Boxing is on the verge of a massive power shift, and longtime promoter Lou DiBella believes it’s inevitable.
Speaking on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, DiBella laid out why the traditional boxing structure is crumbling and why Turki Alalshikh, Dana White, and TKO Group will take full control.
The major promoters have been middlemen for the last couple of years,” DiBella said.
“And right now, make no mistake about it, the major promoters have been middlemen for the last couple of years. Because let me ask you a question—who’s been the most major promoter in boxing over the past couple years? It’s not Eddie Hearn. It’s not Bob Arum. It’s Turki. And he didn’t just take control overnight. This was the plan all along.
A Transformative Era in Boxing
With Saudi Arabia’s vast financial backing and the UFC-WWE business model, DiBella sees the transition as inevitable. He pointed out that promoters like Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum have fought to keep boxing fragmented, but that structure is now collapsing.
The other promoters have never been willing to work with each other. They’ve been stuck in their old ways, just trying to squeeze money out of the system instead of making it better.
"Meanwhile, Turki came in, paid them all, took control of their fighters, and now he’s moved on to working with Dana and TKO. They’re the biggest promoter in the business now—there’s no question.
DiBella also emphasized how the UFC model—where one promotion controls matchmaking, fighter contracts, and title belts—will change boxing forever.
People keep talking about a ‘league’ like it’s something different. It’s not a league—it’s a promotion. But it’s a promotion in the UFC-WWE sense, which can work. It’s not boxing as we know it, where every man is out for himself and nobody gives a shit about the sport’s future.
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He made it clear that boxing’s old guard is on borrowed time.
If they want this to work, they don’t have to worry about putting people out of business—it’s going to happen naturally. They’re not going to shut down the WBC, WBA, IBF, or WBO overnight, but they don’t have to.
"The sport is shifting in a way where those organizations won’t matter anymore. The promoters that took all of Turki’s money didn’t realize they were feeding the guy who was going to eat them.
With the newly formed TKO boxing entity backed by Saudi funding, it seems the sport is heading toward an era of centralized control—whether the old promoters like it or not.