“It’s going to be a long, drawn-out war and it is making me unbelievably horny.”
Eddie Hearn may have an eccentric turn of phrase, but his martial language does not feel out of place given the impact made by Zuffa, the new kid on the boxing block, in recent weeks.
Tensions that have been simmering for months exploded first with Zuffa’s acquisition of Conor Benn, one of Hearn’s star fighters. It was then revealed that another UK promoter, Queensberry, had issued legal letters to Zuffa’s backers in what could yet result in a $1billion lawsuit.
Given Zuffa’s backers include some of the most powerful (and richest) men in sport, it has the potential to be game-changing. But delivering on big plans in boxing is never straightforward, and there are plenty within the sport who doubt their grand ambitions will be realised.
The Athletic has spoken to a range of sources with knowledge of the situation, some of whom wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, to understand Zuffa’s plans for the sport, how its rivals have reacted, and where it could all end.
What exactly is Zuffa Boxing?
Zuffa Boxing is a newly formed promotional outfit owned by Saudi Arabian entertainment group Sela (who own 60 per cent) and U.S. combat sports giant TKO Holdings.
The public faces of the organisation are Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Al-Sheikh, Ultimate Fighting Championship chief executive Dana White, and World Wrestling Entertainment president Nick Khan — three men with huge influence in sport, finance and politics.
Dana White and Turki Al-Sheikh (Chris Unger/TKO Worldwide LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
White is a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and is even planning to stage a UFC event on the lawn at the White House this summer. Al-Sheikh, meanwhile, is the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia and a government advisor working under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
It is certainly not the first time a new disruptor has entered the market, but Zuffa’s plans are particularly bold.
White, who has overseen UFC’s rise to be the most powerful player in Mixed Martial Arts, had long talked about a foray into boxing. Now backed by the financial might of Sela, owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and the influence of Al-Sheikh, White is aiming to disrupt boxing’s established order.
Zuffa currently has 93 fighters on its roster, with more having been approached, but many of the names are unknown prospects.
What are Zuffa’s plans for boxing?
Sela has been working with Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions since September 2023 and Hearn’s Matchroom Sport since December of the same year. They’ve also worked with other prominent promoters, including Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank.
But the spirit of co-operation was never going to last permanently. Last March, Al-Sheikh, White and Khan, a former talent agent, announced a five-year partnership with Sela and TKO to form a boxing “league” that would later evolve into Zuffa Boxing. His intention was to “crush” the competition.
The Legacy continues🥊🔥 pic.twitter.com/ifoGMnYdon
— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) March 5, 2025
Zuffa Boxing kicked off in January, staging three events to date, with U.S. TV rights having been agreed with Paramount+ on a five-year deal worth $100m per annum.
Zuffa plans to hold 12 events a year, run its own rankings, and have its own belt, and will only have eight weight divisions, compared to the 17 widely recognised in boxing. Fighters will compete in Zuffa-branded shorts and gloves.
Its vision for boxing is streamlined: one belt, one champion. But to do this, it needs amendments to the Professional Boxer Health and Safety Act and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, commonly referred to together as the Ali Act, which was established in the U.S. in 2000 to protect fighters and stop promoters from managing boxers or running sanctioning bodies, which give out titles.
Zuffa Boxing wants to create a Unified Boxing Organisation to allow it to put its full plan into action, and it is lobbying to alter the U.S. federal legislation. In this regard, White’s close connections with the Trump administration are likely to come in useful.
“The bill would allow promoter-controlled Unified Boxing Organisations to own rankings, titles and fighters, essentially duplicating the UFC’s single-entity model inside boxing,” Golden Boy promoter and former world champion Oscar De La Hoya told The Guardian in January. “It would legalize the very conflicts of interest the original Ali Act was written to outlaw.” De La Hoya is another promoter ready to take on Zuffa.
Dana White speaking at a rally for Donald Trump as part of his 2024 presidential campaign (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
What fights will Zuffa stage and who will show them?
According to TKO chief operating officer Mark Shapiro, speaking in a quarterly financial call for TKO on Wednesday, Zuffa also plans to stage “two to four super fights” a year, similar to the Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford event they put on in September in Las Vegas. These events will have different broadcast partners and run in the traditional boxing framework.
These would not be for Zuffa rankings, nor would they have to abide by the same restrictions on ring attire or weights. They would be so-called “service promoters” for cards organised by Ring Magazine, the boxing periodical Al-Sheikh purchased in 2024 but which now stages events, including the fight between Oleksandr Usyk and kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven in Egypt in May, that was announced yesterday.
It remains unclear who is promoting Tyson Fury’s bout against Arslanbek Makhmudov at London’s Tottenham Hotspur stadium on April 11, which is also where Benn will make his bow with Zuffa when he faces former world light-welterweight champion Regis Prograis.
Tyson Fury, alongside Frank Warren, will return to boxing by fighting Arslanbek Makhmudov in April (Harry Murphy/Getty Images)
Zuffa will still need a promoter licensed with the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) to run the event in the UK. The identity of that promoter has yet to be confirmed: one possibility is Ben Shalom, who runs Boxxer, but there are others.
The Fury-Makhmudov fight card is on Netflix, but Zuffa Boxing and Sky Sports are holding talks about a wider-ranging media rights deal in the UK.
BBBofC general secretary Robert Smith also confirmed to BoxingScene that a representative of Zuffa Boxing contacted them about the potential of a Zuffa title being recognised in the UK.
What about boxing’s sanctioning bodies?
“I don’t think they know what they’re doing,” Hearn told The Athletic when asked about the differences between Zuffa Boxing events and the “two to four” other events they’re planning. “They’re three shows in, has the league started? The Zuffa belt… as a fight fan, it’s some of the cringiest stuff I’ve ever seen.
“The fighters don’t value it at all. What they care about is fighting for the championships and unifying and becoming undisputed and fighting for legacy.”
That’s where the sanctioning bodies come in. For around 30 years, the four main recognised world titles in the sport have been the WBC, WBA, IBF and the WBO. White has previously spoken about how he has no interest in working with the sanctioning bodies.
That is going to come to a head next week when Zuffa Boxing stages its first title fight. Australia’s Jai Opetaia is taking on American Brandon Glanton for the Zuffa cruiserweight belt on March 8. Opetaia is also the reigning IBF champion in the division and has spoken about his desire to unify the four major belts.
The Athletic contacted the IBF, which said it had not yet made a decision on whether it would sanction the bout.
“I hope (IBF president) Daryl Peoples shows some backbone because Mauricio would strip them (of the title) immediately,” said Hearn, a reference to Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the WBC.
White is not alone in offering trenchant criticisms of boxing’s ‘alphabet-soup’ of governing bodies — many within the sport accept that they need reform — but Sulaiman, for his part, has no interest in engaging in a tit-for-tat war with White.
“I feel boxing is in a great place,” Sulaiman told The Athletic in a Zoom call from his base in Mexico. “There’s no need for confrontations, for bad blood. I am not going to engage in ridiculous back-and-forth statements.”
Sulaiman defended the current system in the sport, which sees fighters pay fees to fight for world titles under each sanctioning body. These fees are a percentage of their fight purse.
“You cannot expect to have one champion,” he said. “This (current system) is giving activity worldwide to many fighters, many promoters. It has worked.”
Why has there been a backlash to Zuffa?
It is not just rival promoters who have problems with Zuffa. UFC fighters have also expressed concern, specifically around issues connected to pay and monopolisation.
The background to this is the 2024 anti-trust lawsuit UFC settled with fighters competing from 2010-2017, worth up to $375million. There are two others ongoing.
Reports that Benn’s Zuffa deal was worth $15m irked some UFC fighters, including former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, who said he had “never heard” of the British welterweight in a video on his YouTube channel. UFC athletes earn significantly less per bout than Benn’s purse.
Shapiro said he could not “confirm or deny” the $15m figure, but did say on the TKO investors call that it was Sela and Turki Al-Sheikh who were covering the cost of Benn’s purse.
“Regardless of whose money it is, everybody’s seeing this news through social media,” said Dan Hardy, a former UFC welterweight title contender. “What they’re seeing is a photograph of Dana shaking hands with Conor Benn and $15m is the price tag. It is a bit of an insult to the UFC fighters.”
Conor Benn left Eddie Hearn to join Zuffa (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
White and Hearn have been playing out their rivalry in public. White has called boxing promoters like Hearn and De La Hoya “babies” in press conferences, and made some barbed comments about the British promoter working for his father, Matchroom founder Barry Hearn. Hearn claims White is “rattled”, but the face of Zuffa Boxing is confident he will emerge triumphant.
While Warren’s relationship with Sela has deteriorated, it is unclear if he will be working with Al-Sheikh in the near future. The Briton remains part of Fury’s team and did attend the recent press conference for the heavyweight’s upcoming bout.
How will all this be resolved?
This is the great unknown.
There is no doubting the collective clout of Zuffa’s powerbrokers, who are amongst the most formidable dealmakers operating in world sport, so while this may be a new frontier, they will not be fazed.
That said, they are going up against established and battle-hardened stakeholders in a sport that has been historically difficult to dominate.
“Zuffa don’t really know what they’ve got themselves in for,” said one prominent boxing figure who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships. “But they are not going to back down to the challenge.”
The Athletic approached White, via Zuffa and UFC, to discuss the issues raised in this article, but was told he was unavailable. Sela was also approached.
Both Matchroom and Queensberry are grizzled veterans of the fight game who will back their expertise to see off their new challenger, particularly in the UK, where they are both major forces.
Hearn says he will still work alongside Al-Sheikh despite Benn’s move to Zuffa Boxing. In truth, Matchroom will not want to lose its ties to Saudi Arabia and Sela: it also has lucrative deals for darts and snooker with Riyadh Season, the Saudi Arabian-funded entertainment festival.
“I like Turki because you know where you are at all times,” said Hearn. “He will openly say to me sometimes, ‘I’m going to f**k you’, and I will say, ‘I’m going to f**k you, too’. I don’t mind that.”
Warren, a Hall of Fame veteran who has worked in boxing for almost 50 years, is one of the sport’s great survivors — literally, having narrowly escaped death after being shot outside an east London theatre in 1989 (the case remains unsolved). He is 73 now, but has shown no sign of wanting to quit: instead, he is ploughing ahead with a strong stable of fighters that includes some of the top names at heavyweight.
Both Matchroom and Queensberry have long-term lucrative deals with broadcaster DAZN, which give them a foothold in the sport to stage major events, so neither side is panicking.
Hearn reckons Zuffa will be successful because of the people involved; not just White, but Khan, Shapiro and Ari Emanuel, the powerful Hollywood agent who is now executive chairman of TKO.
Yet he dismisses their hopes of dominance like the UFC has in MMA.
“I’m very excited by the challenge,” he said. “And if it’s going to be the Eddie vs Dana war, then great.”