The stage is nearly set for UFC parent company TKO\u2019s foray into boxing in 2026, and now we\u2019re learning more about their planned two to four superfight events per year.<\/p>\n
Last month it was announced that Zuffa Boxing would be ending up on Paramount+,<\/a> the same company that signed UFC for a seven year, $7.7 billion<\/a> media rights deal. Not included in the Zuffa Boxing deal is additional superfights held by Turki Alalshikh and the Saudis, which TKO will co-promote for a hefty $10 million per event plus various extra commissions.<\/p>\n In an earnings call, TKO exec Mark Shapiro laid out exactly how the company would be involved in those fights and who would be taking the lead. From what he said, it sounds like Nick Khan will be the guy, while Dana White will be focused on the regular Zuffa Boxing events.<\/p>\n \u201cI think these super fights are going to be a huge catalyst for us,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWe\u2019re more focused on the Zuffa boxing league, but at the end of the day we expect to receive a services fee of $10 million on each of the [super] fights and we expect to do two to four fights per year. I think you can expect that in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n While these events will be separate from regular Zuffa Boxing<\/a> events, Shapiro sees these superfights as an opportunity to showcase Zuffa boxers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can populate the undercards some of the time, if not most of the time with Zuffa fighters,\u201d he said. \u201cWhich will help us build names, personalities, followings, rivalries and just really shed more of a spotlight onto our Zuffa boxing league. I think the opportunity beyond that lies in each of those fights. $10 million was just a starter.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201dNick [Khan] is obviously hands-on involved with negotiations with our partners in Saudi Arabia and in putting these cards together, putting these featured matches, these main cards together. And then ultimately, with how can we bring them value and as such take a commission from it.<\/p>\n \u201cBeyond the fee they pay us to co-promote or promote, there\u2019s the media deals and getting paid on doing those deals, there\u2019s partnership deals and getting paid on doing those deals, there\u2019s ticket sales and then there\u2019s also just serving as their marketing agency on the ticket sales. Frankly, we have a big appetite for this.\u201d<\/p>\n One big concern investors had was TKO stretching Khan and White too thin and distracting them from their main profit makers: the WWE and UFC.<\/p>\n \u201cNick\u2019s got a full time job in WWE,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWe\u2019re not taking our eye off the ball there or taking anything for granted, especially with the success we\u2019re having this year. That just compounds the pressure to beat that next year. And Dana White definitely has a lot on his plate and therefore isn\u2019t going to be out there working as a promoter for one-off boxing fights on a regular basis. He could do a few of these annually, but really no more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been another great year for TKO and there\u2019s no doubt that the company will continue to rake in money<\/a> through 2026. The big question that fans have, though, is whether the quality of content will improve with so many events on their slate for the upcoming year. TKO has a lot of irons in the fire, and it will be interesting to see how UFC does with White spread out across UFC and Zuffa Boxing, not to mention his side businesses like Power Slap<\/a> and other corporate obligations.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stage is nearly set for UFC parent company TKO\u2019s foray into boxing in 2026, and now we\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[36109,49,48,641,638,82,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-265687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-boxing-news-results","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}