Event of the Year: The Battle of the Baddest “It Was All a Dream”

We all need to dream in life. Dreams motivate us to press forward and provide an emotional stability when we need to remember our purpose in life.

The Battle of the Baddest featuring Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou provided an abundance of dreams with Riyadh itself operating as a dream factory.

Francis Ngannou had a dream to be a boxer and wanted to show the world his ability. Tyson Fury dreamed of further cementing his status as the biggest Heavyweight star in boxing. The country of Saudi Arabia dreams of continued progress and establishing itself as the pre-eminent sporting capital of the world.

Dreams, by their nature are different – and every single person present for the opening of Riyadh Season brought their own.

Dozens of former and current boxing stars arrived in The Kingdom as a sort of mini-convention of boxing royalty. Holyfield, Lewis, Cotto, Duran – to name a few –  were all brought together under one roof to remind us of the power of boxing.

And that’s just the boxers; Conor McGregor, Chuck Liddell and Junior Dos Santos showed up from the MMA world. Different combat disciplines – but a shared dream to be champions in their fields.

Celebrities from all walks of the entertainment industry showed out in force, from Eminem to Cristiano Ronaldo, Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram and Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. All dreamers who dared to live their truth and excel in their passions.

Then there was the venue itself; Kingdom Arena. For the undercard, almost 20,000 people gathered to watch the preliminary fights in the outside venue – before all getting up and moving to watch the main card – in a different stadium! What vision from His Excellency Turki AlShikh and the General Entertainment Authority.

Tyson Fury, the boxing champion, versus an MMA Champion in Francis Ngannou; fighting each other in a boxing contest was also a dream, given the rarity of such crossovers.

Many people had dismissed Francis and it was a foregone conclusion that Tyson would either carry him for entertainment or knock him out in the early rounds. Francis didn’t get this memo.

After 2 relatively even rounds, Francis dropped Fury to the canvas. This certainly wasn’t in the script and made for high drama. Suddenly, it was unclear if Tyson would even go the distance.

Both heavyweight behemoths continued to fight each other in a very close contest. Tyson Fury was employing a “herky-jerky” stance; triple and quadruple jabbing when he let his shots off, with Francis Ngannou consistently cutting the distance – and dropping Fury to the canvas.

In the end, Tyson Fury won enough rounds to claim a decision – claiming the “Riyadh Champion” belt in the process. The belt in many ways is the result of the manifestation of the late Jose Sulaiman, whose dream it was for boxing to flourish in the Middle East; a dream that is very much becoming reality in recent years.

Francis Ngannou proved that not only that he could hang in the world of boxing; but he can be a considerable threat to the best Heavyweights out there. Indeed, WBC President Mr. Mauricio Sulaiman told Mike Bohn after the fight, that he would place Francis at number 10 in the Heavyweight rankings.

How does a non-boxer now become one of the hottest properties in the game? Go ask Francis Ngannou for the answer; he’s in the “dreams-coming-true” business and has mastered this ability throughout his entire life.

Everyone won during The Battle of The Baddest; the fighters, the fans and the world of combat sports. We have The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to thank for this. Without their Vision 2030, all of this would be just pure fantasy.

The grandeur of the occasion, in addition to the many nostalgic and modern reminders of why we love this sport have given many a renewed faith in boxing. With The Battle of the Baddest, Saudi Arabia heralded its arrival as the future home of Big Time Boxing – which was to be swiftly followed by Day of Reckoning, Ring of Fire and Knockout Chaos.

Mr. Mauricio Sulaiman commented that “I have never seen anything like this; it will always be remembered as one of the greatest events in the history of boxing.”

Next up for The Kingdom is the Unified Heavyweight boxing fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksander Usyk called “Ring of Fire”. This will see the first Heavyweight Champion holding all of the belts since Lennox Lewis in 1999. Many have dreamt of seeing these disparate belts unified in our generation. We can only imagine the incredible theatrics in which this fight will happen, following the spectacular opening of Riyadh Season.

What are we left with – when all is said and done and the dream has come into existence? That’s simple. Dream it all over again. Dream more, dream bigger and dream on.