Conor Benn might be making the most money he\u2019s ever earned during his boxing career, but his bill isn\u2019t being paid by the UFC owners at TKO Group Holdings.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, during a quarterly financial call, TKO Group Holdings president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro responded to criticisms that many UFC fighters have voiced after Benn reportedly signed a one-fight deal with Zuffa Boxing for $15 million. The signing was widely publicized after Benn left his former promoter, Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing, to sign with Zuffa Boxing, which is led by UFC CEO Dana White and WWE president Nick Khan.<\/p>\n
While he wouldn\u2019t confirm the $15 million price tag that Benn is reportedly earning, Shapiro was quick to point out that TKO is incurring none of the cost to sign him, but instead that falls on Zuffa Boxing\u2019s financial backer SELA \u2014 the Saudi Arabia-led entertainment company headed up by Turki Alalshikh.<\/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. No different than what we did with Canelo and Crawford. No different than other superfights we are currently planning with SELA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would add that the reported purse, which I believe was around $15 million, but the reported purse \u2014 I\u2019m not confirming or denying \u2014 that Conor will be paid for the superfight 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
While Zuffa Boxing didn\u2019t officially launch until January, the new entity served as the promoter for the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford fight that aired on Netflix this past September.<\/p>\n
In the days leading up to the event, White was a mainstay, hosting the press conference and weigh-ins, but much like the Zuffa Boxing events currently taking place at the Meta APEX, none of the costs for the card fell on the UFC\u2019s owners at TKO Group Holdings.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Saudi Arabia-led entertainment company incurs all of the costs and pays Zuffa Boxing a fee to effectively organize and promote the event. It was previously revealed that the fee is typically $10 million per event.<\/p>\n
As far as Benn\u2019s addition to the roster, Shapiro said that effort was spearheaded by White and Khan, but the plan for the British boxer isn\u2019t to compete on a regular Zuffa Boxing event.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of his one-fight deal, Benn is expected to compete in a bigger, marquee event similar to Canelo vs. Crawford, which aired on Netflix with more than 40 million viewers watching the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis story has taken on a life of its own,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThat\u2019s largely because Eddie Hearn is stirring the pot in a very fictional way. As 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 superfights per year. Canelo [Alvarez]-[Terence] Crawford being an example, 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 superfights in 2026. That\u2019s it. One fight in 2026. Conor was a free agent, Dana White and Nick Khan, in that order, went out and signed Conor.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no word yet when Benn plans to compete next, but he won\u2019t just pop up at a random Zuffa Boxing event. He\u2019ll likely headline one of the major \u201csuperfights\u201d planned for 2026, although an actual date, location, and opponent haven\u2019t been revealed yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor Benn might be making the most money he\u2019s ever earned during his boxing career, but his bill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,49,48,701,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-499770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-latest-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499770","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=499770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}