UFC President Dana White says he can fix boxing with new promotion in partnership with Saudis
UFC President Dana White says he can fix boxing with new promotion in partnership with Saudis
NEW YORK (AP) — TKO Group, the company that already houses WWE and UFC, is set to step into the ring with a new boxing promotion as part of a business deal with Saudi Arabia.
TKO announced Wednesday it entered a multiyear partnership with Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, and Sela, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Led by UFC president and CEO Dana White and WWE president and TKO board member Nick Khan, TKO will serve as managing partner and run the day-to-day operations of the promotion.
“Everybody’s going to say it’s the money. I don’t do (expletive) anything for the money,” White told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I want to be in business with people that I’m aligned with. We have the same ideas, we have the values. We have the same everything”
The first TKO Group boxing card will be held in 2026. The start date will depend on when a broadcast rights deal can be secured.
“I’m going to go in and select who my partner is going to be,” White said. “Then they’re going to let me know what they need, as far as programming goes. I’ll let them know what works for me and, as a partnership, we’ll work out a rights deal.”
TKO did not announce a name for the new promotion. Boxers will have access to the UFC Performance Institute, with locations in Las Vegas, Mexico City and Shanghai. TKO will handle production, media and promotion for events that will include worldwide broadcasts. There was little immediate detail outside of the announcement of the promotion’s impending launch.
“I like taking things are that broken, can’t be fixed and I’m going to fix them,” White said.
White calls the shots in UFC — and even with an alignment with Khan and the Saudis, the 55-year-old former boxer says he still will be the final boss with this venture.
“There’s no way I would get into something that I couldn’t run and control,” White told AP.
The new venture is just the latest in Saudi Arabia’s massive spending on global sports driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Saudis host a Formula 1 auto race, fund LIV Golf, have hosted numerous pay-per-view boxing cards — topped by Tyson Fury’s win over Francis Ngannou in October 2023 — are in the midst of a 10-year deal to hold WWE events and will host the 2034 World Cup in men’s soccer, giving the oil-rich kingdom its biggest prize yet in its sports expansion.
The kingdom plans to spend tens of billion of dollars on projects related to the World Cup as part of the crown prince’s sweeping Vision 2030 project that aims to modernize Saudi society and economy. At its core is spending on sports by the $900 billion sovereign wealth operation, the Public Investment Fund, which Salman oversees.
Critics have accused Saudi Arabia of “sportswashing,” an effort to rebrand a nation’s troubling public image that has been going on for decades, using the Olympics and other sports across the globe.
Alalshikh purchased Ring Magazine in November and is set to stage a May 2 boxing card in Times Square.
The fighters on the card are known: Ryan Garcia against Rolando “Rolly” Romero in the main event; Devin Haney against Jose Ramirez in the co-main; and Teofimo Lopez against Arnold Barboza Jr. in a title fight as the opener.
Up next, Saudi Arabia’s biggest partnership yet, this one with the global leaders in mixed martial arts and professional wrestling.
“This landmark partnership between industry powerhouses sets the stage for an unparalleled experience for boxers and fans,” Alalshikh said. “Together, we are developing the next generation of talent and delivering world-class events at a time when the sport is primed for further disruption.
White said he’s not interested in celebrity bouts at the outset — such as Jake Paul’s win over a 58-year-old Mike Tyson — and that his unnamed promotion will not be confined to fight nights only in Saudi Arabia.
“I’m going to take this thing everywhere,” White said. “We’re going all over the US. We’re going to Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Australia, the UK. The list goes on. Just like UFC. You can’t build a boxing business without America. You have to have the United States to have a truly successful sport.”
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
By DAN GELSTON
AP Sports Writer
