Despite a bevy of rumors throughout 2024, last week’s announcement of a deal between Saudi Arabia and the WWE/UFC conglomerate, TKO Group Holdings, to launch a new, unified front still hit the boxing world like a ton of bricks.
UFC CEO Dana White, WWE president Nick Khan and the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s general entertainment authority, Turki Alalshikh, formed a powerful and intimidating trio at the press event, which revealed a tiny snapshot of their future plans, along with the subsequent media tour that accompanied it.
The overall intentions of TKO Boxing, which is the working title for this new project that has been called both a new promotion and a league by the powers that be, might be best described by using a famous quote from former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor.
“We’re not here to take part,” McGregor said following his 2014 win over Diego Brandao, “we’re here to take over.”
TKO doesn’t envision itself as becoming THE power promoter within the sport as much as it plans on essentially BEING boxing in the same heavy-handed and monopolistic way that both WWE and UFC have risen in their own respective combat sport. And, to no surprise, reactions within the sport have been polarizing.
To some, TKO’s ambitious plans are the antidote to everything that has held boxing back in recent decades amid the proliferation of title belts, greedy promoters not working together and a deepening push for the sweet science into niche territory. To many others, however, there remains too many lingering questions about TKO’s true intentions and whether White and Alalshikh, in particular, are the right men to wield this much power atop a previously segregated sport.
Dana White, TKO Group partner with Turki Alalshikh to form boxing promotion: What it could mean for the sport
Brent Brookhouse
In light of said questions, let’s take a closer look at what we do know about TKO Boxing’s future plans and both the likelihood and potential fallout of each one coming to fruition.
TKO Boxing’s immediate plans appear to be two-fold
After listening to White speak about his boxing goals amid a gauntlet of interviews last week, it has become clear that TKO has both short and longterm goals regarding how its takeover of the sport will be executed.
White, who teased a move into boxing as early as the 2017 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor superfight (and even had “Zuffa Boxing” t-shirts created for the press tour), never made the leap because of what he called an unwillingness of others atop the sport to work with him. Because of that, it’s easy to see why TKO’s longterm plans surround being a singular entity aimed at rebuilding the foundation of the sport from the ground up.
To achieve that, White revealed TKO will be focused on signing younger and overlooked talent from across the globe and matching them aggressively against one another similar to White’s beloved nostalgic memories of watching USA Network’s “Tuesday Night Fights” (which aired from 1982 to 1998). By bringing “the UFC model to boxing,” as White has repeatedly said, this would essentially allow TKO to reset boxing’s baseline paygrades to a more manageable structure while creating a boxing factory and assembly line akin to UFC’s “Dana White Contender Series.”
The short-term TKO plans will be much higher in profile as the new endeavor is expected to promote and produce at least two superfight cards per year to start on major platforms. The first event, which White and Alalshikh has said will take place in September in Las Vegas, is rumored to be a Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight at Allegiant Stadium, which could air on Netflix.
How quickly TKO will be able to merge the two visions together likely depends upon the early success of its first event, how strong (in terms of platform and dates) its broadcasting deal will be and whether the remaining powers players within boxing can mount a worthy opposition.
TKO will not be using any money of its own
This is an important fact for a number of reasons, not just related to TKO’s stock price but the idea that Saudi Arabia, and not TKO, will be taking all of the financial risk in this ambitious attempt at demolishing and quickly rebuilding the existing foundation that makes up the sport.
For anyone worrying about whether UFC’s history of underpaying its athletes despite year-over-year record financial growth, it must be remembered how deep the pockets of the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia truly are and that White and TKO were hired on as managers of the brand who won’t be paying the fighters directly.
One thing we still don’t know, however, is what role TKO not footing the bill will play in how long White, Khan and Endeavor/TKO head honcho Ari Emanuel might be willing to stick to the longterm plans should the process take longer than expected (or whether Saudi Arabia would eventually pull financing if things don’t immediately go their way).
TKO will not be working with other promoters
This was a key reveal given by White during the UFC 313 post-fight press conference and supports the ominous quote stated by Alalshikh to media members last week that “I trust this league, in a short time will crush everything.”
Not only does this prove that TKO isn’t here to play well with others and work its way up the ladder of the boxing promotional power rankings. This is TKO saying it plans to reimagine and own the control of the entire sport at large, right away, and contradicts White’s recent attempts to take back early use of the word “league” as it pertains to TKO (preferring the term “promotion), even though a league is exactly what TKO is pitching.
It might go without saying at this point, yet it’s becoming more and more true: you are either with them or you are against them.
Will Turki Alalshikh continue working with others until TKO is ready?
According to White, who has said repeatedly that TKO will need upwards of 12-18 months to hire staff, sign fighters and launch the long-term plans of its new prospect league, part of that timeline coincides with the fact that Alalshikh still has contracts with many of boxing’s remaining power promoters.
Alalshikh recently purchased “The Ring” magazine with his own private equity and will begin rolling out a “Ring” sponsored fight series in April headlined by boxers who are represented by everyone from Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions to British powers Queensberry Promotions and Matchroom Sport. And while Alalshikh’s generous payouts are likely to continue to be the bridge between him and power promoters like Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren, Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya, last week’s announcement appeared to come as a shock to all of them.
It’s not as if everyone was naive to the rumors that White and Alalshikh were planning something big together. But it’s become clear that few realized that TKO has been propped up to be the only game in town once the new partnership comes to full fruition.
In many ways, this announcement was a wakeup call to boxing’s current power players that the money train will be coming to an end. But the telegraphed nature of White and Alalshikh’s sharing publicly so early that others won’t be involved could backfire if it leads to the same promoters deciding to cut ties with Alalshikh early in an effort to work together more in providing opposition to such an aggressive takeover attempt.
One world title and significantly less divisions
Make no mistake, this could end up being a positive development for the sport should TKO be able to pull this off. The fallout of such a move won’t come without heavy opposition, of course, from the four sanctioning bodies (WBC, WBO, WBA, IBF) who currently control the rankings and major championships across the sport.
The alphabet group of sanctioning bodies have brought just as much bad to the sport as good in the terms of greed, corruption and a mind-numbing amount of unnecessary and useless title belts that only water down what the term “champion” truly means. And the current layout of 17 different weight divisions (or, 18, if you count bridgerweight) feels far from ideal.
White is rumored to be targeting somewhere between 8 and 12 divisions for TKO and one world title per weight class, which would ease the confusion casual boxing fans often have as to who are the elite stars of the sport. Lowering the amount of weight classes would also help TKO’s transition from the standpoint of depth as it will take time for White to fill each division with respectable talent.
While it hasn’t been decided as of yet whether White will unveil TKO titles (he said Alalshikh isn’t sold on the name) or whether the promotion will use the “Ring” titles that were previously awarded to the lineal champion of each weight class. But an early power play from Alalshikh during last week’s Canelo Alvarez-William Scull press conference, where he was shown on camera ushering off the attempt of Alvarez’s team to place his trio of world titles on his shoulder for photos, was seen as a message regarding his future plans.
The WBC appeared quick to respond as many of its champions posted pictures on social media posing with their titles as a show of pride and appreciation for the current alphabet system.
What about the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act?
This was seen as an immediate hurdle for White, as his plan on removing the alphabet bodies and awarding his own titles as a promoter are currently illegal under the federal law that was enacted in 2000 and aimed at providing financial transparency for boxers (while legally separating the conflicting roles of manager and promoter).
White has outright dismissed the Ali Act in most recent interviews, saying it’s something he will need to get around in order to activate his vision. Both Emanuel and TKO executive Mark Shapiro have also shared publicly in recent weeks their belief that the act does more harm for boxing than good (with the relationship between White and U.S. President Donald Trump being seen as something that could help repeal it).
The Ali Act, however, only pertains to boxing in the U.S., which means boxers could, in theory, sign with Saudi Arabia directly to get around it. The act has also been criticized at times over the years for how difficult it is to enforce, which also could play into White’s hands.
What will White’s new workload mean to his existing UFC role?
This is an interesting sub-heading topic that has made the rounds across combat sports and was addressed by White directly last Saturday after being asked by media members how he might juggle boxing with his UFC and Power Slap responsibilities.
White has essentially said that this will be something that he will find out firsthand over the next year and will be addressed when the time comes. But many who have followed the inner workings of TKO have suggested that White’s influence and role within UFC has slowly lessened over time following Endeavor’s 2016 purchase of the promotion and the recent rise of UFC business officer Hunter Campbell.
To be fair, White has also appeared to be more and more checked out of MMA, at least in terms of his passion and public interest, the more that UFC’s financial strategies have shifted away from making stars and creating huge events toward becoming more of a weekly content factory. Boxing, which was White’s first love, could be thing that reignites his spark.
Should combat sports fear a TKO triple monopoly?
If you’re a casual boxing or combat sports fan who has long only wanted the sweet science to get out of its own way and organize itself while striving to make the best fight the best on a regular basis, TKO’s pitch sounds very appealing. So does White and UFC’s track record of promoting fights while building global awareness to its brand and sport.
All, however, has not been all sunshine and rainbows for fans of MMA and pro wrestling ever since TKO was formed in 2023 by merging the existing powers within UFC and WWE together. Both fanbases have complained about absurdly large ticket price increases that have threatened to alienate the everyday, hard-core fan while turning both promotions into upscale, destination events.
The major problem, at least from a UFC standpoint, has been the gratuitous watering down of matchmaking, even on the pay-per-view level, and TKO’s decision to house so many of its UFC cards inside the tiny, soulless UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas. WWE fans have also disliked the company’s shameless advertising advances, which have included filling the wrestling ring with gaudy corporate logos akin to the UFC’s Octagon.
TKO no longer appears to care about putting the fan first and has, instead, relied upon guaranteed money from broadcasting deals and an increased push to sign government contracts with major cities hungry to bring the entire TKO portfolio with WWE, UFC and (coming soon) boxing events on the same weekend. The idea of bringing that mindset to boxing, which is an unorganized but very open business market, is also concerning as it pertains to fighter pay, overly restrictive contracts and the predominantly toxic culture that White openly promotes at UFC events by parading out such a polarizing mix of influencers, celebrities and politicians.
Should the Ali Act go away or be ignored, this could only complicate matters. Either way, the future of not only boxing but combat sports in general is going to be a rocky and exciting one over the next 12-18 months but if TKO has its way, the control will be all theirs for better or for worse.
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