Cristiano Ronaldo was nowhere to be seen at one of the biggest boxing cards of all time in Riyadh on Saturday night and it has now become clear why.

The 40-year-old is a huge fan of fight sports and is often seen at boxing and MMA events. 

Many fans were expecting him to be sat ringside even before Sky Sports posted a clip which showed a seat labelled 'CR7' beside the ring as the showcase got underway.

However, the fights came and went and there was still no sign of the Al-Nassr superstar.

Dmitry Bivol defeated Artur Beterbiev in the main event of 'The Last Crescendo' on by majority decision, becoming the new undisputed light heavyweight champion and handing Beterbiev his first loss. 

And Ronaldo's absence has been explained with the Portuguese posting on social media.

Ronaldo shared a photo of himself with Saudi Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman at the Saudi Cup, the world's richest horse race.

He captioned it: 'happy to celebrate Founding Day with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and honoured to attend the Saudi Cup horse race ceremony in Riyadh.'

The pair witnessed Japan's Forever Young hunt down Hong Kong racing royalty Romantic Warrior to land the £16m race.

Ronaldo looked in good spirits having seemingly recovered from his side's crushing defeat to Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League the day before.

Al-Nassr fell to a 3-2 defeat which means they now lie fourth in the table after being leapfrogged by Al-Qadasiya.

Ronaldo was clearly fuming as new signing Jhon Duran was sent off in the closing stages of the game, botting the ball away in frustration. 

The result left Al-Nassr fourth in the Saudi Pro League table, 11 points behind leaders Al-Ittihad after 21 matches.

Ronaldo has rarely missed a big fighting event hosted in Saudi since he left Manchester United to join the club.

Fans were left amused when he was sat next to Conor McGregor at the Day of Reckoning event in December 2023, the Irishman seen chewing his ear off as comfortably defeated Otto Wallin and Joseph Parker shocked Deontay Wilder.

He also appeared to hit it off with Anthony Joshua as they took their seats next to each other for Tyson Fury's first heavyweight showdown with Oleksandr Usyk.

The former Real Madrid fan is known to be good friends with a number of fighters, including the likes of Francis Ngannou and Khabib Nurmagomedov.