As fight fans know and are duly excited about, it will be the ‘5 Versus 5’ this Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with five of the cream fighters under the Matchroom banner going up against five of the best fighters who represent the Matchroom stable. And there could be more such tournaments to come in the future.
Turki Alalshikh, who has done so much for the sport these past few months, with the Saudi billionaire (or is it trillionaire?) getting some massive fights and some hugely stacked cards done, has another big idea. Right now, Alalshikh, a real boxing fan with deeper than deep pockets, wants to stage another ‘5 versus 5,’ this one between five great US fighters against five great warriors from Mexico.
Sign me up, is all I can say to this idea, even before we get into who the fighters could be/should be/will be.
Turki has put out a teaser on social media:
America 5 Vs Mexico 5
Crawford V Canelo
[Caleb] Plant V [Jaime] Munguia
[Shakur] Stevenson V [Isaac] Cruz
Okay, so that’s a ‘3 versus 3,’ but you get the idea. It could be massive, it could be special. Alalshikh has been saying for a while now how he wants to match modern greats Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford together and, as much as that super-fight would need NO under-card, his excellency has shown that he is more than willing to put on a superb supporting show underneath a massive fight that can sell all by its lonesome (those aforementioned deep pockets can afford it, of course!).
Imagine, then, the possibilities as far as a Mexico Vs. USA 5 v 5 goes.
Wherever it happens, whenever it happens, we fans will for sure tune in. Crawford has to take care of business against Israil Madrimov in August, while “Pitbull” Cruz must defeat Jose Valenzuela on the same August 3 card, while Stevenson faces Artem Harutunyan in July. Plant and Munguia each have no next fight set yet, and neither does Canelo.
So, after the summer, maybe – hopefully – each of these fighters will be up and jumping at the chance of representing their respective countries in fights that will go down courtesy of Alalshikh’s latest great idea!
Again, sign me up. How about you?
