific shows, but his comments point to a broader model where those kinds of cards are funded at a level that may not be sustainable long-term.
That change, he suggested, has already begun to show. He described the operation as more streamlined, with spending no longer as aggressive as it was during the initial boom in Saudi-backed cards. The implication is less additional cost and more selectivity over which fights are funded.
Still, Hearn acknowledged the impact Saudi investment has had on boxing, calling its influence undeniable. At the same time, his comments point to a cooling off period where financial discipline replaces open-ended backups.
If it holds, the effect will be felt across the sport. Fighters who have benefited from inflated purses may find negotiations tougher, while promoters will have to build events that justify their costs. The environment that allowed several elite fights to be stacked on one map may become harder to sustain under a model that prioritizes yield rather than scale alone.
Hearn’s view is that Saudi Arabia remains central to boxing’s biggest nights, but the terms are changing. The era of unlimited spending seems to be giving way to one where every event has to make sense on paper.
