{"id":505248,"date":"2026-02-26T11:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505248\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:49:12","slug":"conor-benns-surprising-contract-length-confirmed-by-tko-boss-after-zuffa-boxing-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505248\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor Benn\u2019s surprising contract length confirmed by TKO boss after Zuffa Boxing move"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been confirmed that Conor Benn<\/a>\u2019s contract with Zuffa Boxing<\/a> is just a one-fight deal, after the British star made the shock switch last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The news has consumed the boxing world<\/a>, given Benn left his longtime promoter Eddie Hearn<\/a> to join rival Dana White<\/a> at Zuffa, despite Hearn having supported Benn during a years-long drug-test saga<\/a>. Benn, who failed two drug tests in 2022, was lent \u201chundreds of thousands of pounds\u201d by Hearn, according to the Matchroom promoter.<\/p>\n

Still, Benn has said he would love to work with Hearn again in the future, and it could be that the 29-year-old welterweight is a free agent before long.<\/p>\n

Reports last week suggested that Benn\u2019s contract with Zuffa is just a one-fight deal worth a staggering $15m. And one element of those reports was confirmed on Wednesday, as TKO president and CEO Mark Shapiro spoke on a quarterly financial call. TKO owns 40 per cent of Zuffa Boxing, while the other 60 per cent is owned by Saudi company Sela.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow let me be clear: We signed him for just one fight,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThat\u2019s all we\u2019re talking about here. Of course, we hope eventually he\u2019ll fight in our Zuffa Boxing series, exclusively on Paramount+, but for now, this is just one fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo different than what we did with Canelo [Alvarez] and [Terence] Crawford, [who fought each other under the TKO banner in September]. No different than other super-fights we are currently planning with Sela.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would add that the reported purse, which I believe was around $15m, but the reported purse \u2013 I\u2019m not confirming or denying \u2013 that Conor will be paid for the super-fight in 2026 is not TKO going out of pocket. Sela, led by our great partner Turki Alalshikh, is covering the purse. Once again, no different than exactly what he did with the Canelo-Crawford fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Conor<\/p>\n

Conor Benn traded wins with Chris Eubank Jr in 2025 (Action Images via Reuters)<\/p>\n

Alalshikh is a Saudi government official who has been pivotal to the Gulf state\u2019s boxing drive in recent years. He is heading up Zuffa Boxing alongside White, who is best known as the president of the UFC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story has taken on a life of its own,\u201d Shapiro continued. \u201cThat\u2019s largely because Eddie Hearn is stirring the pot.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, our partner in Zuffa Boxing is Sela, they\u2019re the financial backer of the entity. Beyond the year-long series of fight cards that will appear exclusively on Paramount+, we\u2019ve described again and again on these calls and at conferences that we plan to stage approximately two to four super-fights per year \u2013 Canelo-Crawford being an example \u2013 some of which TKO will promote and\/or sell the media rights for, of course, incremental fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe at TKO, with Sela, collectively identified Conor Benn as someone we wanted to sign for one of those super-fights in 2026. That\u2019s it: one fight in 2026. Conor was a free agent; Dana White and [TKO executive] Nick Khan, in that order, went out and signed Conor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UFC<\/p>\n

UFC president Dana White (left) and Saudi adviser Turki Alalshikh are heading up Zuffa Boxing (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A new chapter in the Zuffa story was written on Wednesday, when The Telegraph reported that British promoter Frank Warren is claiming $1bn in lost income<\/a> from TKO and Sela.<\/p>\n

Per The Telegraph, Warren\u2019s company Queensberry is claiming that TKO and Sela breached contracts they had signed with him, going behind his back to form a partnership of their own. Queensberry is reportedly seeking up to $1bn (\u00a3740m) in compensation for income that the promotion claims it would have earned \u2013 if the contracts had been honoured.<\/p>\n

Legal letters have reportedly been sent, and it is thought that the case could end up with a formal claim being made in the High Court if there is no resolution.<\/p>\n

The Independent approached Queensberry, TKO and Sela for comment, and a spokesperson for the latter said: \u201cWe are disappointed by the unfounded claims brought by Queensberry and Frank Warren. We reject them in their entirety and are confident that the facts will fully vindicate our position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been confirmed that Conor Benn\u2019s contract with Zuffa Boxing is just a one-fight deal, after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,30027,958,9915,49821,85,17827,118061,114155],"class_list":["post-505248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-conor-benn","tag-dana-white","tag-eddie-hearn","tag-mark-shapiro","tag-sports","tag-tko","tag-zuffa","tag-zuffa-boxing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}