Handshakes, smiles, and iconic photos showing him arm in arm with the greatest champions, promoters, and trainers of today’s boxing era—Turki Alalshikh is doing everything possible to project the image of a kind and affable man, driven solely by his love for boxing and its fans. It’s a highly successful PR operation, as the boxing world, with few exceptions, has embraced the Saudi government official with enthusiasm and gratitude. And yet, a deeper investigation into Alalshikh’s past reveals another side of “His Excellency,” one marked by rather disturbing details.
In Luigi Pirandello’s famous masterpiece The Late Mattia Pascal, the protagonist, believed to be dead by his family and community, decides to adopt the pseudonym Adriano Meis, hoping this new identity will help him cut ties with his past and prevent people in his “new life” from linking him to his former self. Turki Alalshikh, formerly known as Turki Al-Sheikh, seems to have taken inspiration from Pirandello’s work, subtly modifying the surname he presents to the public—an astute move to distance himself from his past actions.
A quick online search using the name “Turki Alalshikh” wouldn’t reveal anything particularly shocking or controversial. That’s exactly what happened to me a month and a half ago when I was preparing to write an article on “the Arab turn in boxing” (click here to read it). Scanning through the English Wikipedia page dedicated to the Saudi official, I found nothing objectionable, so much so that in my piece, I simply poked fun at the overly servile attitude some members of the boxing community have towards “His Excellency.”
However, a closer inspection of that Wikipedia page reveals, beyond the already mentioned name duality, two significant details. The first is hidden in the phrase, “He worked in several government sectors including the Interior Ministry”, a subtle red flag when discussing an autocratic country where law enforcement is used to suppress dissent.
The second is footnote number 14, which links to a Human Rights Watch article on Saudi Arabia’s use of entertainment events to divert global attention from human rights violations. This note, however, almost goes unnoticed, as it is attached to a long list of artists who have performed in the country, without any explicit reference to whitewashing.
The most serious and sinister aspects, however, emerge only when searching for the name “Turki Al-Sheikh.” The most disturbing of all is recounted in a long and detailed Guardian article about the 2017 coup that paved the way for Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to the Saudi throne at the expense of the rightful successor, Muhammad bin Nayef. (Click here to read the article)
According to the Guardian’s reconstruction, bin Nayef was “persuaded” to renounce his succession rights after being forcibly separated from his bodyguards and privately confronted by none other than “His Excellency” Turki Al-Sheikh. During this encounter, Al-Sheikh allegedly threatened to have the women of bin Nayef’s family raped if he did not step aside.
Another troubling case that emerges when digging through the depths of the internet concerns a young Egyptian citizen, Ahmed Mohamed Omar. In 2021, nine months after moving to Saudi Arabia for work, he was secretly taken by the police and disappeared for a year and a half before being granted a brief phone call to his family. During that call, he explained that he had been arrested because of a 2019 tweet in which he criticized Turki Al-Sheikh.
The young man, as reported by multiple sources and denounced by several human rights activists, was later sentenced to 19 years in prison. Furthermore, the human rights organization Together for Justice emphasizes in its report on the case (read here) that Ahmed Mohamed Omar’s story is not an isolated one. A similar fate reportedly befell the influencer Omar Napoli, well-known in Saudi Arabia for his sarcastic posts, who vanished after publishing critical comments about Al-Sheikh.
To conclude this brief (and certainly not exhaustive) list of the most controversial aspects surrounding the President of the General Entertainment Authority, it is worth mentioning his well-documented ties to former royal adviser Saud al-Qahtani. According to U.S. intelligence, al-Qahtani was the mastermind behind the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was brutally killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
“His Excellency” publicly expressed his support for al-Qahtani by posting a tribute song to him on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020 (read here). The gesture did not go unnoticed at the time, sparking protests from the family of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who was allegedly tortured in prison under al-Qahtani’s supervision—accusations deemed credible by Amnesty International.
If, by this point in my article, you’ve come to believe that I harbor any illusions about sparking a mass rebellion within the boxing world against Turki Alalshikh, you couldn’t be more mistaken. I stopped believing in Santa Claus a long time ago, and I’m well aware that the vast majority of industry insiders, upon encountering these revelations, would simply shrug their shoulders.
Over the years, boxing has rolled out the red carpet for figures with some of the most appalling moral records. The most glaring example—though not the only one—is undoubtedly the infamous Don King, a man responsible for two murders and countless financial scams against his fighters, yet still the recipient of awards and honors. The latest of these was The Ring Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed upon him less than a month ago by the historic American magazine.
However, while Don King’s misdeeds have long been well-documented, Turki Alalshikh’s figure remains shrouded in mystery. So much so that many fans are entirely unaware of his deep connections to Saudi Arabia’s repressive power structures. The purpose of this article is simply to bring the truth to light. These facts must not be left out of the public debate. After that, each person can judge according to their own conscience whether to continue polishing “His Excellency’s” shoes—just as Eddie Hearn has openly declared himself willing to do.