Turki Alalshikh Says His Health Is Not Good Ahead of Fury-Joshua
Turki Alalshikh told the London launch for Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua that his health has declined over the last four months and that he is not sure he will remember the night.
The Saudi entertainment chief spoke from the floor at Olympia before the fighters took the stage. He framed the December 11 Cardiff date as history in the making, then made the admission personal.
“In the end, I am going today, tomorrow, in the end, you are all making history here,” Alalshikh said. “I don’t know in couples of years I will remember this moment or not.”
He did not leave the line as a joke.
“I have a doubt about it now,” he said. “My health in the last four months is not good.”
Alalshikh said he traveled to London for the fighters, not for the noise around the card. He compared the work still in front of him to a film he called “The Wish List,” the 2007 movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, which he named as “Margot Freeman” on the microphone.
“I have The Wish List, in boxing,” he said. “I want to deliver it before, when I can deliver it.”
He then asked the room to help him finish that list.
“Please help me to deliver it,” Alalshikh said. “Please, Eddie, Frank, Nick, everyone, help me to do it.”
Those names were Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren, and Nick Khan. He repeated the reason twice. “For the fans. For, for the fans.”
The comments landed on a press conference already crowded with contract tension, promoter credit, and a late UK start time built for Netflix. Fury and Joshua still meet on December 11 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff for the vacant WBA Super heavyweight title. Tickets go on sale October 9. That date did not change because of what Alalshikh said about his health.
The health talk was not new. In June, Alalshikh told Ring Magazine he wanted a meeting with Hearn, Warren, Khan, Dana White, and DAZN while he still could. He said then that he feared losing his memory by 2028 or 2029. Reporting around that interview described years of cancer treatment and a pituitary-region brain tumor. He did not restated those diagnoses on Wednesday. He only said the last four months have been poor and that he now doubts whether he will remember this launch.
That is the limit of what can be written from the clip. He did not give a new medical update. He did not name a condition. He tied the urgency to work still unfinished in boxing.
Fury-Joshua sits at the top of that list. Alalshikh has spent the year pushing the British heavyweight fight through venue arguments, promoter disputes, and a public fight over who belongs on the stage. He has also floated other matchups he wants made while he can still make them. The London remarks put the same idea in simpler language. He wants the fights delivered while he is still here to see them.
The room clapped when he finished. Hearn and Warren were already part of the same event he was asking them to help complete. Khan was seated near him. White was not in the building after the week-long argument over his role. Alalshikh still put all four names in the same request.
What happens next is the card, not a diagnosis. Fury and Joshua have a date, a stadium, and a streaming partner. Alalshikh used the launch to say he may not keep the memory of it, and that he wants the rest of his boxing list finished for the people who buy the tickets. December 11 in Cardiff is the first item on that list that now has a confirmed night.
