President and COO of TKO Group Holdings, Mark Shapiro, confirmed what many suspected for a while that TKO would be entering the boxing business. Obviously, Dana White will be playing a major part in the endeavor while working with Saudi Arabia’s Tuki Alalshikh.
It was revealed during TKO Group’s earning call that it was meeting with Saudi officials about creating a boxing league. Per Sports Business Journal, TKO would be producing and operating the league and would stand to make management fees on it with the possibility of an equity stake.
Shapiro stated that the fee would be “$10 million-plus” during the Q&A portion of the earnings call. He also stated that TKO would not be putting any money into the boxing league and would not absorb any financial risk.
In addition to White, WWE President Nick Khan was mentioned as someone that would be assisting in the league.
Notably, Ari Emanuel intimated the move to boxing and made comments on the Pat McAfee show stating he didn’t think the Ali Act helped the sport.
White has been critical of boxing for some time now and had inferred that Zuffa Boxing was coming at some point although it never materialized under the previous management.
This past summer, news arose that the Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority had come to terms with Golden Boy and Top Rank boxing for events although nothing was specific. It would seem that in the coming weeks we will find out the whole story.
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